New Zealand

Showery morning at Terrigal

New Zealand is COVID-19 free and removing all internal restrictions.  It is good news and a reward for their single-minded pursuit of eradication which involved restrictions more onerous than Australia's.

However, maybe the achievement is more symbolic than seems at first glance.  The NZ authorities accept that cases may yet emerge.  They know that to restore the NZ economy they will have to allow foreign tourists to enter from countries who have not completely eradicated the virus, such as Australia.  Tourism is directly responsible for 5.8% of NZ GDP and 21% of their foreign exchange earnings, so is an important part of the economy.

North Avoca cliffs from the Skillion

The real achievement is an effective testing, tracing and isolation process that has identified and contained all know coronavirus transmission chains.  This capability can be deployed when new cases are imported, as will inevitably happen over the next twelve months.  To wait for complete eradication before opening their borders would condemn NZ to a long period of isolation.  I suspect they will be more pragmatic and accept travellers from low-transmission countries.  This should be the goal for all countries (and states) wanting to lift their restrictions, rather than total eradication.

The Haven rocks this morning

I walked my scheduled 5km this morning, with the hip flexor injury uncomfortably limiting my stride the whole way.  I preceded the walk with five minutes on my cycle trainer to see how the injury affected me riding a bike.  There were twinges, but it wasn't too bad.  There was a press report on the weekend that the Queensland government will announce a border opening date some time this week.  Assuming that date is in the first three weeks of July, Julie and I will embark on our bike ride around Australia in mid-July or earlier.  My interest in my cycling capability is more than academic.

We are driving down to Victoria tomorrow for a week to visit family, so my blog posts maybe sporadic, depending on the time I have available.