New Zealand to drop pre-travel test earlier than expected

Having kept its borders tightly closed for much of the pandemic, this nature and adventure favourite is ramping up its reopening

Lake Matheson on South Island, New Zealand (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

New Zealand, which only opened to most international visitors on 1 April, has decided to drop its pre-travel Covid test requirement earlier than planned.

From Tuesday, 21 June, visitors to the country will no longer have to take a Covid test - currently required to be a PCR, supervised antigen or LAMP test - within the 48 hours before departure.

A statement on the New Zealand government’s Covid-19 website advises: “Travellers whose first international flight to New Zealand departs after 11.59pm (NZT) 20 June 2022 do not need pre-departure tests. This applies to people entering New Zealand from anywhere in the world.

“If your flight to New Zealand departs before 11.59pm (NZT) 20 June 2022, you still need to meet pre-departure testing requirements.

“Most travellers still need to be vaccinated, and take two rapid antigen tests (RATs) after arriving in New Zealand.”

Britons travelling to the country will still need to provide proof of full vaccination, unless they have a valid medical exemption, which must be logged with authorities 72 hours before your flight.

The country’s Covid response minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said: “Around 90 per cent of international arrivals undertake their required testing once they are in the country, with only a 2-3 per cent positivity rate.

“We’ve taken a careful and staged approach to reopening our borders to ensure we aren’t overwhelmed with an influx of Covid-19 cases.

“Our strategy has worked and as a result it’s safe to lift pre-departure test requirements much sooner than planned.”

New Zealand remained largely sealed off to the world during the Covid-19 pandemic, only reopening to nations beyond Australia from the beginning of May 2022.

At the beginning of the year, the government announced a wider phased reopening which began on 27 February.

Tourism minister Stuart Nash recently told Travel Weekly that the country had been hit hard by the dearth of tourism over the past two years.

He said: “In certain areas of our country, it’s been really tough. Places like Queenstown, for example, and Milford Sound – are some of the iconic Kiwi places down on the South Island that had a real reliance on international tourism.

“Overall we’ve really missed international tourists.

“There’s so much to see and do in New Zealand and there’s something for everyone, whether you’re into adventure, tourism, skiing, fine wine and food, and friends and family.”

From the 21 June rule change, British travellers will still need to sign a Traveller Declaration and be issued a New Zealand Traveller Pass before travelling to New Zealand.

This involves registering your flight details, passport details, proof of vaccination, travel history for the previous two weeks and contact details while in New Zealand with the authorities.

Leisure travellers going there for up to six months also need to pay for a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) visa waiver for NZ$9 (£4.30) and a “Conservation and Tourism Levy” of NZ$35 (£18).