It’s Official: That New Zealand Travel Bubble Is Happening In Just Two Weeks
Mates, it’s happened, NZ prime minister, Jacinda Ardern has just given a press conference announcing the Australia – New Zealand travel bubble is a go.
“Our health response now gives us an opportunity to commit with loved ones again as we start a new chapter in our recovery,” said Ardern.
“Cabinet was presented with advice today that conditions for opening up quarantine-free travel with Australia had been met. The Director-General of Health considers the risk of transmission of COVID-19 from Australia to New Zealand to now be low, and that quarantine-free travel would be safe to commence.
“Quarantine free travel between Australia and NZ will commence in just two weeks time,” she continued. That means 11.59pm on Sunday, April 18. However, there will be more info on arrangements with Queensland next week, given their last outbreak.
May I just say, WAHOO!
However, this doesn’t mean things will go back to a pre-Covid normal. In a move that sounds much like the way each Aussie state has dealt with outbreaks, flights can be paused at any time if there is an uncontrolled outbreak. “In many ways we’ll treat Australia as a region of our own,” explained Ardern.
Beyond that, there will be a range of standard health requirements, like make a booking on a ‘green zone flight’, meaning only Aussie in the last 14 days, with a crew that hasn’t been on high-risk routes for a while.
“This Trans-Tasmann bubble represents the start of a new chapter in our covid response and recovery,” said Ardern.
Hell yeah.
Of course, this is the news we’ve been waiting for, so we’ve got plenty of travel ideas for you. Like these NZ gems that have been trending on emerging destinations list for a while now. Or these epic experiences around Auckland.
(Lead image: Unsplash /Aaron Sebastian)
