03-08-2020, 18:40
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: home town Wellington, NZ and Savusavu Fiji
Boat: Reinke S10 & Raven 26
Posts: 1,467
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Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
As many of you will know, New Zealand attracts hundreds of cruisers each year during the Southern Hemisphere Hurricane Season. So hundreds that arrived last Nov/Dec didn't leave again in May/June as would be expected given that virtually every Island nation had closed borders.
And with the next Hurricane Season approaching many are reluctant to leave. Yet their visitor visas for NZ are running out. The NZ Govt has so far resisted the pleas to extend visas and make a special case for cruising yachts.
There's also the problem of the many hundreds of cruisers that have been stuck all over the South Pacific and want to find safe haven in NZ before the next Hurricane Season starts in December, but New Zealand's borders are firmly shut to non NZ citizens and residents.
Here's a recent article that discusses the issue many of you will find interesting.
In my own view it's very unlikely NZ will open the border to cruisers. Two problems.
1. The vast majority of the population are terrified of Covid and any suggestion here in NZ of opening the borders brings a tirade of abuse. 'Team NZ' gave up much (and continues to do so) to keep the disease out.
2. NZ is about to hold a general election. Neither of the two main parties will be campaigning to 'open' the border even a crack. It would be election suicide.
I think thought that the NZ Govt will extend visas for those already in the country on humanitarian grounds. As well as sailors, there are thousands of back packers, ordinary travelers and seasonal workers stuck here, in the same boat as it were.
__________________
Grant Mc
The cure for everything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. Yeah right, I wish.
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03-08-2020, 18:46
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 871
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
But I heard cruisers say it's too cold there, it's boring because there is nothing to do and they just need to get out of there. /s
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03-08-2020, 19:07
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: Depends on the month
Boat: 32’ Sloop
Posts: 264
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
“Yachties”
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03-08-2020, 21:29
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#4
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Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: aboard, in Tasmania, Australia
Boat: Sayer 46' Solent rig sloop
Posts: 29,847
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Thanks for the article, grantmc.
It is persuasively written, and I'd think the yachties are probably Covid-19 free, this time.
NZ does have the "extremely welcoming" reputation, too. It will be interesting to watch and see if their government sustains the public health perspective, given the tendency for cruisers to march to the beat of their own drums, and that their ideas of ethical behavior vary so much.
It is really taking a lot on faith to say you can guarantee they'll self quarantine safely in Opua, a land of beautiful sailing/cruising, and adequate provisioning.
Ann
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Who scorns the calm has forgotten the storm.
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03-08-2020, 22:02
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#5
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2008
Location: cruising SW Pacific
Boat: Jon Sayer 1-off 46 ft fract rig sloop strip plank in W Red Cedar
Posts: 21,523
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Quote:
Originally Posted by IslandInfedel
“Yachties”
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II, what is the point that you are trying to make here?
Jim
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Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II, lying Port Cygnet Tasmania once again.
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03-08-2020, 22:06
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: New Zealand
Boat: 50’ Bavaria
Posts: 1,816
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Everyone had their visas extended automatically to the middle of September. But there are repatriation flights going on all the time and normal international flights too. Everyone has had plenty of time to organise their boats and flights home before visas expire.
Or is it being suggested that the whole idea of having a short term visa for a specific country is no longer valid? Many sailors have gone to great lengths to secure their boats and return to Europe from the Caribbean, or even sailed there directly. What makes the sailors in new Zealand a special case?
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04-08-2020, 01:07
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Boat: Island Packet 40
Posts: 6,501
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Yep, happy to have you and your dollars every cyclone (hurricane) season whilst the good times roll, one little monster under the bed and it's bugger off mate.
If little Fiji can figure out how to handle the peripatetic yachty population surely NZ can manage it.
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04-08-2020, 02:33
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Somewhere in the Pacific
Boat: Kristen 52
Posts: 304
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tillsbury
Everyone had their visas extended automatically to the middle of September. But there are repatriation flights going on all the time and normal international flights too. Everyone has had plenty of time to organise their boats and flights home before visas expire.
