Couple reunited with bulldogs after spending three years and $65,000 trying to get them into NZ

Daniel Kuntz (left) holding Bull, and Eugene Marshall with Lulu.

After three and a half years and forking out $65,000, a pair of school teachers have finally been reunited with their beloved French bulldogs after trying to relocate their pets to New Zealand from Indonesia.

Now living in Perth, Canadian Daniel Kuntz, 33, and his Australian fiance Eugene Marshall, 34, are ecstatic that the fight to reunite their family is finally over.

“To wake up in the morning and realise that we have our Frenchies home with us is a wonderful feeling,” says Kuntz.

The couple appeared in the Herald on Sunday in August last year to express their frustration with the long and strenuous process of bringing their pets to New Zealand.

The case was described by an international pet transfer agency as the most complicated they’d seen.

The couple has spent three years and $65,000 trying to get their two dogs imported to NZ from Bali. Photo / Alex Burton

The saga began in 2019 when the couple, who met in 2017, decided to relocate to Auckland from Bali to start a new life together, and they also felt that New Zealand was the best country in which to raise Lulu and Bull. Before they met, Kuntz received Lulu, now six, as a birthday gift, and adopted Bull, seven, a month later.

But what would have normally been a six-month and $30,000 process has taken them more than three years and escalating costs of $65,000, which they funded through a mix of their own financial contribution and reaching out to friends, family and starting a crowdfunding page on Givealittle for additional donations.

“We have been grateful for everyone’s donations and support as we navigated these unpredictable times,” Kuntz says.

Indonesia is not an approved country for cat and dog exports to New Zealand, so Lulu and Bull were flown to Malaysia, where they were required to stay for six months to be prepared for import. But when the pandemic hit, it sparked a string of events that became major roadblocks.

One of the beloved dogs.

The dogs are snub-nosed, and they are at risk of dying during long-haul flights. Qantas is the only airline that will accept the breed, but it does not fly direct from Malaysia or Singapore to New Zealand, so the dogs had to fly and transit in Australia. But all flights ceased during the pandemic.

By the time the dogs were flown to Melbourne in September 2022, Kuntz and Marshall decided to relocate to Perth, Marshall’s hometown, after teaching in Auckland for three years. A major reason for the couple to relocate was to save money for the extra costs to transit the dogs across the ditch.

After staying in two kennel homes and having three foster families while transiting in four countries, Bull and Lulu were finally reunited with their owners on April 11. They drove 3420 kilometres from Melbourne to Perth to bring their beloved pets home.

“My biggest anxiety was that they wouldn’t remember who we were. But as soon as they saw us walking through the door, they were very excited and ran straight to us,” Marshall says.

The couple was forced to postpone their wedding because of the escalating costs of trying to reunite with their dogs. Now that they are all together, the couple plan to walk down the aisle in January 2025.

Kuntz says: “We would love Lulu and Bull to be part of our service – our ring bearers.”