Jacinda Ardern suggests no quarantine-free travel with Sydney in near future

A departures board is seen at Sydney Airport

There is a "significant road to travel" before quarantine-free travel with New South Wales reopens, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says. 

"We believe the delay will be long enough to justify bringing New Zealand back for a period of isolation in our MIQ facilities," Ardern told media today.

"That's an indication we think there is a significant road to travel.

"It is a significant outbreak, which is why we are preparing for the longer haul."

The bubble with NSW was closed on June 22 and it will be the last state to reopen, with the pause with Queensland set to lift tomorrow. 

However, Ardern said the two-week MIQ stay that returnees from NSW will have to undertake gave an indication of how long the pause on the bubble may last. 

She compared today's NSW reporting of 112 community cases to New Zealand's peak of 89, describing the Sydney Covid situation as a "significant outbreak". 

"It is a significant outbreak, which is why we are preparing for the longer haul,” the Prime Minister said today.

The Government was preparing for the long haul when it came to bringing people back. 

This morning, the first flights and MIQ tickets for trapped Kiwis in NSW reportedly sold out in 15 minutes. 

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they did not know what the demand for travel back from NSW would be, with a possibility of the two-week isolation period potentially dropping demand. 

There were 1000 rooms available in the first two weeks, with an estimated 2000 people who reside in New Zealand trapped in NSW.

Five-hundred rooms had been set aside when the trans-Tasman bubble first opened, and the additional 500 came from delaying maintenance work and not cohorting.

Hipkins said there would be about 650 spaces available in the first week of MIQ being needed for returnees from NSW, 350 would be available next week, with 500 spaces available after that. 

He added a number of people who needed MIQ were couples and families, which could mean more people could fit into rooms. 

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