Arrested, jailed and fined $2000 for travelling with some fishing gear, this is what happened to brothers Ben and Tom Osborn from Dunedin as they flew home from Europe to New Zealand via Hong Kong.
They say it was a terrifying experience being interrogated and handcuffed by armed police, and they blame the whole situation on bad advice from Cathay Pacific.
Their ordeal took place on a return flight after a holiday with family in Croatia. They'd headed there with their wives and children, and as with all their travels, these keen hobby spear fishermen packed their own spear guns too.
"We've never had any trouble travelling with them before and that's all over the world, so why buy another when you have one you can take with you? You take your clothes with you, don't you?" Tom says.
They knew from previous trips that you can't take spear guns as carry-on items, so they put them in their checked in luggage. On their outbound flight from Auckland they stopped in Hong Kong for a couple of days.
Everything was fine until they checked in for the onward flight to Europe.
"As we went to check in, we were pulled aside and asked to open our bags. We pulled out mask, snorkel, fins, dive knife and spear guns. There were lots of questions in mandarin and english 'what are they for?', 'where do you use them?', 'why do you have them?'” Ben explains.
“It all took about half an hour and then they said put your stuff back in your bags and get on the plane," Tom adds, "we thought, we don't want that again when we come home from Rome in a month, so we'll post them back instead".
The holiday was just what they wanted. Sun, sea and lots of socialising, with a bit of spear fishing thrown in. Then, all too soon, it was time to head home.
They packed their bags with all their clothes, but left the spear guns out so that they could post them from the airport.
Tom takes up the story: "We went to drop off the main bags, and when we went to check in at Cathay we held back the spear guns.
"The lady said 'what are those?', we said they were spear guns and that we'd had an issue in Hong Kong so we're going to post them from Terminal 4". She said it was no problem to get them checked in, Tom just needed to send them as special luggage.
He asked if she was sure as they didn't want problems again, and she said yes, they could get them x-rayed and have a sticker put on and it would all be fine.
The check-in attendant issued their tickets for the whole trip, from Rome to Auckland with a stop-over in Hong Kong, so she knew they'd be staying in Hong Kong for a couple of days. Ben and Tom's mistake was that they trusted this advice.
"We had no reason to doubt her,” Tom explains. “They check people and luggage onto planes, and they're the flagship airline of Hong Kong"
When the families arrived in Hong Kong, they took the special luggage containing the spear guns through the red "goods to declare" channel.
They were asked a few questions and sent on their way. The trouble began when they went to check-in for the final leg of their journey.
They told the check-in staff that the spear guns needed to go on as special luggage. But instead of telling them where to get them checked in, the attendant called airport security, who then called the police.
The brothers marched off into a room for questioning. Tom says "we were being interrogated about our spear guns again. We thought they'll let us go in a minute, it's just a pain in the arse, then it just escalated".
Heavily armed Police arrived, along with a detective. "We had that sick feeling to our stomach. We've never been in trouble for anything before", Tom said, adding "you see those programmes "Banged Up Abroad", everyone's heard the horror stories and this was happening to us now".
After extensive questioning they were told that Tom would be arrested and put in jail as both spear guns were checked in in his name.
Tom was able to make a call to his wife Heather to let them know that he and Ben weren't going to make the flight home, and that the rest of the family should all go ahead and board.
Heather says "that's when it all hit home... we had a row of nine seats, but as we took off, two of them were empty".
Instead Tom was sitting on the cold hard floor of a prison cell. Tom says "the police said they believed our story, but the problem was there was no good evidence to back it up, and they said this could take weeks, and until then I'd be in custody in Hong Kong".
Not surprisingly, this scenario didn't appeal. The police offered an alternative, which was to plead guilty to possession of dangerous weapons. It was a difficult decision.
The brothers didn't want to spend weeks in Hong Kong, especially at a time of unrest in the country. Equally, they felt this was not their fault as they'd been advised it was OK to travel with their spear guns, and the last thing Tom wanted was to be left with a criminal conviction for a serious offence.
