It’s the start of a new chapter and we’re off to New Zealand. First stop…Auckland! I’ll admit, it was a bit of a comedy of errors for us to even get into the country. We didn’t have the smoothest start.
First, we got to the Brisbane airport to fly out and they wouldn’t let us board the flight because we didn’t have a confirmed return ticket out of New Zealand yet. Apparently, we missed that requirement somewhere. So, cue instant panic and some quick maneuvering on Matt’s part to get us fully refundable tickets purchased in record time so we could manage to make our flight. Whew, close call!
Our next issue arose after our flight landed in Auckland. We got off the plane and headed to immigration with our immigration forms filled out, only to find that the airline crew gave us all the wrong forms. So, we are pulled aside while we go through the process of re-filling out everything again. No big deal, just a minor hiccup, right? Surely that will be the last of our issues.
Then again…maybe not. After making it through immigration, we get our bags before heading through Customs. Jack loves the job of helping with the bags and we get them all loaded onto two carts. Matt hands Jack the forms for the Customs agent to hold on to for us while we push the baggage carts to Customs. We wait through the Customs line, get up to the counter and have Jack hand the agent the forms. Or should I say “form”. Apparently the other two got dropped somewhere along the walk to Customs. Wow, at this point I feel like it’s strike three and we’re just out! I’m waiting for someone to just stick us on a plane back to Australia! I get pulled to the side to wait with our bags while Matt and Jack go running all over the Auckland airport trying to locate our forms. Some kind soul had found them and put them up on a ledge where it was easy for them to see, so the whole debacle only took about 10 minutes and we weren’t shipped out by any NZ officials.
After that we (finally!) were officially allowed to enter the country! I was just hoping that meant we got all of the bumps out of the way early and that it would be smooth sailing in New Zealand from that point on.
Our plan for our time in New Zealand is to spend 3-4 days in Auckland and then get a campervan to drive around and explore both the north and south islands so we could cover as much ground as possible. We’ll see how well we can stick to a plan this time around. Surely we have to be better than we were in Queensland, right? 😉
The Detour Diary 