I popped over to the airport, International that is, to deal with AQIS in regards to my samples I had taken from New Caledonia. The first part is the $20.60 it cost me return from Redfern to the Airport thanks to privatised link from the city to the airport branches. It is a horrible amount of money to pay, especially when you don't get any special service at all and you still ride on the same crap-ass trains that run on the rest of the network, inclusive of the non-airconditioned carriages that are an absolute abomination in summer weather.
Once I got there, I didn't really know where the AQIS office was and so I asked nicely to the nice Aiport Help staff, who are dressed in these mustard yellow blazers at their mini-help desk. They were quite helpful and friendly and directed me to the corner of the terminal where the office was located.
The location of the office is just around the corner from the Pharmacist and QANTAS office in the Arrivals hall. First impressions of the AQIS office was that it is shockingly drab and dingey, like the rest of the customs area. Possibly designed that way to make you feel resigned to the wait and fate of examination by their officers.
I had my documents with me, and presented them to this fellow called Leigh. Old, starting to bald, white hair, that kind of thing. He took a very, very long time to flip through the three, yes, three, pages of documents (which one page was less than 1/4 printed on) before getting up to look for the package. I was told to sit and wait by the other officer because it might take a while, and it did. Once he located the package though, he brought it back, and then poked about with the paperwork for another eon before saying that he needed to get another book for another form.
~sigh~
Snails pace.
He came back with the booklet he needed with the different forms and began to fill it in when his shift replacement came along. I was then informed that they couldn't process my payment for the sample treatment unless it was cash, or I had a passport with me to pass through customs since they had no means of doing electronic funds in their offce..... How backwater it was.
So, I left to hit up an ATM for the money I needed (which was $60) before returning and making the payment. The guy got me to sign off on the paperwork, and disappeared with the cash. More waiting before he came back with a receipt for me.
I was told that it could take four to six weeks for the sample to be processed due to the demand at the treatment centres, and I should contact them if it was taking longer than that to find out what was going on. Man, that is a long wait. Just as well I don't need the samples urgently.
This took just on ninety minutes to get done to put things into perspective..... very slow.
So, that is all done at least, and once the samples get nuked with gamma rays, they will be mailed to the university addressed to me. Hopefully.
Once I got there, I didn't really know where the AQIS office was and so I asked nicely to the nice Aiport Help staff, who are dressed in these mustard yellow blazers at their mini-help desk. They were quite helpful and friendly and directed me to the corner of the terminal where the office was located.
The location of the office is just around the corner from the Pharmacist and QANTAS office in the Arrivals hall. First impressions of the AQIS office was that it is shockingly drab and dingey, like the rest of the customs area. Possibly designed that way to make you feel resigned to the wait and fate of examination by their officers.
I had my documents with me, and presented them to this fellow called Leigh. Old, starting to bald, white hair, that kind of thing. He took a very, very long time to flip through the three, yes, three, pages of documents (which one page was less than 1/4 printed on) before getting up to look for the package. I was told to sit and wait by the other officer because it might take a while, and it did. Once he located the package though, he brought it back, and then poked about with the paperwork for another eon before saying that he needed to get another book for another form.
~sigh~
Snails pace.
He came back with the booklet he needed with the different forms and began to fill it in when his shift replacement came along. I was then informed that they couldn't process my payment for the sample treatment unless it was cash, or I had a passport with me to pass through customs since they had no means of doing electronic funds in their offce..... How backwater it was.
So, I left to hit up an ATM for the money I needed (which was $60) before returning and making the payment. The guy got me to sign off on the paperwork, and disappeared with the cash. More waiting before he came back with a receipt for me.
I was told that it could take four to six weeks for the sample to be processed due to the demand at the treatment centres, and I should contact them if it was taking longer than that to find out what was going on. Man, that is a long wait. Just as well I don't need the samples urgently.
This took just on ninety minutes to get done to put things into perspective..... very slow.
So, that is all done at least, and once the samples get nuked with gamma rays, they will be mailed to the university addressed to me. Hopefully.
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