After landing in Auckland, we were both surprised by the friendliness of both Immigration and Customs staff, very stark contrast with most border crossings in South America. It definitely gave us a good feeling to being back in New Zealand. We had declared some of our stuff (camping gear, hiking boots) as being a ‘bio security treat’ so they got temporarily taken from us for cleaning. When the official came back he asked where we had been as there was quite a lot of manure under Julia’s hiking boots, that he had needed to clean up. We of course thanked him very much for the sparkling boots!

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