Trans-Tasman Bubble Likely to Open Mid-April

March 18th, 2021
Queenstown will be  very keen to attract Australians again once the trans-Tasman bubble is a reality. Photo: Destination Queenstown

Mountainwatch |News

Some interesting news out of New Zealand today with reports that the NZ government is considering opening the trans-Tasman bubble with Australia in mid-April.

According to the NZ news website stuff , a paper is currently being discussed by the NZ cabinet around how the “bubble” would work and an announcement may be made as early as next Monday.

The news comes a day after the NZ National Party launched a petition in the Kiwi parliament calling on the NZ government to open the trans-Tasman bubble “immediately”.

New Zealanders have been allowed to travel to Australia without having to go into quarantine since October, but it has been a one-way street as Australians, if they gain approval from the Australian government to leave the country, are unable to travel to New Zealand without having to quarantine for two weeks on arrival.

The bubble would finally open up quarantine-free travel between the two countries, although each country will have right to halt travel in the event of a Covid outbreak or lockdown.  We saw happen in January when the Australian government suspended quarantine-free travel from New Zealand after an outbreak and subsequent lockdown in Auckland.

 

It is looking more likely that Australians will be able to head to Treble Cone this year. Photo: Mark Clinton

According to stuff, airports in New Zealand will be designated either “green” or “red” zones. Green will be open to quarantine-free travel from Australia while red zones will be travellers in transit form other countries or quarantine. It is understood that Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown airports would be “green” zones.

The talks between the two countries have been dragging  on for months and have stalled more than a few times. Hopefully, the announcement from the NZ government will be made on Monday and it’ll just be matter of working out the details.

Open trans-Tasman travel would be a boost for tourism in both Australia and New Zealand and for New Zealand’s ski fields it’d be the best news they’ve heard in 12 months. No doubt there will be more details released over the next few days – stay tuned.