Explore Travel/Destinations/International

NZ looks to start Trans-Tasman bubble by April

The committee are looking at the final form of the bubble and the full cabinet could make a decision early in the next week. A bubble would open quarantine-fr...

NZ looks to start Trans-Tasman bubble by April

By Explore

Updated September 20, 2022, first published March 18, 2021

New Zealand could be open to Australian travellers by April looking for quarantine-free holidays. The decision could be made as early as Monday and it has been reported that a paper on the bubble, is currently in discussions in a NZ Cabinet meeting.

The committee are looking at the final form of the bubble and the full cabinet could make a decision early in the next week.

A bubble would open quarantine-free travel within New Zealand and Australia while each country would retain the right to halt travel as it sees feet.

Airports would be divided into “green zones” and “red zones”.

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Green zones would be free and open travel, while red zones would be for travellers coming from elsewhere in the world to transit or quarantine.

The NZ COVID-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins told Parliament that Auckland airport will require 10 days to be ready for the bubble while the airlines have said they need three weeks to be operational.

Other NZ airports that will be included in the bubble arrangement are Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.

The NZ Government has said they are hoping all border workers should be fully vaccinated by the end of the month. But New Zealanders should expect that any travel to Australia will come with a stern warning: you may have to hunker down if you are caught in the middle of a cluster outbreak.

Earlier this week, Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Dan Tehan flagged a three-way bubble with Singapore and New Zealand by the middle of the year, with South Pacific countries like Fiji, willing to join.