Dunedin father and son Bryan, 75, and Alex Harold, 20, said they were not looking forward to it.
So when the Embassy of Ireland announced it would be bringing a pop-up consulate to Dunedin, the Harolds jumped at the opportunity.
Alex said he had Irish ancestry and planned to visit Ireland in the coming months.
He wanted to get his Irish passport so he could gain easier access to the country and many others across the European Union.
‘‘It would also make it a bit easier if I did ever want to live there for a bit.’’
Bryan said he also wanted to get an Irish passport, for sentimental reasons.
‘‘My grandmother was Irish.
‘‘I just want one to have in my back pocket.’’
The duo said they were going to apply for their passports via computer, but they had several questions about the process that they wanted to speak to a ‘‘real person’’ about.
‘‘It was just good to meet the delegates face to face here in Dunedin.’’
They were among many who visited the pop-up consulate at Ebb Kitchen, in Filleul St, yesterday.
Embassy of Ireland deputy head of mission Paul O’Hara said the embassy did pop-ups in different cities around the country, about six times each year.
‘‘Obviously we run a busy consular office through our embassy in Wellington, which gets a lot of emails and phone calls every day of the week, but I think it’s important to have that face-to-face contact with people and promote the real essence of what Ireland is about.’’
About one in six New Zealanders had Irish ancestry, so he was not surprised to find a queue of people waiting for him and his fellow staff at yesterday’s pop-up.
‘‘We had over 10 people in the space of less than quarter of an hour, asking questions around foreign birth registration, citizenship by descent, citizenship through their parents, renewing passports and ... tourism.
‘‘I think it’s been really valuable.’’
