What it's like to travel in New Zealand during Alert Level 4

New Zealand's recent outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant has kept us all at home, but what about the few of us that get to experience the mysterious world of travel while our streets are empty?

I recently found myself travelling to Auckland from Tauranga for a work meeting. While I was relaxing and preparing for my journey at the Tauranga Airport Koru Lounge, rumours began to spread about a community COVID-19 case in Auckland. Many of us, already shaken from the events going on in New South Wales, assumed the new case would be of the highly infectious Delta variant.

With no official advice on alert level changes or 'Do Not Travel' advisories, I made the choice to continue my journey up to Auckland, on one of New Zealand's last Alert Level 1 flights for a while. Upon landing in New Zealand, I was greeted with news that the entire country would be entering Level 4 lockdown restrictions at 11:59pm that evening. My colleagues and I swiftly booked travel back to our various origin points, myself managing to get a 6pm flight the next day.

Upon arrival at the airport for my return flight to Auckland, we were, socially distanced, greeted by security guards validating our tickets before being allowed to enter the airport terminal. Many of the self check-in kiosks had been closed to encourage physical distancing on the ground. After checking in and dropping off my luggage, I decided that flying under the strict Level 4 conditions did not vastly differ from regular travel within New Zealand. Besides the crew wearing spit-masks, and the closed off kiosks. I even had someone sat next to my for my return flight to Tauranga.

Like during last lockdown, New Zealand's airspaces have seen less flights per day than ever before. However, after the previous lockdown, Air New Zealand reported to have recovered 100% of their usual domestic and regional service capacity.