Emotions fly at airport
There were hugs and tears at Auckland Airport as the first quarantine-free travellers arrived from Australia since the trans-Tasman bubble popped last year.
Covid-19 border restrictions were eased at 11.59pm on Tuesday, and the first flight touched down about 1am yesterday from Melbourne.
Jenny Macks was waiting in the arrival area. She hadn’t seen her two daughters since the pandemic started.
The three of them burst into tears as soon as they saw each other across the arrival gate.
Emily and Brianna said they were so excited to be on the first flight back home and hoped to stay with their mum as long as they could.
Julia Chen, who lives in Australia, also hadn’t seen her family since the pandemic began.
Her father and sister met her at the airport overnight, even though her sister had school early in the morning.
She had seven days planned with them before she returned to Sydney to study.
The second Australian flight, from Perth, touched down just after 6am. It was also carrying passengers from Santiago, Chile, and Los Angeles in the United States.
Chris Witrell and Beatrice Hazelhurt were greeted with tight hugs by Chris’ parents Ian and Julie Page after returning from Los Angeles.
Witrell and Hazelhurt had met in Los Angeles and decided to return home to New Zealand together to see their families.
They weren’t returning forever, but Chris planned to come home to New Zealand to live one day, he said.
Bette-May Waine was gearing up to drop her bags and run into the arms of her son, his Australian wife, and her grandchild.
She said her son, Michael, had been living in Australia since 2005 and it had been between three and five years since she had seen them.
The reunion was especially important for Waine because she had an ailing 96-year-old father who was keen to reunite with his whānau.
Further flights from Australia were expected at both Auckland and Wellington airports later yesterday
Air New Zealand said about 4000 passengers were expected on its flights yesterday. The airline had 11 near-full flights arriving from Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Perth.
‘‘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,’’ the airline’s chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said.
‘‘We’ve seen high demand across the Tasman with Aussies keen to reconnect with friends and whānau both in New Zealand and Australia.’’
The airline would be putting on 96 extra trans-Tasman flights until June to cope with demand, she said.