Bubble stuff
 

I have a number of friends involved in the Queenstown/Milford flightseeing industry. They were all ecstatic to see QF 121 land at ZQN today. Let's hope for everyone's sake that there are no speed humps on the road to recovery.

Unfortunately , On Track , those speed bumps on the road to recovery ,( or should that be judder bars ? ) you mentioned , I think will manifest some time around the 24-27th of April !

It is just a shame it has taken so long for family and friends to be reunited. This is what travel is about- not the tourism dollars.

This could have been the case last year if Jacinta looked at the big picture.

Imagine how many hugs and tears will happen when the rest of the borders open.....I hate being trapped in this country.

Can you explain why?

There is no evidence that the Sydney HQ internal outbreak has left the premises.

The bubble system is like sleeping with a casual partner. Realising that when you're intimate with that person, you're also sleeping with everyone else they sleep with too. So if NZ vaccinates all their population and opens up to other countries, what implications does that have to Australia? If the much anticipated Singapore or Japan bubbles open, then those countries open to others as well, what does that happen with the bubble with Australia? Singapore and NZ aren't going to consult Australia when they want to open up to other countries. What they may consider low risk opening to other countries may be high risk in Australia's view, the bubble has to pop and Australia becomes increasingly more isolated.

When SloMo say we're in no rush to administer vaccines, he's completely off the mark. As more countries open up with far superior vaccination programs Australia will get further and further behind and end up on the wrong side of the drag curve.

It's rather telling that where I live in the middle east (population 10 million), at least each adult has received one dose - 9 million doses given. Australia hasn't even reached 1 million.

So no, Australia can't wait.

Fuel-Off :ok:

1.5 million as at this morning.

The rest of your point is well made. It doesn’t help that the media have killed AZ in such a way that now even those aged 60+ are cancelling their appointments.

Thanks Keg, always happy to be corrected with updated statistics. The media certainly has a role to play in the shambles that is the Australian vaccination program. The vast majority of doctors worth their salt are adamant that it's safe, but of course the media go off with complete melt down hyperbole. Unfortunately I doubt there will be any accountability or change in behavior after this nightmare is over.

Fuel-Off :ok:

Please don't besmirch the name Jacinta, it's Jacinda, but then again most people I know don't call her that either. :)

The only big picture the celebrity PM looks at is public opinion. If the "focus group" feedback says the public think some thing is important then Cindy will think the same. She's far to afraid to say what she thinks in case it reduces her popularity. Unfortunately for too long a lot of the population were scared into thinking the borders needed to be closed at all costs and she wasn't going to go against the flow no matter what logic and reason might suggest.

We could have had workers from the Pacific Islands come here for seasonal work as they would have normally done, but no, sorry borders are closed. Those workers have gone to the West Island while our farmers have produce go to waste. :ugh:

There's a story on Stuff this morning: Red Zone Roulette: Green flight to Sydney takes a surpise twist. Could be a clue in there....

So apparently if you want to leave Aus and don’t want the hassle of applying for the exemption...... Use the bubble as there is a loop hole if you then depart EnZud! Gotta luv the gov.

you can use that loophole to leave but you would still need to do mandatory 14 days in hotel quarantine either in Aus or NZ.

Not talking about quarantine here, talking about the draconian North Korean like rule that says you require a permit to leave the country.

Bubble about to burst after two days?

A bit early for the doom and gloom predictions surely? Nobody expected that opening the bubble would make covid cases disappear! Let’s hope the case has accurately contact traced and it’s contained to very few people.

I’m surprised by how many people are frothing to see an outbreak from opening up the Tasman (on social media mostly).

I think the risk is very low. What is does show is the risk of vaccinated people still contracting the virus. I think the need for HQ will remain for quite some time to come...The idea of home quarantine still has lots of hurdles to overcome.

Aaaaaaaa........! Once more for the people at the back. The vaccine does not prevent you from catching the virus, it greatly reduces the severity of the disease...

I’m writing a speech for Anzac Day, to be delivered for my secondary employment. I began to write about the qualities of Australians in battle: courage, endurance, ingenuity, and it caused me to reflect on how we are faring in this pandemic.

I think we’re coming up short. :hmm:

Are you suggesting that this is a bad thing? Isn’t the point to get as many people vaccinated so that we can move onto treating this virus as any other disease? If your point is that the virus will never go away, that I agree with. What will be interesting is if this worker has passed it onto anyone. The security guard in Sydney, who was partially vaccinated, had no symptoms and was only picked up by routine testing. He also didn’t pass it on to any of his household. Wonder if there will be parallels with this NZ case.

No, not at all.

