Australian couple hires private jet to fly in beloved Bali street dog from New Zealand

Natasha Corbin says she met the dog when she was living in Bali with her partner David Daynes

An Australian couple is hiring a private jet to bring their dog from New Zealand to Australia (Instagram/milliondollarmunchkin)

A Queensland woman is hiring a private jet worth over $40,000 (£30,340) to get her pet — a street dog from Bali — to come and stay with her in Australia.

Natasha Corbin, a resident of Sunshine Coast, Queensland, said that she has been trying to get her dog, Munchkin, a former street dog from Bali in Indonesia, to Australia for the past six years.

She said that she met the dog when she was living in Bali with her partner David Daynes.

“When we decided to move to Bali, my partner had one rule for me because I’m such a dog lover and that was that I wasn’t allowed to interact with any dog,” Ms Corbin told abc.net.au.

“I just ignored all of the dogs as best as I could and this dog, Munchkin, she was just a little tiny puppy, would follow us around because she had just somehow ended up near our villa,” she added.

Ms Corbin said the dog had to spend three years in Singapore, after it failed to clear tests to enter Australia, which has strict rules for importing pets, reported AFP.

The couple moved to New Zealand in 2019 after the country accepted Munchkin.

“The reason we were in New Zealand was we had to live there for a while to get our dog cleared to come to Australia,” Ms Corbin said.

She has now been separated from her dog and her partner for the past five months, as she had to return to Australia to undergo surgery.

Mr Davis said that she has decided to hire a private jet to get Mr Davis and Munchkin back to Australia as the duo have been stuck in New Zealand due to the travel restrictions imposed in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

However, a private jet is not Ms Corbin’s main concern, as she focuses on reuniting with her partner and her dog.

“The money part is not the number one driver, it’s about who can most certainly get them home before Christmas,” she told AFP.

“Christmas is a really big deal for us... I just want us all to be together.”

“I have been inundated with people sharing their stories of how they’ve been stuck and they’ve had their flights cancelled over and over again,” she said to abc.news.au.

“They’re just desperate to get back with their family for Christmas.”

The whole process of getting her dog to Australia has been so expensive for Ms Corbin that she started social media accounts called Million Dollar Munchkin.

“I just want them home and I want to take the option that’s most likely to work and if that means we have to pay extra and try and sell these [private jet] seats and do all of this extra work, I’m willing to do it,” she said.

Ms Corbin added that she realised that they were “in such a privileged position” to have the funds to bring back her dog.

“She’s our family now and so I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love her so much and she’s such an amazing little creature,” she said.