Sea Freight NZ to Europe?

[jim'n'lisa]

We're in Australia at the moment and are trying to decide whether to ship from here or from NZ back home to the UK.

We've looked on the shipping pages and it seems pretty straightforward from Oz, but not many options from NZ. WE'd prefer to take the bike there and then back to the UK but don't want to get caught out with high prices and air only options.

Does anyone have any info on this??

Cheers, Jim and Lisa

[Nigel Marx]

I know from talking to people that shipping from NZ to Europe is a lot cheaper than the other way, for some reason. Maybe there is more free space that way.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

[jim'n'lisa]

Cheers for that.

The bike's done so many miles its not worth spending a lot on getting it back... and we've almost run out of cash - so we're definitely looking for something cheap.

We've been searching about and are surprised there's not more about this route. We'd have thought it'd be more popular...

All the best.

PS What's it like biking in NZ in winter?? How harsh is the weather?

[Nigel Marx]

Well, it depends a lot of where you are as NZ covers a few degrees latitude. Up north, it is very rare to go below 0deg C whereas in Central Otago in the lower South Island, some days it doesn't get above that. On the whole, 90% of the country is OK to ride all year around. The other 10% is still do-able if you have good gear. The worse is really the rain, as that is the time of the year when we get the highest rainfall. Mountain passes in the south, and the central high country roads in the north can be icy sometimes for a few days at a time, but are usually gritted regularly. Salt is not used here.
Regards

Nigel in NZ

[beddhist]

Spend some time in NZ and then leave the bike there? Just don't use the carnet on import, just pay the GST.