Families unable to mourn the deaths of their loved ones and parents split from children are just two examples of the heartache brought on by the pause of the trans-Tasman travel bubble.
The pause to quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand has left some travellers stranded. Photo: AFP
With rising case numbers of the Delta and Alpha variants throughout Australia, the government here will today decide if the bubble must remain on hold.
Christine Stewart is stuck in Brisbane, unable to get home. Her brother in New Zealand died last Friday, and she found out on Saturday - the day the bubble closed.
"It's so disheartening because you don't get the chance to say goodbye, to grieve ... you just can't get the closure you need."
Her brother has now been cremated. She did not get to see his body.
"You sort of feel ... angry, disappointed. It was devastating."
She still hopes to come back as soon as she can, and at the very least, wants to get back for her father's 96th birthday in September. But even that's not assured.
Another New Zealander, Shelly Venning, rushed over to New South Wales to see her father, whose health was deteriorating.
He died a couple days after she got there. She had a flight booked back here for last Wednesday, and then the night before, the New South Wales travel pause came in.
"I've got a 10 and 12 year old who are in Wellington with their Dad at the moment... They've just lost their Grandpa, so I've been saying to them 'I can't wait to get back and give you a big hug,' and I don't know how long it's going to be. It's pretty tough."
With Sydney's case numbers rising, Venning does not know how long it will be before she is home.
"I'm really worried I'll be here in lockdown in Sydney until next Friday, and then if I have to come back and quarantine for two weeks, it'd be five weeks [since leaving]."
An empty Harbour Bridge in Sydney during the city's current two week lockdown. Photo: AFP
The government paused quarantine-free travel from all of Australia on Saturday night. That three day order is set to expire tonight, so Cabinet will meet today and decide if the pause continues.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested it will, saying some Australian cases pose too many uncertainties.
"From Victoria we've had an air steward who's been on multiple domestic flights, in Brisbane there seems to be an infection control issue around a quarantine that's led to cases, and in Northern Territory they're still running down potential contacts and cases that may have spread through other parts of Australia," Ardern said in a post-Cabinet briefing yesterday.
Cabinet will be looking at how each of the outbreaks are tracking and the restrictions on travel between states.
"And then we'll just be applying a level of cautiousness. We don't want a situation where because we haven't taken a cautious approach, we've exposed New Zealand unnecessarily to risk."
Four Australian states recorded new locally acquired cases yesterday, and even one that did not - South Australia - imposed greater restrictions. About 80 percent of the population is now under Covid orders.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Delta strain is so transmissible almost 100 percent of cases' household contacts end up infected.
