Bazball - an approach masterminded by a New Zealander. English cricket is awash with foreign talent.
Right on!
Yup. Moving to CA from the Midwest we were questioned whether we had been on a working farm in the last 30 days, had encountered any livestock or other commercial animals, whether we had any used farm or agricultural equipment.
The restrictions in New Zealand are super SUPER serious. Lots of signs as you’re waiting in customs above waste bins: DISPOSE OF ALL FRESH FRUIT AND VEG or it’s a several THOUSAND dollar fine. And they mean it. Throw the apple away, because 20 ft past that sign, when the customs guy finds it, you will have bought a very expensive apple indeed. And you won’t even get to eat it.
I had a sniffer dog mark my bag. Fortunately, he had just smelled my homemade brownies I’d brought as airplane snacks. I also made it a point to check that I could bring loose leaf tea in without worry.
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As for Yorkshire cheese, I 've enjoyed Yorkshire Blue, on several occasions in restaurants both in Yorkshire and on this side of the Pennines. As you’ve been researching online, you’ve probably come across several Wensleydales. I particularly like Whin Yeats, although it’s made in Cumbria, so maybe outside the your scope.
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. I could have taken cheese to the UK in good conscience – had I simply bothered NOT to read the regulations.
Flying to Leeds from Boston via Dublin does not involve passing any obvious customs checkpoint, or declaring anything (Oscar Wilde – that would have stymied you). You show your passport in Dublin and are legally out of the USA. But your bags are checked through, so no customs check. At Leeds you pick up your bags at carousel-whatever along with domestic travelers and simply walk out. Yes, there’s a green line painted on the floor, but people seem to view that more as decoration, not as declaration that you carry no cheese.
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Thats this trip. Next time could be different.
The rules are there for thoroughly explained reasons, as we’ve discussed above.
Plant and animal diseases are real, and people smuggling things across borders have cost farmers and food companies immeasurable harm (and we can’t afford to put any more small producers out of business because rules are there for someone else.)
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I don’t disagree with anything you are saying. I’m merely pointing out that the UK does not seem to go out of its way to inform travelers (on my route anyway) of what they can’t bring in (apart from explosives and suchlike, which the TSA also balks at). Had I not happened to have read the rules on my own initiative I’d quite innocently have brought cheese in.
This business of Dublin being the checkpoint, despite your not having your luggage on you is curious. On the return journey we passed through both passport control (as we had done on the way in) and a customs checkpoint where they asked us if our bags contained animal products. We said “no”, honestly. But, had we said “yes” would they have hunted for our suitcases as they were being transferred from one flight to the next? Would we have had to miss our connection? There would have been no option to check the bags in Boston because we arrived at a domestic terminal.
There are at least 30 cheese mongers in and around Leeds.
For future use, which and where? My searches did not reveal much.
There really arent any borders that I recall that give you an explicit list.
Most border agencies, however, will simply relieve you of the offending items(s) and send you on your merry way.
The reality is that the rules are there for legitimate reasons, not just p*ss off travelers.
Do what you think you gotta do. But no complaining if you get told to leave it behind.
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