Originally Posted by PanEuropean

Hello Jonas:

Apropos of shipping your moto by air from North America to Australia, here are some things to think about:

1) Anchorage, Alaska is a major air freight hub - one of the largest air freight hubs in the world - but there are no direct flights from Anchorage to Australia. This means your moto would have to be transferred from one aircraft to another somewhere in Asia. That increases the risk of screw-ups, and also will increase the cost of shipping. You will need to crate the moto if you ship it out from Anchorage.

2) Air Canada flies direct from Vancouver to several cities in Australia. Air Canada is also experienced shipping uncrated motorcycles, they have a program specific to shipping motos, although I don't know if they include Australia in that program. Might make sense to investigate shipping out of Vancouver. If your trip ends in Alaska, there are lots of ferries you (and your moto) can take from Alaska to ports nearby Vancouver (e.g. Seattle, or Ketchikan, or Prince George). The ferry trip down the west coast from Alaska to southern ports can be spectacular depending on what route the ferry takes.

3) Importing a foreign moto into Australia, even for temporary tourist purposes, is going to be a major PITA. You will need a carnet (expensive) and you will also encounter very strict agricultural inspection regulations that will probably require you to have the moto steam-cleaned or otherwise sterilized either prior to or upon arrival. There will also be the challenge of getting the moto insured in Oz. Do your homework carefully on this topic, I think you will probably discover that it will be cheaper to just buy a moto in Australia & sell it (or discard it) when you are finished, rather than paying two air freight trips (inwards & outwards) and paying for the carnet, the agricultural protection measures, etc.

Michael