New Zealand resident takes 5000 dollar detour to fulfill World Cup dream
By ANISunday, June 13, 2010
AUCKLAND - A New Zealand resident spent 5000 dollars and took a 28,000 kilometre detour from Auckland Airport to fulfill his dream of watching England play USA in the World Cup opener on Saturday.
English-born Dave Barrett was scheduled to fly directly from Auckland Airport to Johannesburg, when officials told him that he would not be allowed into South Africa because his passport had no spare pages.
A new passport from the British High Commission in Wellington would have taken at least a month, by which time the tournament would be over.
As Barrett needed a new passport in a hurry, he decided to go direct to the UK’s main passport office in Peterborough, England.
“I thought about going to Hong Kong, but in the end I decided that the best thing to do was to cancel my original flight and go to London for a new passport,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Barrett, as saying.
After touching down in England, it took him only three hours at the passport office to get a new passport.
Barrett returned to Heathrow on the same day, and boarded a flight to Johannesburg.
“It was a long and expensive trip, yes. The new ticket cost me the equivalent of 5000 dollars, but I had no option,” he said. (ANI)
