Mix-up over old passport turns island holiday sour

Nicole Barnett-Forster had two passports. Photo / Daily Post

The perfect wedding on a tropical island in Fiji turned into the holiday from hell over miscommunication about a passport for Rotorua's Barnett family.

Grandmother Deidre Barnett wants answers from New Zealand Customs about why the family were forced to remain in Fiji for an extra five days due to confusion over the passport of her 10-year-old granddaughter.

Nicole Barnett-Forster's passport was declared lost about a year ago and a new one was applied for.

However, the old one was found and inadvertently presented when the family left New Zealand for a family wedding on Treasure Island. There were no problems getting out of New Zealand, but they were then not allowed out of Fiji when Customs staff discovered the girl was travelling on an invalid passport.

During the five days in June it took to sort out the matter, two family members fell ill.

Mrs Barnett is calling for New Zealand's border control to be tightened up. She has tried to contact Customs to find answers, but has had no luck.

A spokesman for Customs told Rotorua's Daily Post it was up to travellers, not Customs staff, to ensure they had the correct documents.

Communications manager Rowan McArthur would not talk specifically about the Barnett case, but said Customs officers did not check if passports were valid.

"We sympathise and empathise with the family but they have to be responsible for ensuring they are travelling on a valid passport. It's not part of our function to check the validity of passports. Alerts of various kinds are raised, like people trying to leave with major debts or skipping out owing child support."

Mrs Barnett contacted the Daily Post after reading about Rotorua's Lisa Falwasser, who travelled to three countries while a warrant was out for her arrest. Mrs Barnett said border controls needed to be tightened.

"It's bizarre. I couldn't believe we were stopped in little old Fiji, yet we got out of New Zealand. How did this happen?

"We do have to take responsibility for the mistake we made, but we shouldn't have been allowed to travel [in the first place]. It would have been an inconvenience but we would have returned to Rotorua to pick up the correct passport if we had to. It wouldn't have cost us so much in the end."

Her family, including Nicole and her mother Amber and sister Kelsey, were forced to stay in Nadi for five days while an emergency passport was issued, at a cost of $410.

"It ruined everything. It was an added expense for us ... Both the girls got sick. Kelsey picked up some Fijian flu and Nicole ended up getting bitten by something and her eyes swelled up. It was a nightmare," Mrs Barnett said.

Now young Nicole has three passports - her old one, a new one issued last year and the emergency one issued by the New Zealand Embassy in Fiji.

Mrs Barnett said: "Maybe next time we will ask them to take their pick."

- DAILY POST