But after weighing up their options, they felt this was the best course of action to take.
On the bright side, the court system in Hong Kong is incredibly efficient, and Tom was up before a judge by 9am the next morning.
There were various cases heard before theirs, ranging from drugs offences to assault. When Tom's case came up, the judge deliberated for some time before ordering him to pay $2000 ($6000 Hong Kong dollars) and warning him to be more careful in the future.
Tom says he found that insulting as "we'd done everything we could to avoid this, but I didn't feel like arguing with her!"
All they wanted at this point was to get back home to their families as quickly as possible. They were relieved to know they had open tickets, which meant they could still be honoured by the airline.
So off they went straight to the airport and to the Cathay Pacific desk to explain the whole debacle. Much to their disappointment, Cathay said they had no seats available and there was nothing they could do to help. Ben was furious and said he complained to the airline staff but they said they were fully booked and that was the end of their involvement.
They rang their travel agent who also tried to argue with the airline that seats should be provided on the basis of the ticket they had.
But there was no change in Cathay's stance. So the brothers decided to book whatever flight they could to get home as soon as possible. It was a flight with Qantas that meant stopping off in Sydney and getting to Auckland too late to connect to Dunedin.
So they took the last flight to Queenstown and hired a car to drive across country to get home. It was a tiring journey at the end of an exhausting trip.
As the sheer relief of being back with their families faded, it was replaced by a sense of injustice. The brothers were thousands of dollars out of pocket, they'd lost their spear guns, and Tom now had a serious criminal conviction.
They made an official complaint to Cathay Pacific about their treatment, but again had a disappointing response. Ben explains "we got an email saying we're very sorry to hear what happened. Our advice given to you in Rome was only for the flight from Rome to Hong Kong and you were arrested on leaving Hong Kong on a separate flight."
Ben dismisses this as "a massive fob off", adding that they were offered a paltry $100 dollars as 'a token of goodwill'. But Tom didn't see that as goodwill at all, but rather as "a smack in the face".
At this point, they involved Fair Go in the story. We too went to Cathay for an explanation. The airline came back to us with a statement saying they were satisfied they'd acted fairly and in compliance with aviation laws.
They also added it was the passenger's responsibility to know the regulations. We approached them again, asking for answers to specific questions about the training of Cathay Pacific staff regarding rules around luggage restrictions, and also whether customers can expect to trust their advice.
The airline asked for a few more weeks to carry out a "thorough investigation". But when they finally replied it was to say they had nothing more to add.
Not much comfort for Tom and Ben, or for other recreational fishermen planning to travel via Hong Kong in the future. This is a serious issue for customers, and correct answers help passengers understand what they need to do when travelling.
What's also worrying is that other airlines are giving similar advice. Check-in staff for Qantas and Air New Zealand at Auckland Airport have since been asked if spear guns could be taken through Hong Kong.
Both airlines replied that they could. Qantas saying they'd have to be taken as special luggage, Air New Zealand saying they could simply be checked in as normal.
Furthermore, even if passengers do their own homework, there is a lot of conflicting information. Many chat sites say it's fine to have spear guns as checked in luggage. Sites in the USA say there are no problems.
If you look at Cathay Pacific's website, it says to check with the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department. Confusingly, this says that spear guns are restricted as carry-on luggage rather than as checked in items. However, Cathay Pacific also suggests referring to Hong Kong Police.
A search on their site doesn't appear to mention spear guns directly, but it does say that any exposed blade is illegal and a license must be obtained to carry them, even through transit. So how do you get a licence? You have to apply for a licence in person at a police station in Hong Kong, or by post with payment made by cheque.
Ben questions "what about sportspeople in competition who have to take such items through?".
He acknowledges that travellers should check for any illegality of goods before they travel, but adds that staff employed to advise customers should also make it their business to know.
"You ask a sensible question of people who should know the answer 'can I take this through Hong Kong? Yes, you can'. That was case closed for me."
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