Mum and son stranded in virus

international travel shutdown forced them to hunker down with relatives as the virus spread.

A quirk in their visa situation meant she had to apply for a special exemption to get back to her husband Riki Pereira, 40, but her application was repeatedly declined by Kiwi authorities.

Determined to find a way home, Kost contacted the Brazilian ambassador and even went so far as to email Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to plead her case.

A third attempt saw her granted the exemption, but it came through too late for her to get a repatriation flight she was booked on at the start of May.

She now faces a scramble to get home before it expires on July 6.

And there is a further twist – a flight booked for June 14 has a 20-hour stopover in Australia and requires a transit visa and special quarantine exemption, which she is yet to receive.

The stress and separation have taken a deep toll on the family. ‘‘It has been so hard, because Gabi is crying every single night asking for his daddy,’’ Kost said from her husband’s family home in Joinville, southern Brazil.

‘‘He is saying, ‘we are going to get the flight today, mummy?’, and I have to say, ‘not today, Gabi’.

‘‘Riki is very, very sad because he is alone and he has a very good relationship with Gabi, so it has been very hard for us.’’

Kost is stranded because of her immigration status – she holds a sponsored working visa to be in New Zealand, while Riki, a driver for Mitre 10 in Wanaka, is allowed to work under a partner visa.

If the situation was reversed, with her holding the partner visa instead of her husband, she would not have had to appeal for the immigration exemption.

‘‘It is just a title,’’ Kost said. ‘‘It is the same situation – I am separate from my family and my home is in New Zealand.’’