Sending timber to NZ

[nkforster]

A pal of mine has asked me to send him some spruce to NZ. But from what I can gather this isn't a straight forward process, as NZ is rather cautious about importation of timber. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks in advance,

Nigel
http://www.theluthierblog.com

[Nick]

Not as much of a hassle as you've been led to believe Nigel. I've bought in thousands of dollars worth of guitar woods over the years including spruce. It seems, as long as you declare on the customs form that it is 'guitar woods' or 'instrument parts' there isn't too much of a problem. They may open the package at the border and inspect it for bugs or borer but if the timber has had even rough sawing carried out and no infestations of bugs they reseal it and let it go. They don't like anything with bark still on it or timber 'in the raw'. I've only ever been pulled up for one shipment of spruce which was rough billet stuff and one piece had some borer or insect damage along one edge. I could either let them destroy the parcel ( they were worried about cross contamination with the other pieces) or, as I ended up doing, paid an extra $35 I think it was, to have the lot heat treated to kill off any bugs.

[kiwigeo]

If you want to get the wood through then mark the following on the box:

"Wood to be turned into exceptional cricket bats to be used by the Black Caps in the next test against Australia"

[Allen]

If you want to get the wood through then mark the following on the box:

"Wood to be turned into exceptional cricket bats to be used by the Black Caps in the next test against Australia"

That would certainly do it.

[nkforster]

Thanks chaps. Big help.

Mind the way NZ are batting just now, I don't think they need much help. They turned the Headingly test into a 20/20!

Do you think we could convince the NZ government that the best way to treat wood on import is the torrification process? At $35 a batch that could work out pretty cost effective.....

[kiwigeo]

Thanks chaps. Big help.

Mind the way NZ are batting just now, I don't think they need much help. They turned the Headingly test into a 20/20!

Beating the Poms doesn't matter...beating the Aussies does.

1981underarmbowling.jpg (48.88 KiB) Viewed 9102 times

[woodrat]

Thanks chaps. Big help.

Mind the way NZ are batting just now, I don't think they need much help. They turned the Headingly test into a 20/20!

Beating the Poms doesn't matter...beating the Aussies does.

1981underarmbowling.jpg

Australian translation of Martin's quote..."beating the Kiwis doesn't matter....beating the Poms does!". ...

...if its any consolation about 22 million Aussies are ashamed of the underarm incident too...