-
Do you guys in OZ and NZ have any buzz about when your borders might be opened to travelers from elsewhere who have had the vaccine? We had to cancel a long-planned trip to NZ in December, and it would be great to reschedule. The US CDC released new international entry restrictions yesterday that do not take the vaccine into account, which is puzzling in light of new data indicating that the vaccine prevents even carrying the virus. I wonder what you are hearing at your end?
-
Rich,
At present the only people allowed into NZ are New Zealand citizens returning home. There is NO word on when our borders here will be opened up for International travellers regardless of being vaccinated or not.
We are yet to 'roll out' a nationwide vaccine program yet as we have zero cases of community transmission and have not had a community case for 10 weeks +/-.
The NZ Health Department and Govt have secured 4 different vaccines and basically we are in the fortunate position to wait and watch which of the 4 work the best.
IMHO I believe that it will be 18 months until our borders are opened up and even then I do not know what the requirements will be for people travelling here.
Definitely proof of being vaccinated (once if not twice), a negative test result 3 days prior to travel and on top of that they may still require overseas travellers to spend 2 weeks in quarantine with tests on day 1, 4 and 12 as it is here at the moment for returning Kiwi's.
All rather bleak but the strict measures that the Govt put in place have so far kept this devilish thing out of the community for some time now.
This all said, our country has alway relied on Tourism to the tune of 6% of GDP or $20 billion so whilst those who want to come cannot the tourist industry here suffers at the same time.
Zero Sum Game for all.
-
-
Mark,
Thanks. Very informative. In addition to NZ, I'm hoping that travel between the US and the EU will be opened up sooner rather than later; I have a racecar sitting in Denmark waiting for me. Best wishes,
Rich
-
No prob Rich,
Our cars cannot catch Covid and don't do quarantine, this is why I shipped it all home last year.
Unfortunately being geographically where NZ is we now are having Marine Container Shipping issues as well now.
We and industry is now being affected by the far reaching tentacles of this virus which concerns me nearly as much as this virus itself.
-
Very concisely summed up, Mark! And when the borders do finally open up & we can welcome fellow ESR members to NZ, we’ll organise to meet & buy you a beer! Our wine is pretty good too! :D
-
Of course with this virus, things change quickly ...
... New Zealand is today managing a case out in the community ....
It just shows that ... however careful .... elimination is impossible ... and we need that vaccine ...
Both Nz, and New South Wales (NSW - the Australian state with Sydney in it) have excellent contact tracing systems.
In NSW this means we can carefully ‘manage’ outbreaks as they come , without panicking and opening/closing l/opening/closing borders (which other Australian states are having to do, as their contact tracing isn’t good - and as their politicians seek airtime ...).
I’m in agreement with Mark - I think It will be 18 months away before Australia opens its borders too.
(We recognise - other folk need it more urgently than we do - so accept waiting for our turn...)
-
pgxif is correct. 2 days ago a person has tested + after leaving 2 weeks of managed isolation. After 2 days of continuing community testing in the areas that person visited there have been zero positive test results in the community as of yet.
It is important to note that NZ and Aust react really quickly to this sort of thing.
Australia immediately placed restrictions on Kiwis travelling to there country. Up until yesterday Kiwis could freely travel to Aust with no quarantine required because we had not had community transmission for 10 weeks and for the next 72 hrs any Kiwi's travelling to Aust must spend 2 weeks in managed isolation when they arrive in Aust.
Like Aust we have good 'contact tracing' apps which is why the Health Dept can isolate and test the community that this infected individual visited and so far results are all negative.
Both countries being island allows us to control our borders in an almost prison like manner and the Governments of both seem to be on an even keel in regards to dealing with this devilish virus which will hopefully allow free travel between them both in the near future.
The rest of the planet will have to wait for now to travel here which is a pain as we all got very used to being able to come and go to anywhere on the planet we wanted.
Stay safe everyone, Stay happy and be kind.
-
As an American with a kiwi girlfriend, we are hoping that its sooner than 18 months to get back... she misses her family in Christchurch and I'd sure love to bring a longhood down there and get involved with the wonderful early 911 community I've gotten to know a bit through facebook.
-
1 Attachment(s)
EARTHQUAKES.
The Earths crust groaned a couple of times overnight with a 7.1 m off the East Coast of the North Island followed by a 7.4 out by the Kermadec Islands
No damage reported but a tsunami warning in place for the east coast.
Attachment 546251