New Zealand reopens to first foreign travellers

First Australian flight touched down at 6am in Auckland

Emotional loved ones greet each other at Auckland Airport (via REUTERS)

This morning, the first foreign visitors to New Zealand landed at its major city airports in the first stage of its phased reopening to international travellers.

The country - which has remained largely sealed off from the world since the start of the pandemic - is initially allowing only Australian visitors and permanent NZ residents to enter.

Both groups must be double vaccinated in order to visit, and must take a pre-travel Covid test. They can choose between a PCR in the previous 48 hours or an antigen or LAMP test within the previous 24.

Arrivals are also advised to self-test on day one, but only need quarantine if the result comes back positive.

Border controls will be relaxed further on 2 May, when vaccinated arrivals from countries that don’t require a visa for New Zealand will also be welcomed, including British tourists.

Australian arrivals were last allowed into NZ in summer 2021, during the countries’ short-lived “travel bubble” arrangement - which opened almost exactly a year ago but ended in July amid the emergence of the Delta variant.

Arrivals watch a Maori cultural group perform at Wellington International Airport (Getty Images)

Masks are still required in various places on the ground in New Zealand, including on flights, public transport and in some indoor settings such as hairdressers.

More than 4,000 travellers were expected to arrive in Auckland and Wellington today on Air New Zealand flights alone.

The airline has 11 near-full flights from Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Perth arriving into New Zealand on 13 April, the first having touched down in Auckland at 6am.

“This is the first step in welcoming international visitors back to our shores and we couldn’t be more excited for both New Zealand and Air New Zealand,” said the airline’s chief customer officer, Leanne Geraghty.

“We’ve seen high demand across the Tasman with Aussies keen to reconnect with friends and whānau [a Māori word for extended family or community], both in New Zealand and Australia.”

Chief executive of Tourism Aotearoa, Rebecca Ingram, added: “There’s definitely a more positive feeling about the future and the opportunities to rebuild businesses.”

Heading in the other direction, Australia is due to drop its pre-travel test for incoming foreign arrivals on Monday, 18 April.

“From 18 April 2022 travellers to Australia will no longer be required to undertake a Covid-19 pre-departure test before boarding their flight,” reads an update to the Department of Health guidelines.