Thought i’d sign up and say hello.

[bakin]

#1551

Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls.
My name is Harvey and i'm 3 months into my mid-life crisis (or trip of a life time, depending on who you ask).
I sold up the lot in Dorset England (job, house, car etc) and bought an R1150GS Adv and an RTW ticket. My trip started in Miami, and 3 months, 30 states, 17,000 miles later i'm in LA waiting to fly to NZ. I fly on 15th Nov to Auckland and my bike flys on the 17th Nov hopefully undamaged. I then will be spending 4 months having a good look round the north and south Islands.
One of the things I would like to do in NZ is the Iron Butt Challenge, so if anyone is up for the 1000m trip please let me know or if you can suggest a good route again any help would be great.
Harvey

[Dave Ross]

#5501

Welcome to the forum Harvey. You’ll miss all the fun on the weekend, but you should come on the club ride on the 20th. I am sure you’ll be able to get some good advice regarding routes etc.

4 month is a decent length of time and you'll be able to see more of the country than most locals have.

Cheers,
Alex

[Jim Young]

#5502

Hi and welcome Harvey,

Look forward to meeting you at some stage and like Aex says if you can come on the club ride on the 20th November you will meet lots of people who can give you all kinds of advice on rides etc.

Also we have informal rides every weekend so look in the forum for details.

Regards

Jim

[bakin]

#5503

Thanks for the replies. I’m looking forward to driving on the correct side of the road again….
I'm after some help already, two things;
1) My bike will be landing on sat 19th (hopefully) and will be crated up for shipping, now I've been there once before and getting a bike out of a crate is a long and not easy job. Does anyone live near Auckland airport who might be able to help me get my bike out of its box. I would like to try to keep the crate as the bike is going on to Auz in mid March next year.
2) Any hints and tips on how I get a UK reg'ed bike using a UK licence insured in NZ?
Harvey

[Dave Ross]

#5504

http://www.jbinsurance.co.nz/newsite/homepage/index.htm John Baker will sort out your insurance. Sorry , but I will be out of town on these dates, so I can’t help you with the uncrating.

Cheers,
Alex

[David]

#5505

Contact this company:
http://www.jbinsurance.co.nz/newsite/homepage/index.htm

[Paul]

#5506

Harvey,

Welcome to NZ (from a fellow Pom!).

With regards your crated mc - who is your Customs agent? You should speak with them about working on your crate/bike in their store. They should also have a fork hoist to lift front of bike to re-fit front wheel (if this has been removed). Also, if you are re-exporting the bike and want to keep the crate, they may be able to hold it for you. But they may also have security and safety policies in place which will prevent you from doing this!

Also, keep in mind that MAF will need to check your bike (which will mean giving them sufficient access to check cleanliness, chassis number and odometer. Again, your agent should be helping you here.

If you are doing your own clearance (i.e. no agent) and the depot where the MAF inspection is carried out cannot help you, then you may need to consider moving the crated bike elsewhere. However, I would suggest you deal with your agent/airport depot first.

Feel free to call me if you have any more questions - work 634 4948 (transfers to mobile).

Catch you on the road.

Martyn

[bakin]

#5507

Thanks everyone for your offers of help with the bike and it’s crate.
Arne, i've contacted you by email and will call again when the bike gets here.
Paul, thanks for your offer but i'll ask Arne to do it as he has use of a trailer.
I sent a copy of my log book (as per shipping agents request) to be told, now it is ready to fly, that they need the original which is now in NZ with me and the bike is still in the US. Up bright and early tomorrow to find the nearest Post Office and sent all the paperwork back. When the bike was boxed up the top and one side are screwed down so MAF should be able to get to it easily. I was hoping to clear it myself as I have the carnet and all the other paperwork required. Hope all goes well as it will not be flying till sunday now that's if I can get the paperwork back in time, if not i'm stuck here for over a week till the following thurs for flying and then customs for the sat after....

Harvey

[bakin]

#5508

Big thanks to Arne, who good to his word picked me and the bike up from the airport today.

Thanks for the advise Martyn, I managed to do all the paperwork myself, customs and MAF were fantastic. Showed customs the carnet and she took less than 10 mins to do everything. MAF had no longer than a 5 min look at the bike and cleared it.

I will be staying in the Auckland area till atleast sat so might see a few of you on the toy run, should be easy to spot.....The one with the largest reg plate in the world!!!!!!!!!!

Harvey

[Jim Young]

#5509

Glad you got it all sorted out Harvey, with Arne to help you would have been a great help.
Look forward to meeting you on the toy run on Saturday and if you fancy a ride up north on Sunday a few of us are going to Whangarei via the back roads so you are more than welcome to join us.

Jim

[Jim Young]

#5510

Hi Harvey,
Were you by any chance heading up towards Howick about lunchtime today ?
I just happened to be pulling out of a driveway and saw what appeared to be a GSA with a yellow rear numberplate heading up the hill.
The rider had what appeared to be a red/gray rallye jacket on and with you saying you had the big UK number plate I presumed it was you.
Hope to meet you at the Toy Run tomorrow.

Jim

[Jim Young]

#5511

Hi Harvey,

Havent heard from you for a while, so presume you are still touring NZ ?

Let us know how you are doing, look forward to hearing about your travels

Take care

Jim

[bakin]

#5512

Morning Jim, yep still here. I’ve just been to the Woodstock rally nr Hokitika. I managed to cover 8/9k km’s on the north island and were up to the 5k km’s on the south so far.

Having a great time. I'll let you know when i'm in the Auckland area to go for a last ride before I box it up.

Harvey

[Jim Young]

#5513

Great, will look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Jim

[bakin]

#5514

Goodbye and thank you too all.

I'm now back in Ak but now without bike as it had to go for loading today, my bike leaves for Oz on Monday and I leave on Wednesday it would have been great to finish of with a ride with you all, in total I managed to cover 20,000k's in the 3 months I was riding round NZ.

A very big thank you to Arnie for looking after my crate whilst I was on my travels. I had a great time and it was a pleasure to meet those I did. I will drop onto the site every now and then to see what is going on, so not totally gone.

Watch this space I may be back.

Harvey

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