Kiwis risk high seas to get back home

Kiwis stuck overseas are risking the high seas in order to get through New Zealand’s iron-clad borders.

These include seven strangers – only one with open sea mariner qualifications – who took a motorised catamaran from Australia to New Zealand. However, the group hit bad weather and one passenger was left with a broken rib.

Joseph Davidson, who was onboard, said they were not alone. Another left Australia and arrived at Opua in Bay of Islands after them, and he was aware of others doing or planning similar trips.

The idea was to take at least 14 days in international waters, effectively meaning their managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) was served on the ship.

It comes as a group of New Zealanders, known as Grounded Kiwis, in the country and abroad launch a legal challenge about the legality of the design and operation of the New Zealand MIQ system.

The most-feasible way for New Zealanders to get home is by trying their luck in Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment’s (MBIE) virtual lobbies, in which people log in around the world to try for an MIQ spot.

There have so far been five of these lobbies and each time thousands more logged on than there were rooms available and MBIE would not confirm when another virtual lobby would come. MIQ joint head Megan Main said there would be ‘‘still several thousand rooms to be released through to the end of January’’.

Davidson said he had tried and failed in each virtual lobby so, after 10 months stuck in Australia, saw a Facebook group arranging to sail back and joined up. ‘‘I was the only qualified seafarer on the vessel,’’ he said.

The seven met for the first time on the catamaran. While the captain had sailing experience, he did not have any notable experience on a motorised boat, such as the one they crossed on.