A travel bubble with certain Pacific Islands could be a matter of weeks away, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told media today.
"I think we're very close to cracking a deal with them, but we've got to ensure they've got the medical provisioning, the hospital security and the maritime security to ensure we don't harm them and they don't harm us," he said.
Mr Peters said they were "much closer than you think".
"It'll be a matter of weeks."
"We can all stand around ... and do nothing or we can decide we're going to come out of this as fast as possible.
"We've got a great record when it comes to Covid-19, so have some of the island nations and so have some of the Australian states. Let's get the successful ones together."
A quick turnaround on a trans-Tasman bubble seemed less plausible, however.
Mr Peters said he had been in constant communication with people about the trans-Tasman bubble "with respect to say, Tasmania".
"What you've got is a federal system where the states are not even allowing inter-state travel - until we can crack that, we need to say either let's do it state by state and that's a Canberra decision, or let's wait until Australia sorts itself out."
When asked if the bungled quarantine of two people who tested positive for Covid-19 this week had caused issues with creating a bubble, Mr Peters said "you're going to have a cacophony of experts on this matter but foreign affairs managed 149,000 people into and out of this country, at the same time there was no community transmission".
"We know we can do it.
Places like Queenstown need help and they need it now."
The quarantine handling saw criticism from the Opposition, with National leader Todd Muller saying the issue crushed the public's confidence of a speedy recovery and it would have an impact on the timing of a trans-Tasman bubble.
"I think it's all around the confidence New Zealanders have in their own border management and the confidence Australia has in our ability to manage the border."
"Because of this Government's shambolic incompetence in managing quite frankly the most critical issue of our time, means that those opportunities will be delayed and that will impact tens of thousands of New Zealand families as the job losses continue to bite."
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