Advice for shipping to Australia? Is it even possible?

EDIT: did pirate ship, my local USPS will STILL not accept the package. What are my options?

Sooooo I’m relatively new to squish and trading and I need to ask for advice. I found a person to trade with in a squish group on FB but I’m running into problems because I didn’t know shipping between AUS / NZ and the US was suspended.

We agreed to trade, planned a ship day (the very next day after we messaged) and swapped addresses, however because of the time difference I didn’t get her address until 3am my time and didn’t see it until the next day when she had shipped it already and that’s when I learned she was in Aus.

I probably wouldn’t have traded if I had known she was in Aus bc I’ve already done two international trades recently and wanted to pace myself, but since I’d already made the agreement I decided to follow through. I went to the post office ready to ship and they told me they could not ship it and explained why. I was super confused bc no one has mentioned this at all to me I haven’t even seen it in the news or anything. The Internet told me it was possible just pricier so I decided to try UPS. I’m shipping a single Stacklable and it would cost $96 to get it shipped and that’s as low as it’ll go they said.

I messaged the person I’m trading with and offered to reimburse them for the squish and / or shipping if they wanted to recall the package instead but they said they are expecting multiple packages from the US right now and haven’t had any issues. They suggested I try Pirate Ship but I honestly don’t see how that could be better if not even the USPS can ship.

What should I do? Are there cheaper options to get this Squish to Australia? Just to add, we are trading squish of equal value. I saw the price of her shipping and it was $21.

Anyways, lessons learned, always ask where someone is located before agreeing to trade!!!