Border reopening plan brought forward
The Government will open the New Zealand border to vaccinated Australian tourists from 11.59pm on April 12.
Tourists from visa-waiver countries like the United States and UK will be able to arrive from 11.59pm on May 1.
Others who already hold visas will be able to travel without isolation from May 1 too.
They will need to be vaccinated and test negative in a pre-departure test – but will not be required to isolate upon arrival.
These tests could be a PCR test or supervised LAMP test or RAT.
Visitors will be provided with RATs on arrival and need to take a test on arrival and on day 5 or 6.
This is a shift from an earlier timetable that put Australia and the visa-waiver countries into one grouping.
The dates were announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday.
‘‘Reopening in time for the upcoming Australian school holidays will help spur our economic recovery in the short term and is good news for the winter ski season,’’ Ardern said.
The wider opening to the rest of the world is also likely to be brought forwards from October.
The opening to Australia aligns with school holidays in many Australian states.
New Zealand has had several plans for opening its border delayed or changed in the last year, as first Delta and then Omicron shifted the Government’s thinking.
Earlier this year it got rid of isolation requirements for returning Kiwis and existing visa holders, first shifting to selfisolation and then lifting that requirement as Omicron cases shot up.
In February, the Government said tourists would be able to return from July at the latest, but cautioned that this date would likely be moved forwards.
Returning Kiwis looking to skip managed isolation currently have to be vaccinated and provide a negative pre-departure test.
Arrivals also have to complete rapid antigen tests soon after arrival and if positive get a labbased PCR test, so the virus they are bringing in can be sequenced.
The Government has been under relentless pressure to open the border more fully in recent months.
National and ACT have both pushed for the border to open faster, as have many tourism operators.
Prior to the pandemic, New Zealand welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors a month, with 326,000 people crossing the border in January 2020. That number has sunk to the low thousands for much of the pandemic.