iStock And there had been no noticeable influx since it opened, he said. The business would get a few more people during the ski season (set to open in the coming weeks), “but it is just a few”, Norris said. They were looking ahead to the Australian school holidays in September and October, and already had summer bookings from across the ditch. “September-October, that’s when we will hopefully start to notice [the bubble] significantly,” Norris said. He had his fingers crossed that there would be fewer travel bubble pauses and visitors could book holidays with confidence. As of May 17, people could leave New Zealand as part of the Cook Islands travel bubble, after months of quarantine free arrivals to Aotearoa.
Bookings would represent “some off-shoot” of that, but “not a massive wave,” Humphries said. “There is a lot of uncertainty because a lot of us don’t know how to plan for winter.” He said there were lots of package deals on offer in Queenstown at the moment, and when asked if Te Anau needed to be offering more deals, he said a lot of operators already had them.
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Te Anau motel co-owner Nigel Humphries is prepared for Australians to trickle in as the travel bubble opens. [File photo] “Prices are very competitive because we have a lot to come back from,” Humphries said.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
PM S PLAN: Boris Johnson has vowed to ban new sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 . He announced £2.8billion in funding as part of his ten-point green plan, including £1.3billon on the rollout of electric car charging points.
REALITY: The 2030 target is viewed by the industry as incredibly ambitious with car companies facing an uphill battle to meet demand on time - and the UK charging network needing to be increased to 20 times the size it is today.
The AA says the 2030 target is incredibly ambitious , with the three major concerns around electric cars for drivers being the initial cost of the car and availability, perceived single-charge range anxiety and charging infrastructure.