Oct 04, 2021

Common Sense + The Inevitable = Hope for New Zealand Travel

Recent news from New Zealand may provide hope for travel in 2022!

This blog post is to provide a point of view on recent happenings within New Zealand and to bring the reader up to date after Jacinda Ardern's press conference.

This blog post is in bullet point form, for those who would prefer the quick and dirty. We will post a follow-up with additional information for those interested in details.

Background

• Early 2020: New Zealand closed its borders and locked down when Covid was first discovered
• Mid 2020: PM Ardern declared victory and was celebrated globally for having eliminated Covid from within the country
  • Tourism, small businesses, and a long-term strategy for how an island nation could possibly function on its own be damned... but that's for another post, I suppose
• Late 2020: A "travel bubble" was tried with Australia. It failed when Kiwis were allowed to walk off the plane and returning Kiwis/Aussies were still made to quarantine for two weeks with their arrival into New Zealand. Covid cases popped up, as they do.
• Early 2021: A second travel bubble was tried but also failed when each country was found to snap lock-down flights when a single case of Covid was found in the other country. Australia considered bubbles with other countries and New Zealand's feelings were hurt because they only wanted to share with Australia. *sigh*
• Mid 2021: A virus does as a virus will do... and went viral. Delta enters the NZ border. Even with 40% of New Zealand fully vax'd the country is locked down to Level 4. No leaving the house. While areas are eventually allowed to re-enter society Auckland was not one of these. 1.5 million people live there.
• Today: PM Ardern et al have now come to the realization that having people in its largest city (in a country with only 5 million) can't continue to function by staring at four walls of their apartment. New Zealand now concludes what the rest of the world figured out many months ago - it needs to live with Covid and people who enter need to be vaccinated. Duh.

So that's where we stand.

Pro: There is hope that in early 2022 vaccinated travelers will again be able to enter New Zealand!

Con: This is the first such talk we have ever had from the Ardern administration along these lines and no concrete plans from the have been communicated.

We look forward to learning more about such things as:

• Will all countries be allowed to travel to New Zealand?
• What will the procedures be for showing proof of vaccination?
• Will there be quarantine?
• Will there be a tracking system of some kind?
• Will children be allowed to travel?
• Will visitors be guaranteed that a snap lockdown will not occur whilst in country?
• What will the supply of flights into New Zealand be? How much will it cost?
• What will services be for hospitality, etc?

As you may deduce, this blog post is a combination of excitement and months of frustration. While we invite any good news from New Zealand around the border re-opening... our excitement is tampered with a dose of practicality.

If this is anything that we have learned since Feb 2020 it is that the NZ administration in power will move at its own pace. That the economy is likely to contract by 7.0% in the three months through September compared with the previous quarter does hold some sway... it is not enough to make us hold our breath.

PM Ardern still needs to produce terms for visiting- something we thought would be a great idea since May... of 2020.

Author: Frank Krieger