Traveling and playing in New Zealand

“May I see your customs card, sir?” asked the customs agent in Christchurch. “Sure,” I replied, handing him the form. Having seen the warnings on the form and posted in the airport, I had diligently filled it out- declaring that yes, I had been tramping through pastures in Nepal and Laos, and yes, I did have kayaking equipment. He looked over the form and then looked up at me- “Right. You’re Mark Robbins. We’ve been expecting you- come this way.” Yipes! I have never had a customs agent tell me that he was expecting me. He turned and opened up a new lane in the queue and I pushed my cart with three large duffel bags, my kayak paddle and a carry on bag over to a large metal table. He left me there wondering my fate, and a few moments later Terry, Mandy’s boyfriend who also worked in customs, came over and shook my hand. Phew. I told him that I was a bit worried there for a second, and he laughed and said that he had told his compatriots to keep an eye out for me.

New Zealand takes customs seriously- they even have a TV show about it called “Border Patrol”. Since it is a remote island country with few predators, invasive species can have a devastating impact. Gorse bushes grow all over, didymo algae can be found in many rivers, and stoats (similar to a prairie dog), possums, hedgehogs and deer are numerous, none of which are native to New Zealand.

Terry left me in the hands of a pleasant but thorough agent who was doing everything by the book because it was her first day in inspection and cleaning. Half an hour later all of my boots, shoes, sandals and kayaking equipment was clean and seed free. The agent did find one seed of some sort or other in the Velcro strap on one of my kayaking booties and pointed towards it- “This is why we inspect so thoroughly,” she said so authoritatively that I half expected her to strip search me on the spot. Terry got off work a little bit later and after returning home and greeting Mandy we all headed out for a picnic on the beach.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but for just about everyone in the world Thanksgiving is just another Thursday. Mandy, however, was not about to let that little detail get in the way of a good Thanksgiving dinner, and so while everyone else was working we were shopping and cooking. That evening we took our apple pie and mashed potatoes over to a friend of Mandy’s whose husband was from the US, and joined eight other people from both the US and New Zealand for a Thanksgiving dinner replete with party poppers and a minor whipped cream food fight.

The next morning Mandy and I packed all of our gear for climbing, hiking, mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking and fishing into the van and headed out for twenty days of play all around the south island.

All of the toys loaded in the van and we are ready to roll!