KEY POINTS:
On an island with no intersections, does a car need working indicator lights?
It does if you ask the vehicle inspectors who arrive twice a year at D'Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds for warrant-of-fitness checks.
The island has 40 permanent residents and 75km of lumpy dirt roads, and some locals approach the inspections with a degree of resentment, the Nelson Mail reported.
Two Vehicle Testing New Zealand inspectors made the three-hour trip to D'Urville last week, to check 19 vehicles.
Three of those belonged to sheep farmer Angus Forgan. It had taken him the previous 10 days to get all three to the inspection site at Kapowai wharf.
Mr Forgan said the warrant of fitness days were "a pain in the proverbial".
On this occasion he was pulled up for a slightly faded tail light; despite the fact that in the past two years on the island he'd been followed by another car twice, he said.
If major repairs were required, it meant hiring a barge to take the car to Havelock, at a cost of $2500, he added.
VTNZ inspector Colin Woodward said D'Urville Island cars needed to meet the same standards as any others.
Indicators, windscreen wipers and washers must all be in working order.
Mr Woodward and his colleague passed 13 of the 19 vehicles on last week's trip, and another three passed on their second checks.
VTNZ Nelson manager Roy Stevens said the remaining three cars would have to be sent to Nelson within 28 days for a re-check, or get their warrant elsewhere.
Although the trips to D'Urville were costly and awkward, he said VTNZ was committed to covering the length of the country.
- NZPA
