michanna

Alright, so the story as it unfolds.

On Saturday my bag was stolen including all my ID and my passport. I reported it to the police, got my cards cancelled, got new cards to head in the direction of New Zealand, got my insurance started on a claim for the documents and missing items, sent e-mails to the ministry of transportation and the ministry of health about my other missing cards, got my passport cancelled and called the embassy in New Zealand. They told me I’d have to call the Wellington embassy, which isn’t open on the weekend.

On Monday, I called the Wellington embassy. They can issue me a new passport in 3 weeks or they can issue me a temporary passport but only if I show up in person. The people at work are very supportive.

After looking into my options, I took the night bus from Auckland to Wellington and book a flight back for Tuesday night. (I have no idea if my insurance will cover that). I arrived this morning and headed straight to the embassy. They made me run a bunch of errands: getting a court justice to sign the documents, getting photos taken, finding contact information for at least 4 contacts and letting the consulate collect $250 for passing go. This will get me a temporary passport and, in three weeks, a 2-year passport (it would be 5, but we can’t find my birth certificate). Finally I have everything sorted; I’m going to get them to send it to me at the post office in Dunedin when it arrives, I should get it right before I have to leave on Sunday.

Just to check, I head over to the Taiwan embassy. There they tell me that I can’t get into their country without a visa unless I have an official passport, which means not a temporary one. I can get a visa, but not until after the temporary passport is issued. It takes 2 days to get a visa. This means that if I get my temporary passport and $150 to them first thing in the morning on Thursday, they might be able to get me a visitors visa for Taiwan. The girl is really nice and supportive, unlike her counterpart at the Canadian embassy, but it doesn’t change the facts.

Now I’m bawling in earnest. I can’t figure out if I should give up and try to salvage my plans to go to Dunedin or if I should stay in Wellington to personally shuttle my temporary passport from one building to the other in the desperate hope that things might come through so I can fly to Taiwan on Monday. This is compounded by the fact that I only brought a day pack with me to Wellington as I was only supposed to be gone for 24 hours or so.

My parents and friends helped talk me into the staying (because what more do I have to lose?) so here I am, in Wellington, where thank god I have a friend to crash with for a couple days. If everything comes through, I’ll head to Christchurch for Monday morning. If not, I’ll head back to Auckland next week and beg for my job back.

At least now most of the hard decisions are out of my hands. It either works out and I book passage to Christchurch or it doesn’t and I go to Auckland.

Even if it works out, I’ll be down 1 flight from Wellington to Auckland, 1 flight from Auckland to Christchurch, 1 bus from Christchurch to Dunedin, 1 flight from Dunedin to Christchurch, $250 for the passports, $135 for the Taiwan visa, $60 for the bus here, however much it costs Joan to send me my stuff from Auckland to Wellington plus whatever it will cost me to replace my other documents and all because some stupid idiots decided to run off with my bag that contained nothing of any value to them. I’m also still not sure what I owe for the damage to the car.

Dad chastized me in my previous post about my language, and he’s right, but I do not have a synonym quite strong enough for my current condition. I have not stopped shaking since Saturday. I can barely keep down food. I finally reached the point of crying this afternoon having not had time before then. I am tired both because I can’t sleep and because I can’t stop stressing about all the plans I need to change and cancel and who I need to talk to. I feel like I do before going to write a big exam compounded by feeling like I do when I’ve done something horribly wrong and I’ve felt that way for 3 days. if someone wants to come up with an appropriate synonym, be my guest.

Originally published at Teri's NZ Adventures.
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