Customs officers surround a luggage carousel as the first morning flight of Christchurch-bound passengers arrives from Singapore.
Some officers are on the move while others stand and observe, in a scene similar to the TV show Border Patrol.
We’ve been led through a series of security doors to get a bird’s-eye view of the 100 or so staff who protect the South Island city’s borders.
And while staff are on a first-name basis with partnering agencies at the airport such as police and the Ministry for Primary Industries, most don’t want to share their full names with us.
It’s understandable; they take their jobs seriously and have genuine concerns for their privacy, given the nature of their work.
We observe officers not only stopping, questioning and talking to travellers, but also being stopped by travellers with a multitude of questions.
Supervising officer Karyn is the first to greet us.
She is wary of us at first but soon opens up, saying she has had two stints in the service.
She says the risk posed by passengers selected for further assessment is again narrowed down by officers who ask the passengers a series of questions, resulting in a smaller number being referred for a luggage search.
Physical risk assessment of a passenger on arrival can involve questioning by a Customs officer, use of detector dogs, an X-ray and searches.
In the 2024/25 year, 6.8 million international travellers arrived in New Zealand.
Of this, 132,943 (approximately 2%) were selected for further risk assessment.
Following a further risk assessment process, 10,662 travellers were actually subjected to baggage searches.
Karyn joined Customs straight out of school in Christchurch in 1978, before taking a break to have children in 1987 and returning in 2003.
She jokes that she was too short to join the police.
She puts aside the perception of Customs made popular by reality television shows.
“There is a whole lot of work aside from inspections.
“There are other areas, investigations, intelligence, trade, service and delivery, all these things have to be cleared.”
Karyn says there’s a stack of administration to support that as everything has to be accounted for.
The administrative aspect is reflected in the service’s recently released national 2024/25 annual report.
It’s a massive operation with $285 million in funding through the Crown, border-processing levies and goods fees.
There is also a stack of revenue, with $17.8 billion collected on behalf of the Crown.
Most of the operating expenditure is for risk assessment, clearing and processing passengers and goods as they cross the border, and the collection of Crown tax revenue.
It is quantified by the 9.3 tonnes of illicit drugs that is prevented from reaching communities through seizures at our border and by overseas partners.
Also included are 31.8 million import transactions and four million export transactions, with 98.1% of goods risk assessed and cleared within five minutes.
Just over 8% of risk-based baggage searches of passengers and crew resulted in the identification of prohibited or restricted items, or items requiring duty payments.
Customs processed 13.4 million arriving and departing passengers.
There is also the interception of nine tonnes of illicit tobacco, representing $17.7m in foregone revenue.
And the response to 973 reports of cross-border online child exploitation offending, resulting in 18 arrests.
Karyn says it’s the variety of work and people who make the difference.
Alongside her colleagues, she says there are several thousand others working at Christchurch Airport.
The airport operation has 60 staff with a total of 120 employed across the city, she says.
It’s an enforcement agency, and with that comes rank.
Karyn says it takes years to move through the ranks and staff shift between departments.
Staff are mindful that discretion is a key part of the job, she says.
A lot of the intel work is led by overseas liaison officers in cities including London, Bangkok and Beijing.
“Quite often, a lot of it is stopped before it comes here.”
The annual report says transnational, serious and organised crime groups pose a significant threat through escalating attempts to smuggle large amounts of illicit drugs, weapons, and other prohibited goods.
In North America alone, $1182.9m in potential harm to New Zealand was avoided by overseas illicit drug interceptions.
The report says New Zealand’s high prices and demand for drugs, particularly methamphetamine and cocaine, make us an attractive target for the groups.
Notable seizures during the year included 150kg of cocaine in duffel bags in a container on a ship arriving from Jamaica. There was also 130kg of cocaine found packed in duffel bags in a shipping container from Italy, via Panama, that was loaded with machinery. Then there was 100kg of methamphetamine found in suitcases inside a container of fertiliser from Peru.
The largest seizure of the year was 450kg of methamphetamine hidden inside steel beams imported from the United States in September 2024.
