Off to Sydney – once a penal colony, now a tourist magnet ...

The flight from Christchurch to Sydney took off very early today. That’s why we chose an airport hotel for our last night in New Zealand. It makes sense to be within walking distance to the terminal at 4 AM ...

Check-in and security went smoothly, despite the airport being quite crowded. Many processes are automated. You could check in at several kiosks or print the date for your luggage. Baggage drop-off was also possible without staff. Perfect digitization without long wait times.

Once seated on the plane, we were off. Flight duration was about 3 hours. With a time difference of two hours back, we landed in Sydney at half past seven.

We felt a bit uncertain because we had to fill out a document on the plane regarding what we had in our luggage. Special attention – besides weapons and ammunition – was paid to items from nature. No nuts or plants, no meat, no homemade cakes, no seeds, no animal parts, and who knows what else. We also needed to declare any items we used in nature, like hiking sticks or hiking shoes. We were aware of this, so we cleaned the soles of our hiking shoes in water before leaving Christchurch. Now, we still had the diving masks, since objects used in water had to be declared too. We also had some bought cookies, the delicious coconutty-chrunchy ones. And half a packet of sliced bread... what about that, do we have to declare it or not??? We also had the beautiful shell from the mouth of the Fox Rivers into the sea on the west coast in our suitcase... we cleaned it... Oh, we’ll take the risk, it will all be fine...

So we fill out the paper and let everything come at us... We don’t understand why Australia makes such a fuss about travelers from New Zealand. We have already been checked upon entry there. New Zealand has a similarly strict approach regarding the import of unknown animals, plants, etc.... It makes sense that tourists arriving directly from China should be checked. What they might bring has been shown in TV reports... unbelievable!!!

After landing, we went through various checkpoints. At the passport control kiosks, I wasn’t let through and had to go to the assistance counter. Okay...?? I did what I was told; I am German... :-I)

The officer was friendly and checked my appearance against the information in my passport and wished me a pleasant stay.

Next, we had to submit the form from the plane. Here we had to make various statements or checkboxes about where we came from, where we want to go, how long, and why we are in Australia. And whether we had been in nature. This information is often combined with statements that don’t necessarily have to be true, so only partially... You must check either yes or no. There is no such thing as a yes, but... However, false statements can also result in a penalty fee.

Since we had been in nature, for example, I couldn't check the answer to whether I had worked on a farm. I couldn’t check no because that would have been wrong as I had worn shoes that had come into contact with the ground. Thorsten had checked