A 19-year-old Chinese national who admitted three charges of importing methamphetamine from China has been jailed for five years and eight months.
The Wellington District Court heard Shun Yan Yuen, from Johnsonville, imported methamphetamine to further a music career, when his parents expected him to take a business degree.
The street value of the product was $1 million.
Sentencing Yuen, Judge Peter Hobbs said he was trying to further his interests in music.
"You thought it necessary to obtain funds to pursue your desire to study music in the hope of proving to your parents that you were sufficiently independent to find and follow your own course."
But Judge Hobbs said that the offending was serious.
"It is clear that deterrent sentences are required for offending of this kind, methamphetamine is a pernicious drug which causes misery in our community and often fuels further criminal offending."
Yuen will be deported after his sentence.