Day 2 - Arrival in Auckland

So, we arrived in Auckland around 11:30 pm on Friday (it was still Thursday back home), about an hour late.  We had to sit on the plane while the local folks came aboard with some innocuous smelling mister devices and they proceeded to spray all the bags in the overhead bins.   It seems the New Zealand government takes biosecurity very seriously.  They have strict limits on bringing food and certain other products (wood products for example) into the country.  Eric, our pilot seatmate on the SEA-HNL leg told about a crew member for his airline who had four hard boiled eggs with him.  He was fined $50 for each egg.  Another $400 and he could have brought along an even dozen.  We heard a story from our Uber driver about a soccer or rugby team that came through with muddy shoes.  The team was fined $4,000.

Here's the complete list, just in case you were thinking about coming here with honey or bee products (honey is a big item for them), straw, tulip bulbs, potting soil, tree bark, scallops, whatever.

• Any food – cooked, uncooked, fresh, preserved, packaged or dried.
• Animals or animal products – including meat, dairy products, fish, honey, bee products, eggs, feathers, shells, raw wool, skins, bones or insects.
• Plants or plant products – fruit, flowers, seeds, bulbs, wood, bark, leaves, nuts, vegetables, parts of plants, fungi, cane, bamboo or straw, including for religious offerings or medicinal use.
• Other biosecurity risk items, including – animal medicines, biological cultures, organisms, soil or water.
• Equipment used with animals, plants or water, including for gardening, beekeeping, fishing, water sport or diving activities.
• Items that have been used for outdoor or farming activities, including any footwear, tents, camping, hunting, hiking, golf or sports equipment.

 Here's the NZ website that talks about this, in case anyone is thinking about visiting:

Arriving in New Zealand

 While still on the plane, we were subjected to this video:

At any rate, clearing customs was easy peasy.  The system is all automated.  You go to a station, insert your passport for it to read the RFID chip.  Once it decides you are who you say you are, a gate opens, you go in and wait for the system to clear you.  Another gate opens and you are allowed in.

Next, we fetched our bags off the baggage carousel, marveling all the while that they'd made it here, with us, all the way from Walla Walla.  Now we were on for biosecurity screening.  We'd filled out declaration cards on the plane stating our intentions and identifying those items we were told by the beagle in the video to declare.  We queued up and finally got to the person who inspected the cards.

"What kind of food items do you have," she asked?

"Um, some granola bars, and some Blue Diamond Smoked almonds,"  I said.

Barb had already discarded her beef jerkey because "meat items" are prohibito.

The presence of nuts created further inquiry.

"Are they packaged?"

"No, in a ziplock bag.  Here, see?"

"Almonds, correct?"

Yes, smoked almonds."

"Almonds are ok.  Peanuts not ok."

She then directed us to another station for further screening.  It seems I'd checked the box that I might be carrying prohibited items, which include wood products, feathers, fish, amphibians and such, oh and medication.  I had with me blood pressure medicine and a couple other prescriptions.  So to the next station we went.

A note here - as I type this, I realize I could have been in deep New Zealand biosecurty trouble, inasmuch as I had with me a Payday candy bar.  What is a Payday, you ask?  Caramel and the dreaded, prohibited peanuts.  Oops.  I hadn't declared the candy.  I'll never know whether I'd have been hit with a $400 NZD fine or not for having an undeclared prohibited item in my luggage.  The question will torment my sleep for weeks.

So it turned out the secondary screening was due to me checking the box on prohibited items, the aforesaid medications.

"You checked the box for prohibited items.  What do you have?"

"Ah, medication.  Blood pressure medication, Prilosec so I don't stay awake all night with gastric reflux."

"Oh, no problem.  You were sent here because you checked the box," suggesting I hadn't needed to.

"Go over there," she said, pointing to another queue.

So at the next station, they were in the process of examining about 6 plastic tubs of crackers that some Maoris had brought in.  At another table a lady armed with a utility knife sliced open a box that contained what appeared to be handbags.  The guy finished with his cracker inspection, looked at our cards and directed us to the x-ray machine.  They x-rayed the luggage, no doubt looking for jars of Planters Peanuts, handguns, ribeye steaks and other such prohibited items.  There were no hits, as I had left the ribeyes and handguns at home.  We were home free and out out of the clutches of the biosecurity officers! 

Welcome to Auckland:

We  emerged from the terminal, I pulled out my cell phone, pulled up up the Uber app, and 10 minutes later we were in a Honda Insight (there are a lot of hybrid cars here, probably because gas costs about $2.10 per Liter) headed for Club Kakapo, our Airbnb first night's lodging.