KEY POINTS:
New Zealand is Louis Palmer's solar-powered world tour detour, but now he's looking for a freighter ride to Australia.
Last July, the Swiss teacher started a mission to travel 50,000km over five continents on a 15-month journey in his solar car to spread his message that the technology
to stop global warming was available and needed only to reach the market.
New Zealand wasn't on the itinerary - "there's no bridge from here to Sydney," he joked - but at the United Nations climate change conference in Bali he met Greenpeace New Zealand members who said he could hitch a ride with them on the Rainbow Warrior Two.
After four weeks of seasickness and 4kg lighter, he berthed last Friday at Whangarei.
This week he was in Auckland before a trip to Dunedin, which would take about a week.
While he can't stomach another sea trip, and will fly to his next stop, Australia, he's hoping a freighter might ship his car there for nothing.
Universities and private firms pitched in as sponsors to make the car a reality, Mr Palmer said.
For that sponsorship he got a 20 horsepower vehicle which has a top speed of 90km/h, can travel 300km a day on two batteries, can feed back 6000 kilowatt hours of energy into the national grid over a year and in a sunny climate will travel about 30,000km a year.
"For years I've been focused on this, thinking: What can I do? I don't have rich parents who can give me $100 million to make a car.
"It cost two Porsches to develop. But the prototype price means nothing, prototype cars cost a billion dollars. This car could be mass produced for ¬6000 ($11,200).
"We can drive climate neutral cars, it's not an issue at all. We can stop global warming, this is my message. If we don't want to, I will buy a Porsche tomorrow and I'll go on with the rest of my life."
Getting incentives to make the car was the problem, he said.
"Governments have to provide the guidelines and the will is not there yet. But the oil is running out."
He's played taxi driver and climate change champion to celebrities such as Bianca Jagger, politicians such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett (now Australia's Environment Minister) and hundreds of journalists.
Royalty has also played a part. After a three-week desert wait in Jordan trying to organise visas to get into Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah had to personally approve his visa, with the usual condition that he had to have a police escort the whole way through the country.
But it all nearly came to a crashing halt in India after a car accident with a 70-year-old which wasn't his fault. The car was nearly confiscated by police. After three hours of arguing, both sides decided to pay their own damage.
If you want Mr Palmer at your place get in touch with him through his website. He and mechanic Thomas Gottschauck stay where people invite them. In Whangarei that included sleeping in an old Bedford truck in someone's garden.
* www.solartaxi.com
