Before the COVID-19 pandemic, travel between Australia and New Zealand was near second nature. Australians didn’t need a traditional Visa to travel to New Zealand and New Zealanders didn’t need a traditional Visa to travel to Australia. It was thanks to this special category visa that the two countries experienced near exclusive and European style travel bubble.

But that connection between Australia and New Zealand is far more than just a visa category. It’s almost a mateship which has been given a label of unrestricted movement. Or at least it was. Then Coronavirus happened, and both Australia and New Zealand find themselves at the awkward position of closing all international border indefinitely.

This week, Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, announced that his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, would be joining Australia’s national cabinet in a move mooted to herald a new era of unrestricted Trans-Tasman travel thanks to Australia and New Zealand’s quick and strict response to Coronavirus.

“International travel won’t feel like that (sense of normality) for some time, but if we can find a way to make it work with Australia, then that would give that sense of normality if we can make it work,” Ardern stated upon joining Australia’s national cabinet this week.

Scott Morrison agreed, stating “At some point, both Australia and New Zealand will connect with the rest of the world again, the most obvious place for that to start is between the two countries,”

This has all come about thanks to Australia and New Zealand’s similar response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both in social distancing restrictions and in the flattening and quashing of infection number growth within a short period. Both countries experienced a spike in infections during late May and both similarly policed strict social distancing measures in the first week of April. The result is that the growth factor (or the rate at which the infection multiplies) for both countries has been at well under 1.0 for almost a month.

So, with New Zealand’s winter to soon be well in force, and both economies requiring some level of tender loving care, does this mean that Australians and New Zealanders will be able to experience an exclusive travel arrangement in the foreseeable future? The short answer is yes. Travel experts believe that in the medium term this is highly likely. Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management at the University of South Australia says that the exclusive quarantine free travel zone would “make a lot of sense”.

“The two neighbours have a unique opportunity to do this. Not only are they geographically isolated, but both have also so far had success containing – perhaps even eliminating – COVID-19 cases within their borders.”

Even with both countries working towards the dubbed “Trans-Tasman Travel Bubble” both Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison have flagged that plans will have to be strategized over the medium term and will not be immediate. But with that in mind, the easing of restrictions could potentially open up a “dream ANZAC summer” for willing tourists, with international airlines almost certain to entice travellers to get on a plane at some point shortly.