A man wanting to visit New Zealand for his mum's funeral is among hundreds of travellers in limbo either side of the Tasman sea, during a partial 48-hour pause of the travel bubble.
Photo: AFP
Health officials remain in contact with their Australian counterparts about two mystery Covid-19 cases in Sydney which prompted the halt, and expect to provide an update tomorrow morning.
Matt Stevenson, a former Wellingtonian living in Sydney, said it had been abrupt and "bewildering" news to learn he couldn't fly, following the sudden death of his mother on Monday.
He'd planned to reunite with New Zealand family members, including his daughter for the first time in a year, then go to the funeral in Tauranga tomorrow.
"I've had up until yesterday to get used to the fact Mum's passed away. When I couldn't go to the funeral that was a whole new level of bewilderment I guess. I was just not sure how to take it to be honest," he said.
Stevenson said he had usually supported the decisions New Zealand has made in handling Covid-19, until now.
"I thought this was a bit shit, given my personal circumstances. I was quite happy that the borders opened up between New Zealand and Australia but I thought this was a bit knee-jerk reaction," he said.
"There's two people in a household [with Covid-19], why the hell are we closing the borders again? I was pretty close to packing a bag to come back to New Zealand to say good-bye to my mum and then all of a sudden, I can't even do that."
At least three flights slipped into New Zealand from Syndey last night after the pause was announced and prior to midnight when it came into effect.
Today and tomorrow dozens of flights are cancelled, including 11 Air New Zealand services and two Jetstar services.
People can still go quarantine-free in the other direction.
Sydney's mystery cases are a husband and wife who went to 23 locations of interest, including seven eateries, four barbecue shops, a cinema and a supermarket.
Genomic sequencing has identified a match with a case in a quarantine hotel but New South Wales health authorities say there's a missing link which would explain the transmission.
They are worried at least one other person could be spreading the virus unwittingly.
After more than 13,000 Covid-19 tests in 24 hours, New South Wales Health announced no further positive results in their midday update today.
The state's premier Gladys-Berejiklian gave the New Zealand government's decision on the travel bubble a frosty reception.
"To me, it's an overreaction, but that's fine, I respect the Prime Minister and if that's what she wants to do, that's what she does.
"But I certainly think the response should be proportionate to the risk. Whilst we have had cases in the community, whilst we don't know where the links are, you can take measures to stop a super-spreading event which is what we've done," she said.
Sydney ABC reporter Ruby Cornish said New Zealand's travel bubble pause was the strongest action any jurisdiction had taken in response to the cases, so the reaction wasn't surprising.
"Our premier Gledys Berejiklian - she has a bit of a reputation for preferring not to lock down, or at least having a bit of a lighter touch regarding lockdowns, compared to other states here in surprising," she explained.
The Ministry of Health is contacting 5214 people who have arrived in New Zealand from Sydney since Friday last week to provide them with advice.
They're asking them to check if they visited the locations of interest and if so, isolate and get tested.
One person, identified by Australian health authorities as being at a location of interest, has already been moved to managed isolation in Christchurch.
The Ministry of Health said they are being tested but they are not symptomatic.
Covid-19 modeller and University of Canterbury professor Michael Plank supports the halt on quarantine-free travel, and moves to follow up with travellers, because it buys time to assess the risk.
"I think the risk is probably quite low, but the issue is the risk is it could escalate quite quickly if the bubble was allowed to continue and it turned out there were actually a lot more cases in Sydney than had been found so far," he said.