1965 Morris Mini - From NZ to the UK!

[W1NG3D]

Hope all goes well with the shipping...Is the dog going along to guard it ?

Thank you... would be nice to have a guard dog in case anybody decides to be a bit naughty and pinch anything along the way... it's coming over with a spare gearbox, full set of wheels on the roof rack, and a few other bits and pieces so hopefully those are all still with the car when it arrives! Current ETA is 4th January 2021, so not quite in time to be a Christmas present but still not too far away now

[snoopy64]

Fantastic news, we'll all be looking out for those seats and mirrors... fingers' crossed for a simple receipt at Southampton

[W1NG3D]

Fantastic news, we'll all be looking out for those seats and mirrors... fingers' crossed for a simple receipt at Southampton

Thank you

Looks like the ship is currently hopping around various ports in Japan before it heads westward via South Korea, China and Singapore, then up through the Suez canal and to a few European ports before finally stopping off in Southampton! Quite the journey for a little mini..

[MiNiKiN]

Thank you... would be nice to have a guard dog in case anybody decides to be a bit naughty and pinch anything along the way... it's coming over with a spare gearbox, full set of wheels on the roof rack, and a few other bits and pieces so hopefully those are all still with the car when it arrives! Current ETA is 4th January 2021, so not quite in time to be a Christmas present but still not too far away now

You could have asked them guys if they have some spare space in their glove box for your Mini to arrive before 4th January
https://youtu.be/JcyC0kUhKPM?t=354

[W1NG3D]

So the Mk1 has made it through the Suez Canal, past the Somalian pirates and is edging very close now. The delivery date has actually been brought forward and the ship is now due into Southampton on boxing day. That should mean the mini will be ready to collect from the shipping agent on my birthday (29th Dec), which would be a great treat for me especially since I first bought the car on my 18th birthday.

The arrival is also timed very well as I'm probably going to need to use it as a backup car while I sort out my daily-driven 1991, which looks to be in need of a new subframe and a few other bits and pieces to keep the MOT man happy.

[mk1]

Great news! Not long to wait now.

[minibitz]

Hi Jack, good news that you nearly have your mini back. It will be interesting to see what the process is for getting it road registered in the UK. Hopefully a lot easier than it's getting to be here in NZ putting imports on the road. It's almost as if they are trying to get old cars off the road or something.......... What that all about?

Not sure if you keep up to date on what's happening down here regarding our container ports. Currently Auckland port only has 3 of it's 8 container cranes operating. The company pissed the workers off so much they packed up and moved on to other jobs leaving them in the lurch. Theres now a 2-3 week delay to unload vessels and something like 10-12 container ships parked up in the Rangitoto channel at any one time waiting for a spot. One vessel pulled the pin and went up to Whangarei to unload. Bit of a bung move as the rail lines are out of action so now there are 1000+ containers that need to be trucked back down to Auckland! Seems like a plan but heard on the radio this morning that the cops are now pulling the container trucks over just outside the port and giving them the big going over for weight and COF checks.

[W1NG3D]

Hi Jack, good news that you nearly have your mini back. It will be interesting to see what the process is for getting it road registered in the UK. Hopefully a lot easier than it's getting to be here in NZ putting imports on the road. It's almost as if they are trying to get old cars off the road or something.......... What that all about?

Not sure if you keep up to date on what's happening down here regarding our container ports. Currently Auckland port only has 3 of it's 8 container cranes operating. The company pissed the workers off so much they packed up and moved on to other jobs leaving them in the lurch. Theres now a 2-3 week delay to unload vessels and something like 10-12 container ships parked up in the Rangitoto channel at any one time waiting for a spot. One vessel pulled the pin and went up to Whangarei to unload. Bit of a bung move as the rail lines are out of action so now there are 1000+ containers that need to be trucked back down to Auckland! Seems like a plan but heard on the radio this morning that the cops are now pulling the container trucks over just outside the port and giving them the big going over for weight and COF checks.

Hey Lee, good to hear from you! From what I've gathered it should be a comparative walk in the park to get the Mk1 registered here as opposed to if it was coming into NZ, and the DVLA don't seem to mind about things like stuffing in a 1300gt engine, or the 7.5" disk brakes you & Simon fitted for me, as long as it's declared to the insurer - so no faffing around with getting a cert either.

Being over 40 yrs old it technically won't even need an MOT and is tax exempt, so it should just be a case of sending off a couple of forms along with a cheque for 55 quid, getting a new D-suffix '65 plate issued which I can get made up and ordered online, and then it'll be fully road legal. They might ask to have an inspector have a quick look at the car before they register it, but I imagine that's less likely now than ever with the whole COVID situation still at play. I have already managed to secure insurance against the chassis number, so I can chuck the NZ plates straight back on it once I collect from Southampton (as long as nobody has nicked them from the door bins), and drive it home

I wasn't aware how much of a nightmare the port situation had gotten in Auckland, that sounds like an absolute pain! And definitely not an ideal time of year to have so many trucks going up and down SH1 when thousands of people are likely to be heading that way for their Xmas & New Year holidays as well...

