New Zealand's ousted acting High Commissioner to Fiji says her expulsion is arbitrary and unwarranted.
Caroline McDonald arrived back in Auckland on Sunday afternoon.
She was expelled from Fiji on 23 December, after the interim government there claimed her actions had been contrary to the accepted international norms of diplomatic behaviour.
Fiji had been pressing for a travel ban imposed on members of its military regime, to be waived for the son of a senior government official.
Ms McDonald was declared persona non grata and given seven days to leave Fiji on Tuesday.
Ms McDonald says her expulsion was simply retaliation for New Zealand's longstanding and consistent approach of denying visas to supporters of the Fiji interim regime and their close family members, in the absence of any concrete moves back to democracy.
She says she was disappointed to leave Fiji, but she appreciated the warmth with which she had been welcomed by the Fiji community.
New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully maintains there is no substance to Fiji's claims about Ms McDonald.
Mr McCully says the expulsion of a New Zealand diplomat is very serious, and he'll be getting a debrief from her in the next few days.
New Zealand's previous High Commissioner, Michael Green, was also expelled in June 2007.
The travel ban was imposed after a coup in December 2006. It was the fourth coup since 1987.
