A passenger who was ordered off a flight to Rarotonga at the last minute says he has lost all confidence in the “fragile” Cook Islands bubble.
Ian Ryan and his partner were among the 13 Wellington passengers who were removed from an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Rarotonga on Thursday morning at the request of the Cook Islands health ministry.
The ministry said they had made the order to give themselves time to assess the situation in Wellington, after an Australian traveller tested positive for Covid-19 and the capital moved to alert level 2.
The Cook Islands bubble remains open despite the Covid-19 scare in Wellington.
On Thursday evening, Cook Islands officials confirmed they were once again welcoming travellers from Wellington under the bubble, provided they had not spent time in any locations of interest, and encouraged impacted travellers to rebook on the next available flight.
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But despite looking forward to spending 10 days in the Cook Islands on their first proper holiday in more than a year and a half, Ryan said yesterdays ordeal had put him off completely.
Weve decided were just not going to do it, because we think its too risky at the moment to go there, he said.
After being taken off the flight, Ryan said he and his partner and their fellow offloaded passengers were escorted from the gate back through security, and made to complete an arrivals form, despite not having left New Zealand.
They were then left in the public area of the airport, with no idea what was happening.
Everyone was trying to go to the ticket desk, and the ticket desk was saying, phone Rarotonga and sort it out yourselves.
On Thursday afternoon, they received an email from a Cook Islands health officer saying they wanted to interview them about locations of interest in Wellington. The email said if they hadnt been in the locations of interest, they could travel to the Cook Islands within the next couple of days.
But Ryan said they had already ticked all the boxes on their pre-departure forms to state they hadnt been in any locations of interest, so it was unclear why they needed to be taken off the flight in the first place.
They were also wary of making the trip after hearing from a fellow passenger whose family was already in Rarotonga that people from Wellington were being made to take Covid-19 tests and isolate in their hotel rooms.
We feel like there isnt really a bubble. Or if there is, its so fragile that its extremely risky from our point of view to travel, he said.
Wed just be concerned that if you get on a plane, its all going to change in four hours, so when you arrive you dont know what youre going into.
The couple had received a full refund on their flights from Air New Zealand, as well as money towards accommodation for the night they had to spend in Auckland.
They now planned to spend a couple of extra nights in Auckland in an attempt to salvage their holiday.
The Cook Islands Ministry of Health Te Marae Ora confirmed it had asked 114 tourists from Wellington to take a Covid-19 test, which included those who had arrived between June 18 and 21.
Cook Islands Tourism general manager for New Zealand and Australia Graeme West said on Friday all but a handful of these visitors had now been tested, with all results coming back negative.
West said most tourists would have had to self-isolate for no more than four to six hours while they waited for the result to be returned.