[Gray]

UK ports are also in chaos Felixstowe is far worse than Southampton but the ports have seen it as an opportunity to impose congestion charges, great we are busy so you have to pay more imagine if every company had that ethos! Our last container took 2 weeks to get out of port with our next due Christmas eve so hopefully we won't see it until the New Year

[W1NG3D]

The Mk1 has cleared through customs now, was hoping to collect today as a birthday treat but annoyingly it's been pushed back til tomorrow by the shipping agent, but at least it's made it!

[wantafaster1]

Really pleased for you, that's a big undertaking, hopefully not too long before your on the road

[W1NG3D]

Here it is, mostly intact! It had to be pushed out from the secure storage area after the dock worker managed to flood the engine trying to start it, but whipping out the plugs to clean them and let the excess fuel to evaporate allowed the engine burst into life again, probably for the first time in months.



Irritatingly, some opportunists have made away with the radio, one of the number plates (oddly not both!), and the chrome trim from the door bins (????). But then oddly enough the box of spares including the original Mk1 steering wheel, Lucas spot lamps and a few other bits are intact. All a bit annoying, but I'm just happy the car has made it and is otherwise undamaged. I doubt there will be any recourse for this as the marine insurance doesn't necessarily cover anything apart from the car itself.

On a brighter note, I got it home, then spent some time giving it a bit of a clean to remove months' worth of grime from its travels, so I then thought I'd take it for a blast up the hill for some photos. I still can't quite get my head around an NZ car now being in the UK, it looks very strange. But I'm thrilled it's here!







Now I just need to start working out a list of jobs and get the UK registration underway with the DVLA... apparently their offices in Swansea are rife with COVID so I doubt that'll be a quick process!

[snoopy64]

Fantastic news... well done you must be chuffed..shame some low life has helped them selves to a few parts,

[W1NG3D]

Fantastic news... well done you must be chuffed..shame some low life has helped them selves to a few parts,

It was hard to describe how happy I felt driving it again after such a long time. The car drives beautifully and I was amazed at how well it handled the bumps and rough road surfaces compared with my '91, as well as how precise the steering is. Definitely not ideal that a couple of bits have gone astray, the main faff being the front number plate which I'm now having to try and source as a reproduction or a sticker. It will of course be getting new UK plates once it's registered properly, but I'd like to keep the NZ plates for shows and events.

[Polarsilver]

NZ must still have "proper" Petrol given the engine started without problems after standing for some time.. Nice One

Maybe in NZ they have to return road registration plates on export.?

[W1NG3D]

NZ must still have "proper" Petrol given the engine started without problems after standing for some time.. Nice One

Maybe in NZ they have to return road registration plates on export.?

It was pretty much empty and I topped it up with a jerry can before setting off, but either way I was definitely lucky to be able to drive it away with pretty minimal fuss. I didn't have to surrender the plates to de-register and export the car in NZ, but they were taken off the car and placed in one of the door pockets before export so I could keep them on the UK side for shows etc - what's weird is that whoever decided to do some pillaging decided to only take one plate, not both as they were both right there in the same place. Very odd!

[timmy201]

Glad to see it turned up ok!

I did new car inspections for a while when they got unloaded at the port. Some of them had missing spare tyres, antennas, cup holders, basically anything that could be pinched!

[minibitz]

Good to see your car got there in good shape. I’m just wondering if the missing bits got pilfered before the car was shipped? Maybe someone trying to re-use the rego? If nz rego is still alive you can order replacement plates, send them to me and I’ll send them on for you.

[Old English White]

Great news that you are reunited with your car here in the UK. I remember feeling very excited (some years ago now) when I finally got a call to say I could collect my Mk1 Cooper S from Southampton after it arrived from Australia . Sadly, I never thought to take any photos of it at the time. I was lucky and nothing had been nicked off mine.

[W1NG3D]

Good to see your car got there in good shape. I’m just wondering if the missing bits got pilfered before the car was shipped? Maybe someone trying to re-use the rego? If nz rego is still alive you can order replacement plates, send them to me and I’ll send them on for you.

That's a possibility I hadn't considered at all, but thinking about it, the car would've sat around in South Auckland for a little while before being loaded onto the ship... I doubt anything fraudulent could be done with the rego now as I had to fully de-register the car through NZTA before exporting, so that also means I probably won't be able to order replacement plates, unfortunately. With that in mind, I'm going to try and get a replica sticker version of the missing plate made up by a local printer, I've managed to find a really accurate font file for the NZ number plate text so it'll hopefully look passable and shouldn't be too expensive!