Problems With Customs, $2000?!
Auckland -> Melbourne, 5th January 2002
We were supposed to have flown out at 6:30am this morning...far too
early to be up and around! But when we phoned up to reconfirm the
flight we found the time had been changed...yeay!...too 6am...boo!
As we needed to be there 2 hours before, it meant leaving the house
at 3am. Ridiculously early! Luckily, Nat's Uncle Peter volunteered
to drive us up there. Thanks again Uncle Peter!
We arrived nice & early to check in, but as it was the first flight
from Auckland for today, there were no staff at any of the check in
desks! So about an hour later, which meant another possible hour in
bed, some staff appeared to start their shifts, so we joined the
queues.
We checked in, initially without any problems, but then we were hit
with a nasty surprise. When we had bought our plane tickets, we were
told that the price included all of the airport departure taxes. So
when we were told to go upstairs to pay a $22 departure fee, we were
a bit miffed. We tried to explain about our ticket, but no amount of
arguing and blagging could get us out of this We scurried over to
the information desk to check it out and it turned out that she was
right. :o( The $22 payment was a departure FEE not a departure TAX.
So, under this different name, everyone needed to pay this extra
money. Hmmm.
About an hour later we were squashed into our economy priced seats
while the stewards danced up and down the aisle showing off their
large amount of free space. The plane soond began to move along the
runway, a voice on the tannoy said 'Air stewards, arm the doors.'
Arm the doors? What were we on? A war plane? Was something about to
go Dakka-dakka? Or was this some sort of new hijack-prevention?
We swung around to the runway and started to build speed. The
aircraft pulled forward and got faster. I pulled out my sweets and
tried to get one to suck to stop my airs popping as we lifted off.
As I tried to unwrap it, I fumbled and dropped the packet. At that
exact instant, the plane accelerated and started to lift off. So my
sweets quickly rolled away down the plane, under some seats and gone
forever. Great. Nat couldn't stop laughing at my bewildered
expression.
The flight was uneventful and we landed a few hours later, problem
free. But before leaving the airport, we had more than a few
problems in the Customs control...
Australia has a tight quarantine system that's in the process of
being made even tighter. Faced with a barrage of unintelligible
customs forms we had decided to declare anything even had even a
remote chance of being contaminated, which meant our food and our
tent (even though it had been cleaned and only used in New Zealand).
But as we were claiming our bags, a lady official told us going
through the 'Something To Declare' (Red) line would take about 2
hours. She asked us about what we wanted to declare. She told us
that the tent was okay as it had not been near farmland. She also
had a look at our food, and after throwing out the 'organic' things,
such as carrots and bananas, she said the rest was ok because it was
all sealed/tinned goods. The lady then stamped our customs
declaration form and said we could proceed through the 'Nothing To
Declare' (Green) line, which had no queue. Yeay! Thanks!
I gave my card to the official at the gate, and walked straight
through. I stepped through the gates that closed behind me, and
waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, Stinge came through and
said that the guards had wanted to x-ray his bag, which was a slow
process due to the number of people, but there was no problem. The
girls however, hadn't been so lucky. After a really long wait, Nat
and Em came through the gates looking flustered.
Nat & Em had been told to put their bags through the x-ray machine
as well. However, after the lady had ok-ed our packaged food, the
girls put it back into their bags, and they showed up on the scans.
Emily said that she only had a packet of instant noodles, and after
unpacking everything to prove it to the officials, she was let
through. However, Natalie had a bigger bag of food, with some
interesting items in. For some bizarre reason, Nat had bought a bag
of poppy seeds to snack on, and the officials stared at it in
disbelief and insisted that they were opium seeds. Natalie
eventually managed to persuade them of the truth. However, Nat also
had some salad cream that she had forgotten to declare earlier. Big
mistake! Importing egg, or egg-based products is not allowed.
Luckily, because the salad cream didn't say how much egg was in it
and because people were being rushed through, she wasn't fined the
$2000. They simply disposed of the salad cream. But before Natalie
could leave, there was one more thing. The scan had showed a huge
bundle of organic material in her bad and the officials were keen to
see what it was. What devious animal life, illegal drug or
contaminated food product was inside? After unpacking her whole bag,
and piling everything in a big tray, she held up the item that had
showed on the scan. It was a big bag of tampons. Which are, of
course, allowed, so the officials looked at each other a big
awkwardly before finally hurrying Nat through the door..
After a bit more waiting, but this time all together, we were on a
mini-bus heading towards our hostel, the Hotel Bakpaka. We drove
through the city, but I can't really say much about it because I
didn't take much in, we had almost no sleep and I was only
half-awake, - actually, I was only a sixteenth awake!
After sleepily checking in ,we dropped all our gear into our dorm, a
huge 15 bed one, the biggest we'd been in. We decided the best way
to stay awake and acclimatize to the time zone, was to take a quick
walk around town.
The best bit we saw was the Victoria Market, a huge market selling
everything from clothes, to food, to souvenirs, to toys and more. It
was really busy and vendors were shouting loudly and customers
pushing eagerly. We bought nothing interesting, just some fruit &
vegetables that were on special offer. As we headed back, I jumped
with joy when I realised that there was a "Subway" next to the
hostel. Yummy lunches!
We actually got back to the hostel quite early and after a bit of
reading, we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and decided to
call it a night. (Even though it was clearly still day). We'll have
a proper look around town tomorrow...night night!
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