We Say/You Say: trans-Tasman bubble

Hi Kāpiti!

After more than a year of closed borders, Australians and New Zealanders will soon be able to jet-hop between countries after the government announced that the trans-Tasman travel bubble is to be operational from April 19.

With quarantine-free travel now possible, are you more likely to head across the Tasman or travel domestically?

Fronting Australian media yesterday, Jacinda Ardern not only spoke of the excitement of families being able to be reunited, but also pitched New Zealand tourist activities to Australian viewers.

"If there is a hot spot in one of the states of Australia we may just act in the same way that another state would ... Just prepare that there may be disruptions, but what better place in the world to be stuck. Am I right?," she said.

The trans-Tasman bubble will operate on a three tier basis: Continue, Pause and Suspend. If there are a few cases in Australia linked to the border, quarantine-free travel will continue. Travel may be paused for 72 hours if there are rogue community cases and in the instance of a state or nationwide lockdown, travel will be suspended.

Share your thoughts below and don't forget to type NFP if you don't want your comment featured in the Conversations page of the Kāpiti Observer.

More messages from your neighbours

17 hours ago

Driven On The Akatarawa Rd Lately?

Marie from Waikanae

If so, its good to know you are still alive and reading this.

We have a function to go to over Christmas up that way and having heard a few hairy stories about the road, I went up there on Thursday to check it out. The road's ok, narrow and winding, but not much worse than a Wellington hill suburb. What was pretty scary was the behavior of other drivers. Three vehicles heading the other way at speed would have crashed into me if I hadn't been pulled off the road. I had pulled in to check the address when a truck came flying past, taking up all of the narrow road at speed. There is no way the driver would have been able to stop had they come around the corner immediately in front of me. The other two drivers came hurtling past as I had turned in to turn around and come back down the hill. They were also driving at speed and taking up most of the road. Coming back down I passed another car coming up and estimate that the safe speed to pass another car was about 30-35 kms.p.h. So, now we're thinking, do we go to the function or not.? Feels a bit like we're taking our life in our hands going up there. Drivers appear to be overconfident, and they are courting serious injury.