Family split as bubble hope pops

It has been five long months since Angela Hughes has been able to give her two daughters a hug.

The Kiwi mum is living in a Covid-free bubble in the Northern Territory of Australia, while her daughters, Paige, 15, and Ella, 13, continue their education at St Peter’s in Cambridge.

Hughes is one of many parents across the ditch calling on the Australian and New Zealand Government to open up the transTasman bubble.

They also want to see an end to the negative reactions they receive for simply wanting to travel to see their children.

‘‘I just want to be able to bring them home to us,’’ Hughes said. ‘‘My 13-year-old is very homesick; when her nana asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said she just wanted her mum.’’

Hughes said there were no active cases in the Northern Territory but she would happily sit through the required 14-day quarantine just to see her daughters.

‘‘I am looking at taking leave without pay, so I can go to New Zealand, do the 14-day quarantine and bring the girls back for the Christmas holidays and they do the 14-day quarantine here.’’

Paige and Ella normally return to Australia in the school holidays, and Hughes would visit during each school term.

Moving back home was not an option for Hughes as education and living costs were too dear.

Paige told Stuff it had been hard being away from their mum for so long and she was hopeful of a trans-Tasman bubble soon.

Yet the reality remains a distant dream, as Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announced recently that it was still too ‘‘dangerous’’ to reopen the borders.

Ardern said bubbles would only reopen with the Pacific and Australia when it was safe. But when those bubbles do reopen, there is a worry those who return will continue to receive backlash.

It has been over six months since a rural Australian resident, who did not want to be named, saw her 14-year-old son. He is at school in New Zealand.

‘‘Why can’t I feel no guilt coming back and spending eight weeks to see my son . . . am I going to get out of quarantine and be treated like rubbish? I don’t want to feel guilty for wanting to see my child.’’

She jumped the ditch 10 years ago and now resides in rural New South Wales. ‘‘If we knew this was going to happen, there is no way I would have let him go. If the flights went into non-international airports there would be no transmission . . .

‘‘I am in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and it will be no more risk than those coming from Dunedin or Queenstown because there is no Covid where I am.’’

She pays $55,000 towards her son’s school fees, incidentals and travel costs at St Paul’s in Hamilton.