NZ customs can go overboard.
By the way, some customs searches outside of the US are done because the US flagged its own citizens and wanted the US citizens extensively searched abroad. NZ is but one of the countries that has some history of doing just that.
Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
Has the OP contacted the USA embassy/consulate if he/she is certain there was no reason for this treatment and it might have been retaliation for how some NZ citizens were treated recently?
Would that probably make any useful difference? Doubtful but I don't necessarily see the harm in doing so.
The Chinese embassy in one European country told US citizens that they (i.e. the PRC embassy) were delaying visas just because they wanted to retaliate and make US citizens feel a bit of what Chinese citizens feel when dealing with US embassies/consulates so the US citizens would have to come back the next day to pick up their visas. Communicating the details of such encounters to a few US Ambassadors at the time and a then-Asst Secretary of State wasn't, in my estimate, going to achieve anything -- and it didn't achieve anything useful. I would expect this kind of situation to be treated in much the same way.