Australia and New Zealand

[Allison]

Hi there!
There's one continent our Elans have not yet visited, if you exclude Antarctica, and that's Australasia. So I was thinking of putting that right with a visit in Jan/March 2019. Scenic Car tours do a couple of weeks tour round NZ and a short Australian tour linked to the GP (assuming it runs in March 2019!).

Having had trouble with insurance in USA I thought I'd start with that. I've emailed Shannons in Australia who say they can't provide cover and don't know of anyone who can. That's not a good start! I'm waiting to hear back from Tower NZ. Can any of you folk "down under" give me any clues?

Thanks for your advice
Peter
www.rallyelan.com

[cudabenefast]

Peter if you are a member of /insured through the RAA then you may be able to insure via this membership with reciprocal rights with the Royal Auto Club of Victoria who offer very cost effective Classic insurance for our cars. Who insured you on the other continents?

When you get to Victoria you are welcome to stay and we can show you some great Elan roads.

Peter

[Chrispy]

I'm insured with Lumley's who specialise in classics. Might be able to help you out if the above doesn't work out. Being overseas registered you may have issues. Unsure on NZ but they generally are less stupid about everything compared to us Aussies so you'll likely have an easier time over there.

If I had to pick between the 2 countries I'd pick NZ. Brilliant roads, amazing scenery and lovely people. Here in Australia there's huge distances between things of interest, it's stinking hot most of the year in the north and the majority of the roads are pretty dull.

[cudabenefast]

Chris is clearly a Queenslander who doesn't get out much

Fabulous road in Southern Queensland, eastern NSW down through the backroads through Bathurst to Hunter valley (wine) down to Sydney then coast down to Mollymook (rick Stein's restaurant) upto Canberra, Cooma then many choices into Victoria over "the Alps", the Mitta rd etc winding across to us at Woodend,via Bright/Beechworth, where there are many drives including across to the Yarra Valley, down to Melbourne, the two peninsulas, Phillip Island, Sth Gippsland, back roads to the Great Ocean Rd, upto Coonawarra, then the best (IMHO) concentration in Australia of wonderful Elan roads on the Fleurieu Peninsula, Adelaide Hills and Barossa and Clare Valleys. Then there is eastern NZ known as Tasmania! Phew that's without thinking much about it.
WARNING: if you don't like to drive challenging roads, eat great food and drink wine/beer/gin please ignore the above.

Driving NZ is also fabulous with plenty of the above. However, it is now starting to suffer tourist van congestion even on some of the remarkable back roads.

Happy to provide detailed routes and join for a lot in Australia.

Peter

[Frogelan]

Peter

There are some wonderful roads in SE Australia as mentioned (the only part I have visited), but the distances between different spots are very far indeed (I recall my TomTom saying 180km to the next junction...) and Australia does have surprising speed limits (helpful give the sometimes unpredictably "wild" reactions of the wildlife!).

Sounds like a great trip and I would be interested to hear how you solve the insurance issues!

Andrew

[Allison]

Hi thanks!
In USA we insured with Hagerty - but they won't do Australasia. Elsewhere the rally organiser found the insurance - I guess that it was written on pretty cheap paper (if you get my meaning) but at least we did have a piece of paper to show if asked! I am under no illusions about getting any benefits from it but having the right piece of paper is 90%.

NZ would be the prime tour but I thought as Australia is, shall we say less far from there than it is from here, that we could pay a visit as well. There would be a 5/6 week break in between so we would come home whilst the car was being shipped. Scenic Tours provide the hotels and the Aus tour is pretty timid, the focus being the GP in Albert Park. We'd need to see how we wanted to vary the route as they do just Adelaide to Sydney.(not even close to Queensland!)

Thanks
Peter

[CULVENOR]

I'm sure you would enjoy driving the East Coast of Australia -- anything west of Adelaide is a long way. Consider being in Tasmania for Targa Tasmania -- you can do the "Tour" if you don't want to go fast -- see there website.
You'll find people -- like me - in Lotus Clubs around Australia who would love to host you and hear of your travels.
I haven't got any great insurance ideas -- I'm with Shannons.
John

[vstibbard]

I know a couple of Shannon's underwriters, so will reach out to them and see what the issue is. I've done many rallies with car from UK, USA and Europe in both touring and competitive classes, the touring cars have to be insured.

