One Year Away

Joseph

As I sit here driving through the
rolling hills of New Zealand, dictating this post to Penny it is easy
to look back and smile about the difficulties we had getting here.
But at the time, it didn’t seem so funny.

We arrived at the Bali Airport with
plenty of time to spare.  We had a flight booked to Melbourne, where
we had a 12 hour layover before catching a flight to Auckland.  At
the check-in counter the agent took our passports, weighed and tagged
our bags and then asked, “Can I see your Australian Visa?”  Penny
and I looked at each other,”What Australian Visa?  We’re Canadian.”
The agent shook his head like he’d seen this many times, “People
from all countries except New Zealand need a visa to visit
Australia”.

We had foolishly assumed that there was
no way Canadians would need a visa to visit our Commonwealth sister
country.  There was 2 hours before the flight left and it was 9 PM,
no chance of getting one from the Australian consulate.  Then the
agent said, “You can get one online, here’s the website.”  We
found a car rental counter that had Internet access at the late hour
and completed the application form online.  It was a total
money-grab, both by the Australian government and the scamming car
rental place.  The Australian government charged $20/person for a
“visa” and the Internet guy charged a rate that would have
normally paid for a full day of access for only 25 minutes.

As we were in a rush and hadn’t eaten
we ordered food at what looked like the only restaurant past security
in the airport, McDonald’s.  The eating area was overrun with
cockroaches so we took it to go and ate the hamburger and soggy fries
at the gate.

We arrived in Melbourne after an
overnight flight in which we got almost no sleep.  As we got off the
plane both Penny and I started to get serious stomach cramps.  After
4 months in Asia with stomachs accustomed to the less than sanitary
conditions, it was McDonald’s food that made us feel ill.  We tried
but failed to get onto an earlier flight to Auckland and then crashed
onto some sofas and slept for a few hours.

As we checked in to the Auckland flight
the agent asked us, “Can I see your proof of onward travel?”
Again we looked at each other and sighed.  New Zealand (apparently!)
requires foreigners to show they have a ticket out of the country
before they let you in.  We had checked in early so we started to run
around the airport looking for a cheap fare from Auckland to Cairns
in Australia.  Finally, after checking with all the airlines and
online we got a good fare with Air New Zealand and rushed back to the
check-in counter.  This time we had the e-ticket printout in hand but
neither the check-in agent nor the New Zealand immigration officer
asked for it. 

The only other country that has had
that requirement has been Indonesia. In Indonesia we knew about it but decided to
risk going in without an outbound flight anyway.  At the immigration
desk the officer helped us cheat the system by asking us to “pretend”
to buy a ticket and return to the counter after his boss had left.
Who would have thought that it would be easier for Canadians to enter
Indonesia than Australia or New Zealand?