Figures obtained under the official information act show the government spent $9.1 million sending international returnees to 32 different MIQ facilities around the country between December last year and February this year.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
It spent $4.9 million on air transportation and $4.1m on buses.
That is a cost many argue should never have been incurred - because a November public health assesment by Dr Caroline McElnay, signed off by Dr Ashley Bloomfield noted that internationals arrivals did not pose a higher Covid risk.
It took another three and a half months before most travellers could enter the country free of MIQ.
Bailey Stewart had been living in Australia for a few years when her mental health took a turn for the worse at the end of last year, she needed to come home to her family in Christchurch, but could not get an MIQ spot.
"I was at serious risk of being homeless because they had already found someone to fill my apartment, looking at going into a hotel for an unknown period of time would have cost thousands living in Sydney. Things are not cheap so you know where is all my stuff gonna go, I advised my job that I was moving back to New Zealand."
Stewart finally managed to book a ticket a few days after the trans-Tasman bubble re-opened in April this year - but said kiwis should have been trusted to do home quarantine.
"If we had been told to stay at home and to quarantine at home, we would have done so you know, like I have a friend and she missed the death of her mother all because you don't trust us as Kiwis."
In June last year, Vanya Petkova went to Bulgaria for a month, to help her brother who was struggling during the pandemic.
It was six months before she scored an MIQ spot, completing managed isolation in Christchurch.
"It's a lot of money, really frustrating for me and for many people I know as well again, this is just just absolutely not fair to the people.
"All this uncertainty ... it's been not fair to people, but there was no other way to come to New Zealand," she said.
Auckland barrister Tudor Clee has represented many Kiwis - most of them pregnant and struggling to return to New Zealand during the pandemic.
"Right up until even the middle of February, we had people who were under incredible stress, incredible pain, which impacts directly on the well being of the baby.
"So every single day mattered for these people, and to find out that it could have been fixed or at least addressed in some way, perhaps with home isolation three months earlier it's just a real kick in the guts," Clee said.
He did not mince his words at MBIE's transportation price tag.
"Yeah, I think it's an outrageous waste of money that could have been spent on actually helping people who had Covid or needed to recover from it."
Clee said those who stayed in MIQ during that time should not pay their bill.
"People need to put the onus back on the government and say I'm not paying it, if a debt collector comes, say I don't accept the bill and you need to justify it. I don't think people are looking to rip off the taxpayer or to get a free ride, but they're certainly entitled to an explanation and they haven't been given it at this stage."
The government said the extension of MIQ was justified.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said: "The advice referred to [and] focussed on the Delta variant, before the more contagious Omicron variant had been classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation."
