Dobson River Valley, New Zealand South Island

[kiwi1973]

Hmmmm, long service is a year and a half away. Reckon you could handle an aussie for 3 months

Dunno about shipping the paj over though.

You could have an awesome adventure in NZ. The South Island is so varied all within one relatively small island - there are many river valleys, as depicted in some of my videos, and then over on the West Coast there are completely different types of tracks into rain forest. Otago has it's own unique environment and some great 4wd routes, and then up on the northern shores of the South Island there are some beautiful coastal areas that are unique to that part of the island. Top this off with a network of cheap public access back country huts through the wilderness and hundreds of free or cheap designated DOC wild camping areas and NZ is great for touring around - on and off the road.

We recently looked at doing the reverse and shipping our Pajero over to Australia. I prefer not to just rent any old 4wd when we are quite accustomed to our vehicle and know its history. It was more expensive than I expected though. I think it only cost equivalent to about $2,500 (one way) when I shipped the Shogun all the way from the UK to NZ, but to ship it from NZ to Aussie return was quoted around $8,500. I think we got used to the much lower European prices and sometimes find local pricing quite high (bordering on extortionate at times!).

[NJV6]

And the best part, 200kms from the West Coast to the east coast so when it started bucketing down (West Coast gets upwards of 4metres of rainfall a year) you just drive to the east coast where it will be dry!

A friend took his LR 110 to oz 3 years ago for 3 months and I seem to recal it being about $4 return but I’ll check that. There was large differences with companies.

[KiwiNTPajero]

hmm how about a NZ pajro trip .Will prolly be getting a lift soon to cope with those riverbeds!

[Keithyv]

but to ship it from NZ to Aussie return was quoted around $8,500. I think we got used to the much lower European prices and sometimes find local pricing quite high (bordering on extortionate at times!).

Yeah that's extortion.

You can get a whole shipping container from the US (West Woast) all the way to Australia (West Coast) for AU$3500.
Someone is dreaming with those prices...

[kiwi1973]

Yeah that's extortion.

You can get a whole shipping container from the US (West Woast) all the way to Australia (West Coast) for AU$3500.
Someone is dreaming with those prices...

I called about 2 or 3 shipping companies in NZ at the time and that seemed to be the market rate here. But I really think it's an NZ thing primarily.

To give a recent example from just a couple of weeks ago, I bought a new USA made Coleman dual fuel camp stove (we want to get away from gas bottles, particularly with a cross Asia overland trip planned for next year). Going price in NZ for this model is NZ$489. I ended up importing the exact same model from Amazon.com. The all up cost came to NZ$230 (including $65 shipping). So this is less than half the NZ price, even including the shipping. And you can bet the local NZ retailer buys their stock much cheaper than I can pay US retail plus one-off air-freight for. This is a fairly typical example.

[KiwiNTPajero]

I called about 2 or 3 shipping companies in NZ at the time and that seemed to be the market rate here. But I really think it's an NZ thing primarily.

To give a recent example from just a couple of weeks ago, I bought a new USA made Coleman dual fuel camp stove (we want to get away from gas bottles, particularly with a cross Asia overland trip planned for next year). Going price in NZ for this model is NZ$489. I ended up importing the exact same model from Amazon.com. The all up cost came to NZ$230 (including $65 shipping). So this is less than half the NZ price, even including the shipping. And you can bet the local NZ retailer buys their stock much cheaper than I can pay US retail plus one-off air-freight for. This is a fairly typical example.

i bet that the NZ retailer CAN NOT buy at a price to beat your price.

[kiwi1973]

I'll add something to the discussion of South Island NZ winter temperatures. I'll just say that NZ is great for winter 4wd touring, irrespective of the cold temps, simply owing to the tremendous number and availability of Department of Conservation huts dotted all through the wilderness. Nearly all of these huts have wood burners and are cosy and warm soon after you get there and throw a couple of logs in. Granted they're first come first served, so no guarantee you'll have it to yourself - but it's been our experience repeatedly that many of the remote huts reachable by 4wd are not in any great demand - with log books that suggest they're not too frequently visited. They must be one of the most wonderful yet under-utilised resources over here.

[kiwi1973]

i bet that the NZ retailer CAN NOT buy at a price to beat your price.

I cannot see why. If they're an authorised dealer I would expect them to buy at trade price rather than the US retail price I have to pay. Further, they won't be inefficiently air-freighting each item into stock one by one at great cost. Granted the item I used as an example probably isn't a volume seller here, but with a cost to the NZ retailer that has to be well short of NZ$200 it's not clear why they should require a markup of over 200%.