Cruising Controversy in Kiwi Land.... German's in Stir

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The crew of a German yacht have been detained in the Bay of Islands after they broke New Zealand's Covid-19 border restrictions.

Their 16-metre vessel, Anita, arrived in Opua on Friday afternoon despite being declined permission to enter the country by the Ministry of Health.

The three crew, all German nationals, have been refused entry and Immigration New Zealand was arranging for them to be flown home on the next available flight.

"New Zealand's border restrictions are in place for a very good reason – to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect the health of New Zealand's population," said Peter Elms, Immigration NZ's national manager of border and visa operations.


 


"The action by these individuals to knowingly travel here without approval demonstrates a blatant disregard for New Zealand's border restrictions and will not be tolerated."

The Ministry of Health said the three crew had all returned negative Covid-19 tests and had been isolated on board their yacht for more than 14 days.

Elms said the crew had requested an exemption to the Covid-19 border restrictions but chose to travel before getting approval.

"The request for a border exception was refused and they chose to continue to sail to Opua regardless. None of the crew made any request for an immigration border exception for themselves."
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12368207

 
SASSAFRASS

SASSAFRASS

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All the retoric aside I would be interested in hearing the Germans side.  The how's and why that motivated them to do what they did.  There is a definite opinion among the couch surfers that may or may not coincide with people actively  Cruising, IE their boat is their only home.  BJ obviously has a strong opinion and is doing it.  As I said in the other thread it's complicated and the broad strokes are not always right.

 
F

Fah Kiew Tu

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SASSAFRASS said:
All the retoric aside I would be interested in hearing the Germans side.  The how's and why that motivated them to do what they did.  There is a definite opinion among the couch surfers that may or may not coincide with people actively  Cruising, IE their boat is their only home.  BJ obviously has a strong opinion and is doing it.  As I said in the other thread it's complicated and the broad strokes are not always right.
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And as I said in the other thread, Governments do NOT care. Cruisers are insignificant numerically, they don't vote, they have no political clout and the populace as a whole sees them as people out enjoying themselves while everyone else has to go to work and worry about their jobs, mortgage, rent et al.

Then some want to ignore a direct instruction and expect to be able to do so with impunity. Tough.

We all know the bullshit claims of emergency, gear problems etc that a lot of cruisers used to pull to get into the Galapagos. That sort of behaviour reflects on the entire fleet and when something like this happens, the reservoir of goodwill is about tapped out.

It doesn't matter *what* the people actively cruising think, quite frankly. They can think Australia & NZ are a pack of bastards. They can think we're all secretly fascists. They can think the places are run by shape-shifting lizard people. It doesn't matter because they don't matter in any political sense. They're mostly not Aus/NZ citizens, they don't have right of entry, they can't contact their political representatives & bitch, they simply do not count. What access they get is purely by grace & favour of the host countries.

You all need to get that firmly through your skulls.

FKT

 
SASSAFRASS

SASSAFRASS

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Yes you have made your views and point quite clearly, and I still would like to know what the Germans story is.  I'm on a boat in a foreign country dealing with a the global shit show that is covid 19.  You are on your couch in Taz. We do not have the same prospective, I am interested in their perspective.  You have made your point I hear you and am not arguing, no need to make it louder.

 
F

Fah Kiew Tu

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SASSAFRASS said:
Yes you have made your views and point quite clearly, and I still would like to know what the Germans story is.  I'm on a boat in a foreign country dealing with a the global shit show that is covid 19.  You are on your couch in Taz. We do not have the same prospective, I am interested in their perspective.  You have made your point I hear you and am not arguing, no need to make it louder.
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Actually today I'm on my boat in Tas, sitting in a quiet anchorage.

FKT

 
M

Miffy

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It is September. 
 

not March. Not April. Not May. Not June. 

With noonsite, various cruiser forums and nets and good old fashioned dock chat - no one is being caught or surprised in a situation or circumstance they didn’t put themselves in by failure to be flexible, failure to adapt and failure to take covid serious. 

 
SASSAFRASS

SASSAFRASS

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Fah Kiew Tu said:
Actually today I'm on my boat in Tas, sitting in a quiet anchorage.

FKT
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Good to hear, not trying to dis people who have houses and boats just wondering about the motivation  of the Germans in particular.  For perspective at cocktail hr last week we had a neighbor boat, US couple, try to tell us the whole thing was a conspiracy and they have only had 20,000 covid deaths in the US, unfortunately I had a few drinks and no filter in place and let them have it.  The point being the reality of where you are right now globally can be very different, it's easy to judge and perfect world scenarios don't always fit when you are worried about your family and it's safety, the bar moves alot.

 
F

Fah Kiew Tu

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SASSAFRASS said:
Good to hear, not trying to dis people who have houses and boats just wondering about the motivation  of the Germans in particular.  For perspective at cocktail hr last week we had a neighbor boat, US couple, try to tell us the whole thing was a conspiracy and they have only had 20,000 covid deaths in the US, unfortunately I had a few drinks and no filter in place and let them have it.  The point being the reality of where you are right now globally can be very different, it's easy to judge and perfect world scenarios don't always fit when you are worried about your family and it's safety, the bar moves alot.
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Yeah, I don't get it. How many people are living in their own unreality bubble?

Maybe they had to leave their last port because the authorities wouldn't extend their visas and kicked them out. Anything short of that and their departure was voluntary. Be interesting to know that.

We all understand the vagaries of cyclone time but as Miffy said, had 6 months to come up with a plan. Sitting and waiting in the islands then deciding to bail to NZ when it was out there that NZ wasn't granting entry isn't much of a plan IMO.

I'd like to know what they were thinking too. I'd also like anyone interviewing them to ask some hard & pointed questions.

I still think we could & should grant entry to a single port, quarantine the cruisers at their expense then let them fly home on the first available plane after securing their boat. But I'm sympathetic to the high desirability to leave the cyclone area.

FKT

 
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one other thing to keep in mind is the swarm of "refugee" boats that have hit Aus of late and rumor has it NZ is also soon to be a target so dont show surprise when these types are shutdown cold...... we almost call it self defense

 
M

Miffy

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Fah Kiew Tu said:
Yeah, I don't get it. How many people are living in their own unreality bubble?

Maybe they had to leave their last port because the authorities wouldn't extend their visas and kicked them out. Anything short of that and their departure was voluntary. Be interesting to know that.

We all understand the vagaries of cyclone time but as Miffy said, had 6 months to come up with a plan. Sitting and waiting in the islands then deciding to bail to NZ when it was out there that NZ wasn't granting entry isn't much of a plan IMO.

I'd like to know what they were thinking too. I'd also like anyone interviewing them to ask some hard & pointed questions.

I still think we could & should grant entry to a single port, quarantine the cruisers at their expense then let them fly home on the first available plane after securing their boat. But I'm sympathetic to the high desirability to leave the cyclone area.

FKT
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I’d be totally fine with that but it’ll have to be expensive. Like 50 per foot per day for 10 days quarantine for food and water at an anchorage and you get wheetabix and 1% milk. 
 

and if you try and step off the boat - you’re done. 

 
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Ishmael

Ishmael

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Miffy said:
I’d be totally fine with that but it’ll have to be expensive. Like 50 per foot per day for 10 days quarantine for food and water at an anchorage and you get wheetabix and 1% milk. 
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As long as there's strawberry jam I'm OK with that. I like Weetabix.

 
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