Here’s to fair skies and safe travel Trupti Biradar
Hello 2021! Like most of the world, here at Stuff Travel we are so glad to see the back of a truly horrendous year. One that saw so many lives, and livelihoods, lost. But it’s a new year now, and there’s a lot to be optimistic about.
As you sit, sipping your coffee in your comfy chair reading this paper, people around the globe are starting to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
There’s talk of a Yellow Card or Carte Jaune (a medical passport issued by the World Health Organisation), containing proof of vaccination, which may help to ease strict border restrictions to see some form of international travel resume.
We can, hopefully, expect a travel bubble with our island neighbours in the first quarter of this year, starting with the Cook Islands then Fiji.
And if our Aussie mates behave, then we’ll be heading across the ditch soon enough.
By the middle of the year most of us will likely be in a queue to be vaccinated, and there’s hope that we can venture further afield later in the year.
I, for one, will be getting that vaccine as soon as I can get my hands on it and heading to India to spend some much needed time with my family, who have spent the better part of the last year in lockdown.
Despite the challenges of the year, we’ve been very lucky here in Aotearoa, a fact that is driven home every time I chat to friends in the United Kingdom and the United States.
We’re lucky to have the freedom to enjoy summer in our spectacular backyard. We’ve been able to enjoy our stunning country, from remote fiords and vast national parks to shimmering beaches and bustling cities.
At Stuff Travel we also achieved a lot last year, too. We launched our Back Your Backyard campaign and helped countless tourism operators keep the wheels of their businesses turning. From the fairy-tale treehouse in Whangarei ,to a $35 island escape in the Marlborough
Sounds, we unearthed some spectacular gems in Aotearoa.
We launched a Stuff Travel booking site to give you, our readers, an easy way to see the country.
And we continue to be committed to showing you why closed borders don’t mean we’re missing out. It just means that, for the time being, we can enjoy all these spoils just to ourselves because, once those vaccines are widespread, we’ll be back on the world’s bucket list.
I’ve already started my 2021 travel list. It includes Stewart Island, Marlborough and the West Coast.
What are your travel dreams for this year? I’d love to hear from you. Email me at trupti.biradar@stuff.co.nz.
Thanks for coming along for the ride, and good riddance, 2020!