We once took a ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania, and landed in hot water because our 4x4 tyres had caked mud on them….we were sent to the bio-cleaning area after we arrived, to rinse off our tyres and underside of the car. Oops. Vey strict.
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@DieFledermaus how wrong you are! That’s like saying Canada an the USA are really the same country. But at least we get on with and like our Kiwi cousins.
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When are you coming to NZ? Have you planned what area you’d like to focus on?
I can’t promise our weather will be the best, issues w the cook strait ferries resolved, Air NZ cabin crew possibly striking or our never ending road works encourage using mamy swear words..
Happy to help 
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Hi @Huw1 I’m from the UK and hubby is German. We’re in Australia right now housesitting. Arrived in Perth in November on UK/German passports and passed through the eGates without speaking to anyone. At customs we declared our imported coffee etc- packed altogether in one hand luggage- but they did not even want to open our bag to check! All very easy. Our hosts collected us from the airport- so no hotel booking- but if we’d been asked we would have said we’re visiting friends. & we’d prepped our hosts to say the same.
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@Lokstar happy THS anniversary 
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Wow! They are really strict aren’t they? Thanks for your input.
Hi. Thank you so much for your offer of help. That’s very kind of you. We’re going to stay on the North Island. We visited the South Island 10 years ago. We have some friends to stay with and we hope to get to The Bay of Islands. Fairly loose atm! Thank you!
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Many thanks for your reply! That’s really helpful too. That’s the best approach I’m learning. Appreciate your input.
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Just a thought from a Kiwi….. Make sure you have an authentic address for your “friends” and if asked, just say you are here to stay with old friends. I’m here at the moment - 29degs today and humid with rain forecast. I’m in Auckland and make sure you enjoy your trip - hit some of the beaches in the far north (Whangarei and further north) never crowded and beautiful!
The little winky face obviously wasn’t enough to flag up the not terribly good joke. Apologies for any confusion.
Thank you very much for your input. That’s really good advice. We’d love to get up to the far north. Sounds spectacular.