Greg Piner and Fifi Leong, both of restaurant Vault 21, and Ken O'Connell, of Bracken, won The Battle of the Pacific title during a three-day fine foods trade event in Melbourne in mid-September.
The trio are the first New Zealand team to win the culinary challenge, beating 11 Australian and Pacific Island teams.
Mr O'Connell said they had to return home before the awards presentation and the competition organisers couriered the trophy and medals to New Zealand.
However, the trio were shocked when the New Zealand Customs Service asked them to pay $180 for their release.
''They said there was an excise on all trophies and awards, except the Melbourne Cup and the Bledisloe Cup.
''There is no monetary value on them. We won them in a competition representing New Zealand, and it's just bizarre.''
Until yesterday, the trio had refused to pay the fee on principle. Mr O'Connell said Customs was adamant there was no way it could release the awards until they did.
New Zealand Customs Service external relations manager Helen Keyes said trophies and medals won overseas in a competition were usually exempt from GST, and the comment about the only cups that were duty free coming into New Zealand being the Bledisloe and Melbourne Cups was incorrect.
''In this case, it appears that the shipping company has declared the goods as trophies without indicating that they have been won in a competition.
''This has triggered the standard charges for imported goods - import duty, GST and postal/courier charges, and an import entry transaction fee of $NZ29.26 and a Ministry for Primary Industries biosecurity system entry levy of $NZ19.98 - a combined fee of $49.24 - when the $60 de minimis point is reached.''
Ms Keyes said Customs was not contacted by the importer or the shipping company. Since learning of the incident, it had contacted the shipping company to obtain more details.
As a result, it had waived the $127.84 assessed as payable to Customs - $78.64 GST and a $49.20 transaction fee.
''Anything additional to make up the quoted $180 would be shipping or processing charges from the broker or agent.
''We have cleared the goods for entry into New Zealand and any further issues are between the shipper and the client,'' she said.
The trio were delighted with the news.
''Obviously, there was communication difficulties between the shipper and Customs, but no-one wanted to take responsibility for the problem. It's fantastic, just to know we were right that there shouldn't be a charge on something like that.''
