Visitor Visa – New Zealand

Exact two years ago I started my journey back in Berlin. Since then I travelled across three continents, and met numerous awesome people along my way. I can’t exactly count how long it was, but it was definitely several ten-thousands of kilometre (or if you prefer several deca-millionmetres 🤣). The most distant point from my start in Berlin was during the coastal hike in the Royal National Park with a great circle distance on the WGS84 ellipsoid of 16,106 km (which is the shortest possible distance between two points on an ellipsoid). It was neither the southernmost point, which was at Cape du Couedic on Kangaroo Island, nor the easternmost point, which was in Byron Bay. I was supposed to continue my journey further to the East, and applied for a “Visa Visitor – General” for New Zealand, which costs me more than 200 $. The NZ immigration took about 6 weeks until they granted it. But then they imposed an entry restriction on it, saying that I’ve to enter New Zealand within 4 weeks after the visa was granted. That’s quite arbitrary, because you can’t plan anyhow in advance. I was in the middle of Queensland within this time, and tried to relax this restriction, as I definitely couldn’t meet that restriction. But that would have been even more complex and more expensive than applying for a new visa, so I skipped that process for good. In the meantime the World changed completely anyway. It seems that all borders are closed for non-residents, in almost all countries in the world. This renders me in a pretty uncomfortable positions, as I was in a constant move in the last two years. Now I’m feeling like more than 30 years back, when we had another border measure back in Germany, just that this prison where I’m now is a bit larger. Politicians in Australia and New Zealand put very strict measures in place. The good thing about that is, that we’ve as much as infections and dead people in Australia like Berlin, but with a 7 times higher population. The drawback is, nobody will get immune against that virus. But what does it mean, if it will be achieved to extinct the virus locally, because Australia and New Zealand have no land borders? In essence, it will result in an indefinite border closure, or at least a forced quarantine for all new arrrivals. We’re all going to die, no matter what we do, I’m fine. Anyway, nobody knows what these guys in power will decide. Hence, I don’t know how, when or if at all I can proceed. I always had the subconscious feeling, that something will stop me…and often thought what it could be, but I never thought about something like that. In the end I’m definitely happy to have started my journey two years ago, as now and in the near future it would be impossible. I don’t know if this is already the end, or just the beginning of a long break. The whole thing reminded me to the cousin of my grandmother. He started his trip around the world after WWII and ended up in Spain after he run out of money. So nobody knows what the future will bring. Nevertheless, thank you very much to all the loyal followers. I had constant visitors of my blog during the last two years! Stay safe and enjoy your life.