I flew to Australia for a few days on Thursday.  It's a three and a half hour flight to Sydney from Wellington and it was literally for a four hour meeting on Friday.  Because of Air NZ's flight schedule, I usually fly the night before. It beats having to get to the airport by 4.30am in the morning.

 So, I caught the 3.30pm flight on Thursday afternoon.  I got to the airport in plenty of time, left the car in the overnight parking and went to check in. It all went smoothly. Seat issued, bag lodged, so I made my way through security and customs. 

That's where the fun started. As I went through security to catch my flight, I got pulled aside for a full explosives search. Fine. I know they have random searches but I did think that in my corporate work clothes I didn't look like a criminal.

Then, when I arrived in Sydney, I was pulled out for a bag search! I only had an overnight case for goodness sakes.

After our meeting on Friday, I went back to the airport and again checked in. Then I couldn't believe what happened next. A cute dog came up and sniffed my bags. The next thing I know, I'm pulled aside for, you guessed it, a full body explosives search!!!

I obviously look like a person who knows their way around explosives. That's funny because I can't even light a firecracker. I now have a phobia - what do I look like to authorities? An explosive smuggling, middle aged gangster?

What is it about certain people that draws attention? I know that customs and security have profiling systems.  What are they looking for?  I must ring a very loud bell!!!

Have you ever been stopped at customs for a full search? What airport were you at?