As planned, we went in for the van’s Warrant of Fitness (WoF, Sv; Besiktning, Fi; Katsastus) today. All vans from 1999 and earlier, needs to be checked every 6 months. The WoF can be done by car garages, some car dealers and a nationwide company, VTNZ (Vehicle Testing New Zealand) who have their biggest task of doing WoFs. VTNZ is also one of the strictest ones. Which was a good thing, because we knew this when we bought our van. It had a pass from just the day before we bought it, we felt pretty sure that things were in order. And now we doing the same thing.

Back in April this year, we used VTNZ as well. We called there in advance to book a time and got to know it’s a walk-in service. Which is can be very convenient. Sometimes there’s barely any line. When we have driven past VTNZs in the past, Saturdays seems to be their busiest day. And one car takes about 20 minutes, so only a line of 5 cars is still up to an hour and 40 minutes wait!

This morning, we drove to the VTNZ in Matamata, because it was the closest one to us. There was only one car in front of us in line, so we quite happy that we wouldn’t have to wait too long. I went into the reception and finds out that this VTNZ has an exception! They only take bookings, and their next availability would be Friday! So it became a small trip to Cambridge, some 30 km away.

Once there, we had 2 cars ahead of us. And the waiting is somehow very nerving. Not so bad at first, but when you see them drive the car into their workshop and they start looking around it (there are big windows in the walls to see through on what they do). And they check. And they inspect a lot. And sometimes they have three persons looking at almost the same spot. “What are they looking at? What can be so wrong that 3 people have to look at it? I never noticed ANYTHING that would be that bad!” are a few thoughts that ran through our minds.

Then they finally called us outside where they had parked the van, and asked us to open the boot. Huh?
A guy checked something, then left inside again. But he took our sticker from our window showing until when our current WoF was. So I said to Petri, that that should be a good sign, right?! He shouldn’t have taken it if he hadn’t accepted us, right??

The reason why they checked and double checked things were because our fiberglass top got painted in a very clear white by Petri. Like it looks pretty and new now. They questioned whether or not we would have changed the whole top and thereby would need a new certificate for it. Luckily they believed us that it really only is painted. Afterwards we also found the original certificate from 1996 saying the conversion was done rightly then.

And this story has a good ending. He did pass us and gave us a new sticker to prove our current WoF lasting until the 23rd of March next year!
Sweet As!

Petra