The Authorized and Official Story

I probably had the most interested first day in New Zealand and since I'm still getting asked about what exactly happened at the airport between me and security I figured it was time to put it somewhere so that everyone could know the tale. At the last customs checkpoint, the one where you have to put your bags through the big x-ray machines for the last time, a security agent with a drug/explosives dog kept walking around me. The dog sat next to me the second time he went by me and the officer introduced himself and what the dog was used for. The officer asked me if I had recently done any drugs or if I was carying any. I told him I wasn't and that I had never done any drugs before in my life. He then walked away, but then proceeded to walk the dog by me again. The dog sat again so the officer told me I would need to go with him. I asked him if I should alert my group that I was getting pulled aside and he assured me that they wanted leave with me. I was brough into a large attached room with about 8 large long tables and about 5 guards. I was instructed to go to one of the tables and to wait for an officer to come see me. The officer that came over was very nice and he just asked me to write anything that I would like to declare on a form that he gave me and to sign it. I wrote that I had nothing to declare and signed it, but not before asking if tic tacs could have set-off the dog. The officer then unpacked all of my luggage item by item. After everything was on the table he asked me again if I had nothing to declare and if that was my signature on the form. He then began swabbing my flash light, camera, and cell phone. After he processed the swab from my cell phone he came over and asked me if there was anythign I wanted to tell him, which I assured him there was nothing to tell. He told me that the swab had picked up traces of a chemical used in the production of (or possibly in) the drug ecstasy. He asked me again if there was anything I wanted to tell him and I replied the same. He then went away with my passport and my forms and came back after 5 minutes. He told me that I was going to need to go with 2 officers into a back room and take off my clothing one piece at a time. I agreed since I don't think there was much room to bargain. He came back again in 5 minutes and told me that I could go. I packed up my stuff and they escorted me out of the arrivals gate. I noticed that everyone was gone so I looked up and down the airport for everyone just assuming that everyone had moved ahead. I then looked outside and even asked where the tour buses would pick up groups and checked there too, but couldn't find anyone. The man at the help desk told me to go to the information center. The woman there was able to get a page over the PA system asking for a representative from the University of Delaware to come to the help desk. Luckily at some point the magic bus company called and the woman thought to ask them if they were missing anyone, and that's how I was found. Adam and Cookie's boss came back and picked me up and we went and saw what the group saw and then went to the hostil. I think I probably had the most memorably first day out of everyone, but what really stuck out to me is that people in New Zealand are generally the nicest and most helpful people I've ever met. From the security guard to complete strangers that offered me help in the airport because they could tell I looked slightly lost (one person even offered to drive me to the hostil), everyone just seems very pleasant.