"We're ready to welcome the world back."
Those were the words of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday as she confirmed that New Zealand will reopen to the world much sooner than signalled.
From 11:59pm on April 12, the border will open to Australians. Then from May 1, tourists from visa waiver countries like the United States and Britain can flood in too.
Tourists will still need to be fully vaccinated, be required to submit a pre-departure test before their flight, take two COVID-19 tests during their trip and will be asked to self-isolate if they test positive in New Zealand.
But some of the COVID-19 restrictions we face - like vaccine passes - could be dropped come April.
"We are reopening and I'm asking our Australian friends and family to book their tickets," Ardern said at her press conference.
"But reopening in April, we capture the vast majority of Australian school holidays and we're well in advance of the winter ski season."
Sydneysiders are keen to jump the ditch.
"I've got a cousin who lives there so I'm desperate to go and visit her, so yeah, as soon as I can I think I'll head over there," one man told Newshub.
"I'd just like to see the countryside. It's supposed to be quite beautiful," another said.
David Nisbett's Taupo Sailing business has been difficult to keep afloat, obliterated by the border closures.
"I spent over $200,000 of our own money which was our house deposit keeping us going," he told Newshub.
He says 80 to 90 percent of his customers are offshore so now there's hope.
"We've already seen a couple of bookings come in already from our offshore providers."
Taupo needs its lifeblood back.
"They should have been allowed to come back quite some time ago," a local told Newshub.
But it's just the Aussies coming in April. Two weeks later, anyone from visa waiver countries like the US, UK and Canada can come too.
Everyone else - unless they're one of the half a million who already have a valid travel visa - will still have to wait until October. That includes the massive China market.
"This Prime Minister is dragging out the border opening decision longer than the saga of whether Ross and Rachel were on a break," said ACT leader David Seymour.
The Prime Minister will consider bringing it forward.
"We are revisiting that," she said. "We wanted to get these decisions out now but we are considering how we might be able to bring forward other visa categories as well."
The Government will also reconsider the restrictions Kiwis face too as Omicron spreads like wildfire. We still have a lot of COVID-19 rules in place that not everyone's abiding by.
Ardern said she still scans in, but National MP Chris Bishop admitted: "I haven't scanned in everywhere and I suspect I'm not the only one."
Seymour gave a similar revelation.
"No, there's no point in it, and I haven't been doing it for weeks."
The days of vaccine passes are numbered too.
"We see that the role of vaccine passes, once we come through that first wave, changes," Ardern said.
Cabinet is going to make decisions about that next week.