The report says New Zealand has seen a sustained escalation in the volume of illicit drugs seized at the border in recent years.
Wastewater testing by PHF Science and reporting by the National Drug Intelligence Bureau indicated a considerable growth in methamphetamine use in the community between July and October 2024, with this being largely sustained throughout 2024/25.
It also shows there has been a rise in the use of cocaine.
Increased production of cocaine in South America has led to a surplus supply and attempts to increase trade with new and existing markets.
The report says organised crime groups are targeting New Zealand’s supply chains to transport their products.
“They insert people in key roles at ports and airports, or compromise people already in those roles, who can bypass security measures and divert goods before they reach Customs screening areas.”
In late November, police laid nearly 200 criminal charges against gang associates, who were allegedly facilitators in a criminal syndicate smuggling illicit drugs aboard international flights.
Twenty search warrants were carried out across the Auckland region by the National Organised Crime Group and Customs, with eight associates from the Brotherhood 28 MC arrested.
Among those arrested was the gang’s president.
Additional data given to NZME show Customs seized about two tonnes of methamphetamine and 700kg of cocaine between January and October in 2025.
Offshore partners also seized approximately one tonne of methamphetamine and 300kg of cocaine that was destined for our shores in the same time period.
“We are trying to identify the high risk,” Karyn says.
The pressure is on with the looming summer season, she says.
“Summer is going to be busier; people need to be aware that they are not the only ones travelling.”
For Christchurch Airport, that means increased numbers to and from Asia, Australia and Antarctica.
There can be charter flights, delegations and even bands arriving with tonnes of gear.
“All that stuff has to be cleared,” Karyn says.
“You might get charters with seasonal workers; it takes time to process them.”
With travellers, officers question a lot, make risk assessments, look at their luggage, travel history and who they might be travelling with, she says.
“Until you talk to people, you don’t know, we have ongoing training in questioning people.”
We meet Rob, who is a technical specialist in detector dog training.
He says the dogs, all labradors, are home-kennelled.
They work and live alongside officers.
There are five dog handlers in the South Island who are deployed on a risk-based system.
“We look at the latest seizures, how it is being found, we are looking at the opportunities.
“We move around; the airport is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Rob, also a long-time staffer, says people find out very quickly if the job is for them.
There is shift work and officers have to prove themselves as they rise through the ranks.
“You have to pass requirements to get your stripes.”
Long-serving officer Neville Brown enters the conversation.
He joined the Christchurch operation in 1975 when Customs was based out of the Old Government Building in Cathedral Square.
“There was no team at the airport, there weren’t as many flights; the guys would jump in a van and go to the airport when a plane was arriving.”
Brown says he started out looking at shipping documents and talking to licensed importers.
He was involved with sales tax and again talking to people, mainly jewellers in towns across the South Island.
He moved into investigations, looking at fraud and tax evasion.
He was based out of Lyttelton for a while where he rummaged ships.
From there, he went to work at the airport, where he recalls catching one of the Mr Asia operatives.
Brown says the man had a bank deposit slip made out to a person of interest in the syndicate.
A body search revealed a hidden package of heroin.
“There’s no heroin anymore, it’s now meth and cocaine by the kilos.”
At 70, he has no immediate plans to retire.
“There’s a variety, investigations, inspections and patrols.”
Emma, the chief officer from the Lyttelton team, arrives to give us a ride to see the port operations.
She says they look at “anything and everything”.
The Christchurch port team also looks after Timaru.
She says technology has played a huge part in change as a lot of reporting is now done via cellphones.
The risk has also changed, she says.
“The world has changed so much, the cost of living and drugs; crime is huge.”
Everything is risk-rated, Emma says.
“Shipping changes on a daily basis.”
The Lyttelton operation is staffed by 11 officers.
She says it is important for her staff to be visible in the seaside community.
“We are reliant on the community, somebody might have seen something and thought ‘This isn’t right’.”
There’s a common dominator with all Customs staffers we speak to.
They say they are proud of protecting our borders.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.