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OPINION: The fish bite, the beers are cold, and tears flow at the prospect of returning home for the first time in nearly a year.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack broke the good news on Friday: New South Wales and the Northern Territory are opening their borders to New Zealand travelers.
I almost burst into tears at my desk as I frantically texted my family on the way home and scrambled to search for available flights via the Tasman.
Working in the media, I have had a front row seat to all the hopeful reports of the inflation of the trans-Tasman bubble. When this story landed, I was elated but skeptical.
Planning to take an Australian vacation? Or are you a Kiwi stuck in Australia yet? Get in touch with your story [email protected]
READ MORE:
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* Australia finalizes trans-Tasmania bubble deal, border with New Zealand will open on October 16
* Covid-19: this is what we know so far about the trans-Tasman bubble
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Like many expats, the dream of coming home has been around since the world was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It has been difficult to see new family members come into the world and friends get married through video calls and social media updates. But I am grateful to be in a country that managed to eradicate the virus for more than 100 days and since then has marked a week without community transmission.
New Zealand has been praised around the world for its response, and the freedoms we have been granted, following the strict lockdown, have made friends and family in Australia envious. But I want to go home.
ROSA WOODS / Things
Stuff reporter Brittney Deguara speaks up shares her thoughts on the new arrangements for the trans-Tasmania travel bubble.
Despite the positive announcement on Friday, the possibility is still out of reach. I am from Queensland, one of the states that did not join the travel bubble.
While Queensland has reopened its borders for domestic travel from some parts of the country, I still won’t be able to get home without completing 14 days of administered isolation upon arrival. I understand the need for such measures, but I was hoping the sunshine would add to the first phase of eased restrictions.
However, I am able to travel to New South Wales or the Northern Territory as of October 16, as I do not come from what the Australian government has deemed a Covid-19 hotspot: an area with a moving average of three days of three locally acquired cases day. No part of the country fits into that category.
While neither of those states is home, Darwin is 2,830.5 kilometers from my home in North Queensland and Sydney is 1722.6 kilometers away, it is closer than I have been in the last 10 months .
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The Northern Territory is closer to home than I’ve been in almost a year, but it’s not exactly my home.
I have written in the past about the financial difficulties of double effect quarantine measures, and I know that I am here by choice and plan to travel by choice. I understand the need to pay the bill for two weeks of quarantine upon returning to New Zealand and have a Netflix roster ready to endure that time stuck in a hotel room.
I am also aware that others may be in more difficult situations with family further afield, or be stuck in Australia unable to reach New Zealand without spending thousands of dollars, and I know how lucky I am to be granted New Zealand residency. . But that doesn’t change the fact that I miss my family.
I am not alone. International high school and college students have been separated from their families in New Zealand, people have cried alone in managed isolation facilities after they were denied exceptions to attend funerals or visit dying relatives, and some missed the birth of their children. My experience is just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things.
Some Stuff Readers came forward with their thoughts on the first bubble arrangement. A kiwi trapped in Australia has lived in Brisbane for 18 months and has been separated from his six- and four-year-old children.
“If kiwis can fly here and not have to be quarantined, then it should be the same the other way around,” he wrote.
Emma Mitchell’s family is in a similar situation. Her partner works as a fly-in-fly-out miner in Western Australia, another state excluded from the bubble.
“[We] I haven’t seen him since [March 6] due to Covid-19.
“Bring the bubble with WA! No family should have to be apart that long. “
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we live over the past 10 months and will likely continue to do so until a safe and effective vaccine is developed and deployed.
Until then, and until Queensland joins in the fun and allows New Zealand travelers to easily enter the state, I’ll just look at my suitcase, dream of warm weather, and savor my tube of Vegemite.
