Scenic Flight Ends With Tourists Taken Right to Police

New Zealand requires arrivals to self-quarantine for 14 days
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 22, 2020 3:00 PM CDT
Scenic Flight Ends With Tourists Taken Right to Police
A scenic helicopter ride over Fox Glacier in New Zealand in winter.   (Getty/Christopher Heil)

A couple taking a scenic helicopter flight Thursday over New Zealand's Fox Glacier was routed to a new destination after mentioning to a guide that they'd arrived in the country Monday from Hong Kong. A second helicopter was dispatched to take the couple off the glacier, Stuff reports, and deliver them to police after employees realized the pair should have been in isolation. New Zealand requires new arrivals to self-quarantine for 14 days to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. The Hong Kong couple was told about the rule after landing in Christchurch and again when renting a camper van, the helicopter company's CEO said. "Yet they decided to basically flout the rules and go, 'bugger you' and carry on with their holiday," Rob Jewell said.

The couple's next flight is out of New Zealand. They put people at risk with their "unacceptable behavior," immigration officials decreed, per Sky News. Ten other people were on their helicopter flight, for one thing; the company has since conducted a thorough cleaning. Jewell won't be sorry to see the couple go. "I hope it sends the message to everyone else that you can't do this," he said. (More coronavirus stories.)

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