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It felt like everyone had a baby in their arms at Melbourne Airport on Monday morning. But it was the adults shedding tears, as the Australia-New Zealand âtravel bubbleâ brought families separated by COVID-19 back together again.
âI was thinking it wasnât going to happen until we had the vaccine,â said Christina Cassin after touching down from Wellington just before 9am and embracing her five-month-old grandson Wolfe for the first time in the arrival hall.
âBut when they opened that bubble up I just knew I had to come on the first flight.â
Christina Cassin meets her new grandson Wolfe Rodgers, with her daughter Stacey and granddaughter Peyton.
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Australian tourism operators are hoping to coax Kiwi visitors off their aunty’s couch in Brisbane or Sydney and open their wallets to make the most of the trans-Tasman travel bubble that started on Monday.
With Australians and New Zealanders rushing to enjoy quarantine-free international travel for the first time in more than a year, the tourism industry is pushing to capitalise on the new visitors. Qantas operated 16 return flights on Monday.
There were family reunions in both Australia and New Zealand on Monday.
Justin McManus
New Zealand has always been one of Australia’s biggest tourism markets, but it is mostly driven by family reunions, with 600,000 Kiwis living in Australia. By contrast, just 75,000 Australians live in New Zealand.
NZ travel bubble: Flights resume from Melbourne Airport to New Zealand smh.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from smh.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.