Travel bubble problems: when and where Kiwis will be able to travel abroad in 2021

No one would blame you if you feel disillusioned with travel bubbles.

There has been talk of round-trip, non-quarantine travel arrangements with Australia, the Cook Islands, Niue and Fiji for months, none of which have yet materialized.

Kiwis can travel to certain parts of Australia if they are quarantined for two weeks upon return, and pay about $ 3,100 for the privilege, but we’ll have to wait until the new year to find out if the new Sydney cluster, which has the The city’s north beaches blocked, will ruin plans for a two-way bubble in the first quarter of 2021.

However, the bubble plans with the Cook Islands without Covid and Niue appear to be progressing well. But, as 2020 has so cruelly reminded us, you never know what’s around the corner. With that in mind, we’ve put together a guide to the airlifts likely to open next year. If you feel like traveling abroad or seeing friends and family in another country, it’s good to be able to plan. Or live with hope at least.

READ MORE:
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* Mike Pero’s new airline, Pasifika Air, expects to launch flights to Rarotonga in June.
* Travel industry says kia orana to Cook Islands: ‘now, let’s make the trans-Tasman bubble work’

Cook islands

The Cook Islands is likely to be the first overseas destination to which Kiwis will be able to travel via a bubble deal.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cook Islands counterpart Mark Brown announced on December 12 that non-quarantine travel between the two countries was expected in the first quarter of 2021.

“The agreement recognizes the special ties between New Zealand and the Cook Islands,” Ardern said earlier this month.

Both prime ministers and their cabinets have instructed officials to implement all necessary measures to safely begin non-quarantine round trips early next year.

Officials from the Cook Islands, which is part of the kingdom of New Zealand, have indicated that the airlift could be in place as early as January, although initially it may only be one-way.

A spokesman for Brown’s office told the Cook Islands News that “we are looking forward to next month.” The one-way agreement would allow Cook Islands residents to fly to Auckland without spending 14 days in a managed isolation facility upon arrival.

A New Zealand government spokesman said the start date for the bubble has not yet been confirmed.

Niue

A bubble with Niue could be in place shortly after the non-quarantine journey between New Zealand and the Cooks begins.

Ardern said in early November that he believed unquarantine travel between New Zealand and Niue, which is also part of the New Zealand kingdom, would occur “soon.”

In mid-December, he said that both countries would continue to work on the practical measures necessary to restart quarantine-free travel both outward and return trips, noting that Niue has remained Covid-free throughout 2020.

Niue Prime Minister Dalton Tagelagi has indicated that the one-way trip without quarantine from Niue to New Zealand could begin in mid-January.

If a travel bubble to the Cook Islands is successful, Niue is likely to follow soon after, he said.

“I think the round trip will be in the quarter, let’s say next March, but I hope the outward one will be in January or February at least. You know, start a test and see how things go, but the main goal and the big goal would be a round trip without quarantine. ”

Australia

New Zealand agreed to establish a round trip bubble with Australia in the first quarter of 2021.

However, the recent resurgence of Covid-19 on Sydney’s North Beaches and the new strain of the virus spreading across the UK have cast doubt on the deal.

Ardern said in mid-December, before the new Sydney cluster emerged, that the Australian bubble was dependent on the Australian cabinet signing it and the Covid-19 situation in both counties remaining the same.

“Our intention is to name a date … in the new year, once the remaining details are closed,” Ardern said.

One-way trips without quarantine from the Cook Islands would come before the Australian bubble, he said.

A government spokesman said it was closely monitoring the new group in Sydney and that a decision would be made on whether to go ahead with the bubble in the new year.

“The initiation does not depend on any significant change in circumstances in either country.”

Ardern said in mid-December that a contingency plan for what would happen if there was a resurgence of the virus in Australia was a “key part” in finalizing the arrangements.

A major cause for concern will be agreeing when to close the borders if there is another outbreak. Ardern said in November that Australia’s “hot spot” system for state borders would be too risky for a trans-Tasman bubble.

Australia had indicated that it would not close inter-state travel until there were 10 or more cases per day, for three days.

“Australia right now says it would be within their tolerance. So we need to figure out how those border boundaries would work in that kind of arrangement because you don’t want to have a situation where we’re opening and closing, and opening and closing, ”Ardern said.

Health Director General Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said health officials had sought a higher threshold to open a travel bubble: 28 days without community transmission with an unknown source.

“It’s a high bar and rightly so people want to keep New Zealanders safe, we don’t want to increase the risk, but it’s quite possible that, given what we’ve learned since July, we can see if that’s the case or not. it is still an appropriate requirement in both countries, ”he said.

“If we are going to move to a safe travel zone, it also needs to be doable rather than constantly being put off.”

New Zealanders can now travel to most of Australia without isolating themselves, but must remain in quarantine for two weeks upon return. Australians cannot enter New Zealand.

Fiji

Fiji has continued to push for a travel bubble with New Zealand and Australia even though the two countries have chosen to resume travel elsewhere, at least initially.

Describing the “Bull Bubble” scheme in early November, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said that visitors would take the Covid-19 tests when they arrived in Fiji and when they left.

He said tourists would travel from the airport in exclusive transportation and quarantined at designated hotels and resorts for 14 days.

While neither New Zealand nor Australia have announced plans to open their borders to Fiji, Sayed-Khaiyum said he was optimistic their governments would join the table.

Any future bubble with Fiji is likely to have the same security measures as those in the Cook Islands, Niue and Australia.

Other countries

Once the Cook Islands, Niue and potentially Australia are included in New Zealand’s travel bubble, other Pacific Island nations could be invited to join. Covid-free neighbors such as Samoa and Tonga, which welcomed relatively large numbers of Kiwi visitors before the pandemic, are likely to be among the next in line.

Speculation about when international travel will return to normal varies widely, but recovery will depend on how quickly vaccines are deployed and how quickly countries change their entry rules.

The New Zealand government has announced that it has secured enough Covid-19 vaccines for the entire population and will begin offering free vaccines from mid-2021.

Some countries, including New Zealand, might decide to allow entry only to tourists who can prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, but other options have been put forward to safely resume international travel both here and abroad.

At present, it is too early to say when New Zealand could fully reopen its borders. The only certainty is that when it does, international travel will be a completely different experience than what we were used to. A new health passport that will store our Covid-19 test results and vaccination information will be just the beginning.