One Bad Apple

This is the part of our trip that I’ve been reluctant to write about. In fact, it’s kind of been the stand-still for finishing writing about our amazing time in New Zealand. But it must be told, I suppose…

We had a nice flight to New Zealand, complete with dinner and all-you-can-watch TV binge all the way there. We arrived slightly after midnight, feeling really exhausted. Their customs line was extensive. We had filled out our declarations cards on the plane, but there were still long lines to wait in. We gathered our luggage and headed to the check-point where you have to officially “declare” stuff. Well, there were some yellow warning signs, stating that if you had any forbidden items in your luggage, you may be charged $400. So, when we got up to the lady asking about all our declarations, we tried to get ultra specific… Yes, we had some food – almonds, trail mix, some peanut butter and jam, oh, and some carrots. We had already throw away some meat and cheese, knowing it wouldn’t be acceptable. The lady smiled at all our kids, asked them how their trip to Australia had been, and she took our carrots. Then they took our 13 bags and put them through an x-ray machine to make sure we weren’t bringing in any forbidden items.

Guess what?

We had an apple.

One lone apple, accidentally packed in a grocery bag with some dry pasta. It had been in my suitcase since Melbourne. When we got to Sydney, it got repacked in our extra duffle bag, somehow. I had no idea it was there. Brian didn’t remember that it was there. But well…

They acted like we were bringing in 50 pounds of cocaine or something! I'm not kidding!! They dragged our whole, tired family over to a separate area for further inspection. They opened up all our bags and did more detailed inspections of everything. They kept asking Brian over and over if he knew the apple was there, if he packed it there himself, etc. We both told them repeatedly that we honestly didn’t remember it was there or we would have given it to the lady who took our carrots. By this time, it was well after midnight, all our kids were whimpering and wilting and trying to rest on hard-back chairs or slumping on the floor. There were two other people who had also been detained – a 60-ish man who had two oranges in his carry on bag; he said his sis-in-law had put them in there for him to eat on the plane. He thought she gave him two, but she gave him four. Well, he ate two, and two were magically in his bag. Criminal offense!! The other lady had also smuggled an apple. She only spoke Spanish and kept repeating in a pleading voice something about “manzana, lo siento, etc.”

Those  New Zealand airport people showed NO MERCY!! A $400 fine for a single apple! I kind of get irate every time I think about it. My heart beat is elevated and I’m breathing a little fast even as I type this. Sigh. The attendant said, with a “no-excuses” tone, “You packed your own bags, you should know what is in them.” I tried to explain that we had THIRTEEN bags for our family of six, and we had been traveling all over Australia for nine days before this flight. He just shook his head and didn’t listen at all. Even Brian was starting to get worked up. (I know! Hard to imagine, right?!) But it did no good.

The various attendants kept saying, “we had signs posting a warning that you may be fined.” Yeah, MAY be fined, which, in any SANE, MERCIFUL country is took to mean, if we intend to start an apple farm and we’re intentionally smuggling in loads of apples, we deserve a penalty. But anyway… aggghhh! It was pretty terrible. And, it really didn’t help that it was 1:30 in the morning and we were just soooo very exhausted.

We had called a guy from our hotel shuttle service to give us a lift as soon as we got off the plane. We had to call him back three different times to tell him not to come yet, we were still detained. He was very accommodating, and did eventually come for us, which was super nice of him (even though it was also his job). He was from the Philippines. He said one of his “aunties” from the Philippines had been found with an orange in her luggage and was also charged. And, of course, to a Philippine worker lady, that $400 fine was a terrible, terrible loss of income for her and her family. That kind of put things into perspective for us… Yes, we were upset. Yes, that was an unjust fine in our opinions. Yes, the nice lady who smiled and took our carrots could have also said, by the way if you go to the next station and they find ANY shred of ANY kind of raw fruit, honey, cheese, etc, you WILLLL be fined (not just MAY), no negotiating, explaining or excusing! Yes, it was expensive. Yes, it still irks us, as you can tell... But we were still able to go on and enjoy the rest of our vacation and do all the fun things we had planned. We’re pretty lucky/blessed/spoiled, we know. (We even still did Hobbiton.)

We got to bed about 2:30am that night, which was rough. We kind of felt it for the rest of our trip, too. But we were safe and slept in a bit. And, with a little sleep on our side, we decided not to hold it against the entire country of New Zealand. And since we came home, Brian has written an appeal, begging forgiveness for our poor judgment, etc. We’ll have to see… But seriously, that was one terribly bad rotten apple!! We haven’t been able to eat an apple since, without talking about our very expensive Australian apple in NZ (which we still haven’t officially paid for… fingers crossed there may still be some mercy down the line somewhere?) Sigh.