New Zealand: South Island re-opens next week

If NZ vaccination rates reach 70% next week, as they are expected to do, New Zealanders in Australia will be able to return without going into hotel quarantine.

NSW and Victoria have also agreed to receive travellers from the South Island without requiring quarantine from midnight on Tuesday 19 October. Welcome news for Australians stranded in the South Island.

“We hope to allow anyone who’s been in the South Island of New Zealand, whether they’re Australians, New Zealanders or other nationalities as long as they’ve been there for 14 days, to come in quarantine free.”

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly

The decision is based on the south island not having a case for at least a year.

However quarantine free travel between New Zealand and Australia ‘The Bubble’, remains suspended given New South Wales and Victoria still have high, if declining infection rates.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Is it just me, or does this rollout of international travel feel a bit random and unplanned for? Or maybe that’s the bitter me, who had to cancel a New Zealand holiday scheduled to commence on 30 November.