Leave it to New Zealand to be nearly impossible to enter! Out of all the other countries I have been to, New Zealand tops the list of my worst-entry-system ever. I showed up at the airport early, as usual, which was to my benefit because I had no idea what I was in for. I figured it would be something like Australia, with an extra baggage check or two, but oh no, how much worse it was.
When I arrived, pretty much no one was trying to check in. So I went up to a booth and attempted to check myself in. The attendant happily informed me that I would not be issued a ticket because I did not have a print out of a ticket off island. Well, I did indeed have a ticket but I did not know I needed proof of this. So he pointed me to kiosks where I could access the internet and get the airline to print out a receipt of my next flight.
I went over to where a large group of Asians had taken over all the internet terminals, but not to use the computer of course, just to use the counter in front of the terminals! I had asked one of them nicely to use the computer if they weren’t using it. He rudely said he was writing something and turned away. Well, so much for being polite. Eventually he moved on because I insisted on hovering above him until he did so.
After I grabbed my flight details out New Zealand, I ventured over to the airline I will be taking only to discover that they were not open yet. Once again I went over to try to get my ticket to New Zealand and they again informed me that the details written down were not enough. I was directed to the service counter and at that time I was a bit worried that I would not be let on the plane. The service counter said that another partner airline would gladly print out my details but I would have to walk clear across the terminal with my entire luggage to get it. I did so, only to be greeted by a line because the attendants at the counter would not stop chatting away with a few customers on things that were completely unrelated to their travels.
I eventually snagged my print out and made it back to attempt, for the third time, to get my flight ticket. Now, everyone seemed to have wanted to show up to the airport! I waited on the shortest line but of course, the attendants at the counter did everything in their power to slow down the line of people. One couple was held up for about 20 minutes while they were forced to redistribute toys in bags for their child because of the weight. When it was finally my turn I was also asked to redistribute the weight of my carry-on but there was only equipment that I could not, under any circumstances have broken.
We eventually found a happy medium and I was finally on my way, or so I thought. I went over to security and made it through the line OK. Thinking I was nearly home free with passport control in sight, I soon realized I was seriously wrong. Apparently I look like a big drug smuggler because I was pulled out of line and had my bags researched, a front and back pat down, and drug detection scanned. It is a “random” scan, but really, of all people! Being a little annoyed at that point I expected that I would have trouble once again through passport control so I threw up my hands in surrender. I now really knew I wasn’t going to make this flight. But at passport control, although it took extremely long to be logged in, and after two sniffs up my back-end by a search dog, I was finally let through to the gates.
To my happy surprise, everything seemed to go smoothly on the plane, that is, until I got off of it. Since I have been to so many Asian countries in the past 30 days I was detained in the New Zealand customs area to be thoroughly interrogated about what I was doing abroad for so long, how I make money, when I’m leaving, why I’m going, etc and so on. The attendant was really nice but again this took an extremely long time. Finally however, I was released into New Zealand! I must say, I will very well think it over long and hard the next time I decide to journey to this basement of the world country. As always though, if it wasn’t hard to do, I probably wouldn’t do it. I’m happy to say I made it through and it has made for an excellent experience, memory and story.
