At first I had no idea when the bike would arrive in New Zealand. A consignment note attached to an email yielded a contact name. The ship was due to dock on Xmas day, I learned from the shipping company. I obviously had to know this to book my flights. Within hours I received a call from the customer relations guy at Yamaha, telling me not to deal with the shipping company directly. Only through him. Yeah right! With a one week turnaround on emails! Stuff him.
Booked the tickets for 2 Jan. This should allow ample time for all the importing formalities on NZ. Or so I thought.
Turns out that that because of some earthquake action and other reasons, the boat was a few days late and was diverted to Timaru, the next port south of Christchurch. More delays.
If you think things things take a long time to get done in Melbourne, try Christchurch. For a week now, I have been listening to excuse after reason after story as to why I can't get my bike. Customs problems , delivery problems, this problem that problem....... Sickening. As I write this (5 pm 9 Jan), the bike is due to be delivered to the local Yamaha dealer and then hopefully to me tomorrow.
In the mean time let me talk a bit about Christchurch. This is a very agreeable city, I was here 3 years ago. The place is nicely laid out and the natives are friendly. The impact of the earthquakes is everywhere. Some suburbs have been condemned. In most of the northern inner suburbs there are many homes, shops, churches etc fenced off and abandoned as a result of earthquake damage. The centre of the city is a no-go zone. The spirit of the people is good, despite daily aftershocks. To outsiders like me these are pretty scary, but the locals laugh them off.
Extensive use has been made of containers for all sorts of purposes; to contain rockfalls, as temporary housing, to construct shops etc. people are just getting on with it. Good on them!
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