Young New Zealand traveler jailed in Kazakhstan after officials say New Zealand is state of Australia

Pre discussion questions

How would you feel if someone did not know about your country?

What country in the world do you not know about?

An adventurous young New Zealand traveler was arrested in Kazakhstan because she was told that New Zealand is not a country. Immigration officers refused to believe her. They said New Zealand is a state of Australia.

Chloe had travelled many times to central Asia, and arrived at Almaty Airport in Kazakhstan in May to work on farms and explore the countryside.

Chloe said she prepared for the trip by asking the New Zealand embassy if it was okay to travel there. They assured her she'd be able to enter the country on her New Zealand passport.

"I landed in Kazakhstan on the last flight of the night, and I got to an immigration booth and they asked me for an Australian passport, and told me I couldn't come in without an Australian passport.

They said New Zealand's is a part of Australia.

They wanted to put her on an airplane to leave. But in countries like Kazakhstan it is important that you know somebody important.  Luckily she knew of somebody who could help her. But by that stage she had raised lots of alarm bells.

Chloe was then taken to a small interrogation room where there was a large map of the world on the wall. The map didn’t show New Zealand. So she could not show where she was from.

They wanted to know why she was in Kazakhstan. And they,  they wanted to know why she had not taken a direct flight from New Zealand.

After being questioned for hours she was locked in a guard room for a day and a half.

It was an empty room with a bed only. She didn't get any food or water but in the middle of the night the guards clearly felt sad for her so once immigration police and everyone had gone, the guards would give her a drink.

The guards were really nice and let her wander around the immigration room if there were no flights coming in.

Chloe said she has "travelled a bit off the beaten path before", but has never experienced anything like this adventure in Kazakhstan.

But finally she stayed in Kazakhstan for six months before returning home.

The allure of Kazakhstan's growing economy and beautiful mountains means Chloe is keen to visit Kazakhstan again.

Kazakhstan is changing very fast, there's a huge amount of potential there.

It is corrupt and there are problems there but there are a lot of good people there too she said. She said it is a beautiful country but sadly there is no New Zealand on its maps.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=3, B=1, C=8, D=5, E=7, F=2, G=6, H=4

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1.      I assure you that if you do the hard work then you will succeed.

2.      By that stage we had no more money and could not play the game anymore.

3.      I was spending a lot of money on my credit card and this raised alarm bells with the credit card company, so they contacted me.

4.      The police are interrogating the man to see if he did the crime.

5.      Don’t wander, go directly home after school today.

6.      I like to go off the beaten path places like Paris and visit the small towns in France.

7.      Many people are allured to Jeju Island Korea to see the beautiful flowers.

8.      You have a lot of potential, but you need to study hard if you want to get good grades.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1.      How would you feel if you were assured that your passport was okay to visit a place, but discover that it was not?

2.      At what stage in your life do you think is the best time to visit off the beaten path places?

3.      If you were a policeman/woman, what things would raise alarm bells that someone is dishonest?

4.      Why would someone normally be interrogated at airport immigration?

5.      Would you like to wander to off the beaten path places or countries? Why or why not?

6.      What do you think is the allure of places like Kazakhstan?

7.      What is your biggest potential? What potential skill would you like to have?