The proposed travel bubble arrangement between New Zealand and Australia is back on the cards, with hopes that it could be in place before Christmas.

In April as New Zealand and Australia began to emerge from lockdown after reporting dramatic falls in new coronavirus infections, there were suggestions the two countries would resume tourism in what's being referred to as a "travel bubble" or formally as the "trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone."

 

The "bubble" would eventually see borders between the neighboring nations reopen for non-essential travel while borders remain closed to visitors from other countries. However additional outbreaks in Melbourne earlier this year, which prompted Victoria's state of emergency, pushed the plan further down the line.

 

The travel bubble would be a one-way system with New Zealanders allowed to travel quarantine-free to states in Australia free of the coronavirus, provided the region they're traveling from has gone 28 days without community transmission.