NZ: First tourists fly to Rarotonga as travel bubble resumes after Delta outbreak

The first tourists are set to fly to Rarotonga from New Zealand on Friday morning as quarantine-free travel between the nations resumes. More than 200 passengers are booked onto Air New Zealand’s NZ946 flight at 8.45am from Auckland, five months after travel was halted because of the Delta outbreak in August. Before then, the Cook Islands and New Zealand travel bubble had been in place for three months, following a 15-month border closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Air New Zealand operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan said the airline was excited about the resumption of the travel bubble. “Lots of Kiwis are keen to head to Rarotonga, and we are seeing high demand for our quarantine-free Cook Islands flights and currently have one service per day scheduled,” she said. “Given there is some availability on services from late January onwards, we are not planning to schedule additional services at this time."<br/>