New Zealand Tour 2011/12 part 3

Monday, 28 November, about 12 noon and only a couple of days after I got the thumbs up from Yamaha, comes the email to get my bike down to their depot in Hallam ASAP. The next morning, first thing I dropped it off.

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!

New Zealand Tour 2011/12 part 2

So here I was, having already paid in full, facing the reality of my bike being stuck in Melbourne. What were my options?
1. Organize a different holiday ? Bit late, nowhere that I really wanted to go
2. Hire a bike in NZ? At ~$300 a day - hell no!
3. Figure out a way to get my bike across? Obviously!

So I spoke to a few people. Did I have insurance? Not for this.
How much for me to ship it myself? $2,500-$3,000 no way!

So I started digging around. The good news was that the automotive industry code of practice, which Yamaha claim to adhere to, has strict guidelines for vehicle safety recalls. They are obliged to notify the vehicle owners and if the owner takes no action, contact them again within 90 days.

The Bad news was that there are no penalties or any consequences for a non compliant vehicle manufacturer. This was after all, only a set of "guidelines". Hmmmm! There had to be some leverage here.

Then I hit on a brainwave. Who's the best wheeling - dealing-organising guy in the club? Of course - Sol Leski! So I called up Sol. Sol's advice was to write a schmoozy letter to Yamaha, tell them I was the marque's biggest raving raving fan, explain my predicament and in there infinite sympathy , would come to my rescue, slip my bike into one of their shipments and it would all be sorted out. Perfect.

A series of emails between myself and the "customer relations" department of Yamaha Motor Australia now ensued. They have a slow-motion email system there. The turnaround is 5-7 days. Understandably I got a bit anxious because time was-a-wastin', so I rang and spoke to a very understanding bloke, who told me that they ship bikes to NZ all the time and that he was confident they could arrange to ship my bike over. I was elated. Sol Leski was right.

After waiting another week waiting to get something in writing from them, I sent off a "hello, remember me" email. Next day I get the reply. They are now offering me $825 as compensation, being exactly half of what I had paid Get Routed. After all I had only lost out on half the total cost, hadn't I? The other half was still valid and I could use it. Of course. How stupid of me.

I was mystified and outraged!

"Unacceptable" I wrote back putting my best letter writing skills to the test, with a strongly worded argument why they where morally liable, if not legally. Again, no reply for a week. Another phone call. More excuses "very busy, backlog of emails" etc etc etc. A couple of days later I get the email to say they will ship it. Whoopee!

I had originally planned to start the trip on 19 December - three weeks away. I would have to delay the start probably. No problem, at least I was still going.

New Zealand Tour 2011/12 part 1

New Zealand is a fabulous place for motorcycling. I did a bike trip in 2006 on a hired BMW 1150RT for a week; shipped my '06 Yamaha FJR1300 over in 2008 and spent 4 weeks touring, so it was time to do it again.

Probably as a result of the Earthquakes, the Australian company that specialises in bike shipping, Get Routed, who I used in '08 only had enough takers for one shipment this year. This meant that my bike would have to leave in early November and would only be returned in February. Inconvenient but worth it given the quality of the riding in NZ.

Get Routed fills a container with bikes destined for the same place, saving thousands of dollars compared to shipping a single bike. I paid my $1650 and had to deliver my bike at the loading point in Melbourne on 5 November at 9 am.

I made all my preparations and on the 5th at 8.15 am I thumbed the starter. The bike spluttered..... It would not start. Nothing doing, nada, zilch.

Now this machine, in the 5 years I have owned it (bought brand new) has not missed a single beat! 100% reliable. I was mystified. The dash lights were all on, the battery was fully charged ? There was nothing at all I could do to start it. All I could do was call for help.

An agonizing half hour later I got hold of Jason, the workshop manager at Yamaha City and described what was going on. "Why didn't you bring your bike in for the safety recall?" came the question. Whaaaaat? ??Came the answer. No siree, me no getta no letta!

Turns out, a safety recall had been issued on or around 25 June 2011. I was obviously not on the mailing list. After explaining my predicament and impending deadline he said " how quickly can you get your bike into the city?"

I quickly rang Dave Milligan of Get Routed to tell him my exciting news. " 10.30 is you absolute deadline" was his ultimatum.

So, quick as I could, I trailered the bike into the city, hoping against hope that they had the right spare and enough time to do the fix so that I could still get it to the warehouse in time.

But it was not to be. The job was going to to take to long for me to make the cut-off, and it looked like New Zealand was not to be. I was shattered.