'Sorry Sir, we'll have to remove you from this flight...'

Don't worry, I never actually got on the flight before being removed from it...

It was about 10am, an hour before our flight from Sydney to NZ was due to take off, and we were next in line to check in to the flight. After looking at all our documents and scanning our passports the woman on the check-in desk muttered 'I think we have a problem, your Australian visa has expired'. At first I laughed before I realised she was being serious! I entered Australia on the 23rd October 2006, which means my visa runs out on the 22nd October 2007, she was reading the date that I applied for the visa (late September) as when the visa actually expired. I tried to explain this to her but she didn't have a clue and it took someone to go and check with immigration to sort that one out.

Unfortunately immigration mentioned to her that my visa wouldn't be valid form when I returned. I knew this and the company I booked my flight with assured me that I could leave the country and apply for another Oz visa before I returned in November....they were wrong!! Because I wouldn't technicaly be able to use my return ticket until I got my visa (which although 99% likely that I'd get one, is not gauranteed) the NZ immigration probably wouldn't let me in and therefore they wouldn't let me leave the country on this ticket!!

After calling STA and having some rather loud conversations with the airline head rep, I was removed from the flight and it took off without me!

As I mentioned before, STA ensured me that this wouldn't be a problem. So, after some rather strong words down the phone, my tickets were changed (I'll explain how later) and I was booked on a rather expensive flight a couple of hours later.

So, I finally arrived in NZ, its been amazing so far, will write and post pictures later :)