Tasmania is a blast to drive, I've complete the Targa, Adelaide another with Classic Adelaide which I've done, great roads, the closer to home (Sydney) there are many great drives North and South, the drive via Snowy mountains to Melbourne is another great way to head to Melbourne over two days, I've completed a regularity rally via that route.

WA, I'd pop the car on a truck about $900 as its a long way....

2019 has a re run of the REDEX a famous round Australia Trial, which is a touring event that I'm entering along with a few other friends making about 4 teams so far.

Regards

Vaughan

[Chrispy]

Chris is clearly a Queenslander who doesn't get out much

More than a little bit true!

To be fair your route would be about 3000km with 500km of interesting roads

There are some beautiful sections thats for sure, but interspaced with dullness. Farms or scrub. That's about all you'll see for most of it. And the pot holes are something else!

The last few driving trips I've done in NZ have been surprisingly free from those horrid vans. That was Easter and then snow season in the south island, maybe over summer they are a bit more prevalent. I found the Great Ocean road much much worse for terrible tourist drivers and buses.

[rgh0]

If driving the Geat Ocean road these days you need to pick the time and direction to avoid all the tourist buses and vans. If you start in Lorne or Apollo Bay in the early morning and go in either direction you can generally avoid most of the traffic.

If your here for the Grand Prix you want to come to the Phillip Island Historic meeting that is normally the weekend before it is one of the best Historic meetings in the world. You could probably get an entry into the Regularity event also if you want to drive on the track itself.

cheers
Rohan

[reb53]

I assume you realise that car insurance is not legally required in NZ ?
If you want to take the risk there is nothing to stop you driving with absolutely no insurance of any kind.
Dumb thing to do, especially if you're at fault and hit an expensive car....
You can simply insure for that risk only, ( "3rd Party"), and have no cover for your own car.
I have done that in the past with a cheap old smoker that I knew would be written off by the insurance company for the smallest amount of damage, so I took the, (small), risk on myself but was still covered if I drove into someones Merc.

Neither do you have to worry about being sued by someone for personal injury, as that right was removed by legislation 40 years ago.
In return the State picks up all your medical costs if you have an accident.
This is funded by a payroll levy, the rate determined by both your income, and the type of job you do.
So you won't get financially annihilated if you accidentally injure someone.

So no ambulance chasing lawyers here.

I should add, as we're reasonably civilised here, you as a tourist would also have your medical costs covered if you were to have an accident.
Only an accident mind, won't cover the heart attack, so you'll still need travel insurance for that !
Have a look here,
https://www.acc.co.nz/im-injured/injuri ... w-zealand/

I've never travelled the roads of Oz but I'd be surprised if you didn't enjoy ours.
Generally well engineered and surfaced/contoured, can meander for miles through nice green scenery, and back ways have little traffic.
And if you get in touch I'm sure I could brew up a coffee !

Cheers,
Ralph.
Napier.

[Allison]

Hi Ralph, The NZ tour does pass through Napier - so if we make it, we'll call by for that coffee! NZ insurance is not a problem as I have found someone prepared to provide cover (might change his mind by next January of course!). Driving uninsured doesn't sound a good idea but its very generous of the state to pick up the medical costs.
Australian insurance is looking more of a challenge but hopefully something will materialise somewhere - and thanks to the guys who are asking around; your help is much appreciated.
Peter

[ceejay]

As cudabenefast posted. You cant beat the absolutely fabulous driving roads here in the North East Victorian part of Australia, we have alpine roads galore, and if you pick the right time, there is very little traffic to bother about.

I have organised several small group rally style drives (Non Competitive) for a mixed group of sports car owners in the past, eg Healey, MG, Lotus etc, but of course it is great to get several Loti together because they are all so equal on the road.

The Snowy Mountains Region of NSW also offer spectacular driving roads (And scenery) that are just made for Lotus cars, the Porsche club are very active in the area also.

So yes, Australia is a huge country, but there are regions that are every bit as good as anywhere else in the world, and the best time for a long top off sports car drive is spring and autumn, forget about the stinking hot summer.