From Hamburg, Germany to Darwin, Australia - April, 2010

We shipped 2 bikes (Honda Dominator & Honda Africa Twin) with the following measurements:
241x86x128 cm
241x74x128 cm

costs 1500,- Euro
additional costs:
Darwin: Agent: 300,- AUD
Quarantine: 286,- AUD (first 1/2 hs 151,-, then plus each 15 min 45,- AUD extra. (the lady gave us a pretty tough time. we had to dismantle the bikes as far as possible and she ripped all boxes with contents appart to have a look in - pretty picky. At least she charged just the time she actually looked at the bikes otherwise it would have been a pretty expensive day. we started at 9:30 and could just finish the bikes and the mess around at 4:00 pm. So had to come back the next day to pick the bikes up)

It was a bit hard to get quarantine and customs together as thez use different computer systems. Customs could already track our bikes and quarantine not.

If you think about getting 3rd party insurance and vehicle inspection in Darwin.
The vehicle inspection is pretty easy and costs 38,50 AUD per bike, but the 3rd party insurance is the most expensive in the whole country (NT). It costs 56,20 AUD per month. (nearly as much as you would pay for half a year in Western Australia). So we did it only for one month.

Shipment: they did a wrong measurement in Hamburg (246x88x133 and 248x88x138) so we first payed 1700,- Euro and claimed the wrong measurement.
We had to do a remeasurement in Darwin and it took us until mid July until we got the money back for the difference.
Also we did not know and could not see it on the documents, that there would be a stoppover in Singapur, where they actually put the bikes in another container and vessel.
And it happened what must have happened. The vessel from Germany to Singapur was on delay and missed the vessel from Singapur to Darwin, which only every 2 weeks.
So we we had to wait for 2 weeks in Darwin until we got the bikes.

But we have been very lucky and could stay at a HU member.:-)