On our arrival from Tahiti into Auckland airport, there were numerous signs posted about claiming your fruits, veg, meat, and camping/hiking gear or face some hefty fines. Of course this didn't apply to us because we weren't travelling with any of these goods nor had we been to a farm or brought our camping gear on this leg...or so I thought:(
New Zealanders are pretty serious about keeping diseases and foreign pests out of their country that they introduced a law stating that anyone who brings in such items (know or unknown) will pay fines from $400-$10,000 NZD (about the same CND).
And so the story goes...
We claimed no to all of the above, told the officer we had nothing to declare and proceeded to the X-ray line to double (no triple) check that this was true. Even when the lady grabbed my carry on pack off the belt and said "who's bag is this?" I didn't realize what was in store. It wasn't until she was searching my bag and asking if I had any food (no) still not realizing the lime stuffed quickly in the side of my pack from Tahiti (which was for the drinks-we never used, terribly expensive and might I add, worse lime I've ever paid for!!) did I then panic: s@$T, I totally forgot about the lime! As the lady pulled the lime out of my bag and told me the about the penalty, I felt a rush of adrenalin pumping through me and totally panicked. "I'm soooo sorry- I totally forgot I put it there!" She was quite nice about it but still passed me on the the next officer and told me to explain my story to him. HE was not so impressed. He read me my rights and handed me a sheet of paper to read over. I broke down in tears-still apologizing like all good Canadians do, while Shawn read what I couldn't. The officer said, "read this carefully, take your time, I'll come back to ask how you want to handle this." The paper said (in a nut shell).
Dear FRUIT SMUGGLER (just kidding)
You have been found guilty of bringing items into New Zealand that have the potential to harm, infest, blah blah blah. Regardless that you were unaware, forgetful, blah blah blah.
Your options are as follows; (I shortened this part)
1) Pay fine of $400 NZD immediately
2) Pay fine within 14 days
3) Claim appeal and go to court within 28 days
4) Do nothing. May face persecution (or something like that)
As I sat there crying and fretting that this already ruined my NZ experience, Mr big shot came back over with another piece of paper. He handed to me and said, "This is your warning. Next time make sure you check all your bags. Have a nice trip."
What?!?!?!!!!
I thought FOR SURE I'd have to hid and lay low while I "#4 did nothing" and left the country before they caught up to me. Feeeuw!
Shawn and I both agree from now on to double check each others bags before anymore flights into foreign countries!
Welcome to New Zealand!
Warning letter - notice they even weighed my lime!
This deserves a cheers:)
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