New Zealand has announced that it will establish a travel bubble with neighboring Australia in Q1 of 2021.

The idea behind it is that there will be a free travel corridor not requiring people to quarantine after crossing any of these countries’ borders.

In October, Australia waved the quarantine requirement for Kiwis, but New Zealand did not reciprocate. The Kiwis coming home from Australia still have had to spend 14 days in quarantine. This time there will be a quarantine-free regime both ways. However, it will come into force only if both countries’ circumstances remain stable (the number of coronavirus cases does not scale up).

“It is our intention to name a date…in the New Year once remaining details are locked down,” Ms. Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, said at a news conference in Wellington.

This move is of significant importance for both countries as they have a strong bilateral relationship. Australian citizens do not need a visa to go to New Zealand for traveling or work purposes, and vice versa.
Also, both Australia and New Zealand have done a relatively good job of protecting themselves from the coronavirus. New Zealand closed its borders in March and subjected international arrivals (including Australians) to undergo an obligatory 14-day quarantine. In a population of five million, just 25 deaths have been recorded. In Australia, 28,000 coronavirus cases have been registered, with 908 fatalities among them.