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louisee
By louisee | AA Member | 1 Post | 11 August 2011 at 3:53pm

Hi Jack,

Do you know whether an Australian registered vehicle can be driven on New Zealand roads?

If not, is there a temporary plate that can be placed on the vehicle, or another solution to make it NZ road-legal? How can I get this?

Cheers.

jbiddle
By jbiddle | Community Member | 1657 Posts | 12 August 2011 at 2:35pm

Provided you meet a certain criteria then yes, the car can retain its Australian registration and plates.

To qualify, you need to be a private individual basically using your vehicle to tour NZ and you must be the registered and legal owner.

The vehicle needs to travel on a document called a Carnet De Passages En Douane (Carnet for short). The Carnet was originally generated out of Geneva to provide the freedom to travel between countries using common paper work.

In your case the paper work needs to be completed in Australia and before the vehicle is shipped to NZ. This is like a temporary permit or passport which allows the car to be driven in another country for an agreed time frame.

Your first port of call would be to any Automobile Association branch in Australia who should have all the required information and paper work.

If you went ahead with the Carnet, the process once the vehicles arrives in NZ is relatively easy. Once the car has cleared customs it needs to go to a Vehicle Testing Station for a mechanical inspection and you would need to pay a portion of the NZ registration and ACC ( similar to 3rd party public liability cover) fees.