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Comment by vacri | Hacker News Reader

I'd take my chances with the abuses of NZ customs officials than just about anywhere else in the world. One story does not a broken system make.

This is the same country that told the US to fuck off with their nuclear-powered ships and when levered through treaties to send personnel to warzones, sends medical staff rather than troops. It's not some backwards little-Stalin state.

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I suppose if I'm not an NZ national (US citizen) they would only pause for 5 seconds (as opposed to none) before similarly making away with my gear? Or would they be more inclined to do that to an American as a more kingly than the king type deal?

(I was planning on going there for Easter)

This guy was unfortunate in tripping some sort of alarm for them. I've travel NZ<->US approx twice a year for going on 15 years now and have never so much as been stopped. I always ask for the frisk and grab rather than the microwave scanners (I'm thinking about the TSA folks who have to work there) and have been to many 'hacker' conventions while in the US and never triggered anything. I guess I fit a profile as a 'known'... rather than unknown. Maybe someone the guy spoke to at this conference is someone they genuinely want to know everything about. This doesn't make it OK but it's quite likely some specific thing that set it off for them

All of which to say you'll probably be fine and I don't imagine being a US vs NZ national will make any difference as to whether you get the stazi treatment or the wave through.

Also FWIW I'm usually a more worried about missing my flights due to unnecessary searches on the TSA side of things (combining a special breed of stupid with a dangerous type of wilful paranoia) than on the NZ side (more of your basic 'just following orders guvn'r' type of stupidity)

Just be careful about biological material (NZ has very strict airport biosecurity) and you'll be fine. I'm a New Zealander and this is the first time I've heard of something like this happening at the border.

Sorry, accidentally down voted you. Yes they are very fussy, shoes need to be clean, no plant material etc.

I cancelled out your downvote, so your guilty conscience can rest easy. :-)

I remember when we visited the Philippines, a friend gave us about 20 jars of a local delicacy to take back home to New Zealand. Which was very kind, except New Zealand's biosecurity laws meant that we had to throw most of them away at the border. (We could keep the few that were sealed properly.)

Yeah, I remember seeing a comedy skit about a guy carrying cocaine into New Zealand, freaking out when a sniffer dog singled out his baggage ... and then having to pay a fine for the apple core he left inside it ;)

First time I came here, I was so out of it (through being tired) by the time I got to Auckland that when the dog came up and started wagging at my bag I found myself bending down to pet it before thinking "What's this dog doing in an airport?..." Response "Er, that's a drug dog mate, any idea why he's so interested in your bag?" Can't remember exactly what I said then; I guess having had a dopehead flatmate a short while previously probably had something to do with it, and I think I mentioned that.

>It's not some backwards little-Stalin state.

What do "backwards little-Stalin state[s]" have to do with it? Is it just habit to think of the ex-Eastern Bloc when you think of totalitarian surveillance, or do you think of the US and the UK as backwards little-Stalin states?

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