Auckland hits back at Aussie media's call to avoid Kiwi City 16 Apr, 2021 04:26 AM 5 minutes to read Travel-starved Australians are unlikely to heed calls to 'Avoid Auckland'. Photo / Todd Eyre, ATEED Thomas Bywater is a writer and digital producer for Herald [email protected]@ThomasBywater The transtasman safe travel route is imminent. Next week Auckland Airport will see 400 plane loads of Aussies unload in the first wave of quarantine-free visitors to New Zealand. However, according to some travel critics, they are all making a mistake. An article in Traveller.com.au magazine has told Australians to "Avoid Auckland". Offering general advice on the risk of Covid travel disruption the story wrote-off New Zealand's largest city as too high a risk of a snap lockdown to visit.