I’m just a bit disappointed when people don’t seem to realise what the vaccine is supposed to do. Covid will be around for a long time. Everyone needs to get vaccinated.

If media reporting is correct and my understanding of that reporting is correct (a VERY big if), the infected worker was working in the RED zone. So there is no immediate concern for the GREEN zone and the 'bubble'.

But what about the concern around the contact with people outside of the workplace?
Guess time will tell ....

God damnit, when are people going to use google and get some facts. It's that easy. Being vaccinated does not stop you getting a disease. Only a space suit will do that. But being vaccinated stops you getting really sick and stops you spreading the virus to others (your body can fight the virus better and it doesn't migrate to the upper respitory tract in huge numbers). The workers housemats/family have all come back negative. So the vaccine has done precisely what it said on the box.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/ind...rs-on-same-day

Covid-19: Customs and Immigration NZ officers can process red and green zone passengers on same day

The media are guilty but what are the govt doing to encourage people to get the AZ jab?
They recently said they wanted everyone over 50 to get vaccinated,that is hilarious because i am over 60 & when i put my details into their system to see if i am eligible it tells me i have to wait till the next stage of the rollout.
Scomo is all talk & no action,photo opportunities are his #1 priority.

Australians are now free to travel around the world. Simply catch a bubble flight to NZ, then hop on another flight to freedom. Just be warned, upon return to Australia you may face jail time or up to 63k in fines.

If you have an onward booking from NZ you need an exemption but I see nothing stopping you from getting to NZ then booking an international flight the next day.
Provided you comply with the 72hr testing requirements and 14day quarantine on return, why would you face jail/fine? They only warn that return flights may be extremely difficult to get.

If you have an exemption from the Austealuan border force then yes you are good for onward travel from NZ. However if you don't the NZ authorities can't stop you from leaving NZ to go elsewhere. Upon return to Australia you will face the consequences.

Says who??

From the Home Affairs website:
”*Australian citizens and permanent residents will be required to apply for an outward travel exemption before travel to New Zealand if:

• you have booked an onward flight from New Zealand to another overseas destination

Those who travel onwards from New Zealand to another international destination must be aware that returning to Australia or New Zealand is likely to be difficult because of the current restrictions on passenger numbers and the limited availability of flights.

Those who seek to travel from New Zealand to another international destination and then return to Australia will be required to:

• present a negative COVID-19 test result taken up to 72 hours before departure to Australia
• enter 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival at their own expense, and
• be tested periodically while in mandatory quarantine.”

If you get to NZ then book an onwards flight, what law have you broken?

To which country are you going to fly from NZ?

Rumours suggest the Kiwi cleaners of flights coming from higher risk Covid destinations were also the same cleaners cleaning aircraft in the Tasman ‘bubble’. Net result is crew and passengers in isolation in Australia. You would have thought 12 months down the track this sort of basic stuff would have been considered and there’d be no crossover between those working the bubble and those working flights external to the bubble.

Straya the prison island. Travel exemption makes me mad, if someone wants to leave why can’t they? Maybe sign a disclaimer saying yes I know it’s going to be an absolute clusterfook trying to get back but I’ll wear it.

If this latest round of C19 crapstick happening will Straya now really get serious about the jab?

AZ, Pfizer, whatever jab jab jab! Problem is a lot of Strayans don’t see the need. Until this changes to leave it will be prison break.

Ahh for the term of his natural life, Straya back to the prison island it started as.

I feel the ones whinging about not being able to leave would be the loudest whining about how hard it is to get back.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...da4692e904c698

Very concerning....

The bubble is truely stuffed!

And we kid ourselves that we are “free”.

We should be ashamed of what we’ve become. Our forefathers who gave so much for this country would be disgusted.

Or more than likely the ones who were alive during any of wars would say "Harden the **** up" or whatever thats period equivilent was

I say old chap, I do believe it was: ‘Keep calm and carry on’. :)

I wonder how many of the rolling 30+ thousand Australian stranded overseas considered a return via NZ?

Relatively few: only those who are NZ Citizens or Permanent Residents, nobody else has access to the NZ Managed Isolation & Quarantine [MIQ] / Hotel Quarantine system.
However there have been some. When we had an outbreak in an MIQ hotel, it was discovered that a number - a dozen or so IIRC - of people who had been isolated in that hotel couldn't be contacted for follow-up because they had already skipped to Australia. To somewhat mitigate this risk, Australia introduced a new rule that you couldn't access quarantine-free travel from NZ to Australia unless you had been in NZ for fourteen days after leaving MIQ.

🤔 🤔

Full bubble travel restored. Onwards and upwards