Or is it being suggested that the whole idea of having a short term visa for a specific country is no longer valid? Many sailors have gone to great lengths to secure their boats and return to Europe from the Caribbean, or even sailed there directly. What makes the sailors in new Zealand a special case?
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For many of us here in NZ, our boat is our only home.
No other home to go to.
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04-08-2020, 02:59
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#9
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2008
Location: cruising SW Pacific
Boat: Jon Sayer 1-off 46 ft fract rig sloop strip plank in W Red Cedar
Posts: 21,523
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom45
For many of us here in NZ, our boat is our only home.
No other home to go to.
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And then there is the issue that if you leave, when, if ever, will you be allowed to return to your boat/home/major asset?
I'm not so sure that "repatriation" is such a good deal for a long term cruiser,not at all!
Jim
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Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II, lying Port Cygnet Tasmania once again.
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04-08-2020, 03:54
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: SE Asia, for now
Boat: Outremer 55L
Posts: 4,139
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Most countries have strict limits on visitor’s visas, just like NZ. Extensions have already been offered to trapped visitors, with the expectation that they will leave NZ for their home countries as soon as flights are available. Which they now are for most of the world.
Further extending the visitor visas of cruisers, backpackers, and other visitors to NZ is not politically palatable right now for a public that is getting weary of the vast sums being spent for the quarantine costs of returning citizens and residents and worried about paying benefits to indigent, long-staying visitors.
Governments, and the public, are not very good at distinguishing between different types of visitors and understanding that most cruisers are financially self sufficient. And that many cruisers have no home country to go back to. Cruisers are seen as privileged (rightly so really, but why hold it against them?).
Also, there’s an election coming soon, and the incumbent government has done a great job scaring the bejeesus out of many people. There’s no political appetite for opening the border regardless of the real risk level for infection from cruisers.
Sadly, nothing will likely change prior to the election. Cruisers stuck in NZ with their boats, stuck in another country away from their boats, and out in the South Pacific on their boats all have my deepest sympathies and I truly hope a reasonable solution will be put in place before cyclone season.
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04-08-2020, 04:59
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Back in the boat in Patagonia
Boat: Westerly Sealord
Posts: 8,390
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Meanwhile... back in 'straya NSW farmers are crying out for seasonal fruit pickers to come up from Vic to pick citrus..
'Strayan graziers need kiwi shearers to shear their sheep.. and bugger the broad combs https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-count...ectid=12268274
And NZ needs seasonal workers as well....for whatever it is they pick there..
Meanwhile the marine industries in Auckland and north? Their pips will be squeaking if the boats don't come down from the islands this year....
***Indiginent**** sailors and seasonal workers? Oh please save me from such non sense
Unzud needs them....
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04-08-2020, 05:45
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#12
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Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Between Caribbean and Canada
Boat: Murray 33-Chouette & Pape Steelmaid-44-Safara-both steel cutters
Posts: 8,876
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Similar issues in Carib but a wider variety of answers.
Makes cruising damn hard when you can’t count on a open port.
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04-08-2020, 05:53
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: On the boat
Boat: LAGOON 400
Posts: 2,374
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
zatara guys forward looking
Fiji seem to have enough bays to hide. With weather forecast that good cyclone or 2 should not be such an issue...
Alternative, move north of 5 parallel. Sure there must be something open.
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04-08-2020, 10:55
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Now in Progresso, Mexico
Boat: Hans Christian 41 T
Posts: 154
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Cate
And then there is the issue that if you leave, when, if ever, will you be allowed to return to your boat/home/major asset?
I'm not so sure that "repatriation" is such a good deal for a long term cruiser,not at all!
Jim
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I agree; I left my boat in Elizabeth Harbor, Exuma in February for family matters, and have not been able to return. Every time I think that I have the stars aligned, something prevents me from entering.
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Timing is everything
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04-08-2020, 11:16
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: PNW 48.59'45N 122.45'50W
Boat: Ian Ross design ketch 63'
Posts: 1,472
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Re: Yachties Stuck In New Zealand - Facing Expulsion
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Cate
II, what is the point that you are trying to make here?
Jim
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Exactly. Thanks Jim
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