I wonder, with school holidays starting at the end of this week, how many people are put off by the bubble given the mess Australia’s in currently.

Quarantine free travel to South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the A.C.T is back open, but it comes with a warning. Epidemiologist Rod Jackson said go at your own risk, basically. Be prepared to be stuck there for weeks or even months, he says.

That’s harsh. But is it true?

How many people are still prepared to risk it?

I think a lot of us have acclimatised to the new reality of no international travelling at the moment.

Well not all of us. 

My sister hasn’t. Having lived in Europe for 10 years and travelled extensively she’s a wanderer with itchy feet. She’s hated not being able to travel. She’d booked the Gold Coast for the school holidays for her family but that’s obviously off now. So she’s booked the Cook Islands.

She said basically because it’s the only place she feels she can safely and easily go with her kids and she’s sick of not going anywhere. The second week of the holidays was already fully booked in terms of flights so clearly she’s not the only one feeling that way.

But I wonder how many Kiwis will still jump on planes to Australia at this stage, or whether they’ve been spooked?

Greater Sydney’s lockdown is due to end this Friday night, that remains to be seen if it will, given it’s still recording high numbers of cases. But their lockdown's not like our lockdowns. My girlfriend who lives there was saying it’s basically no school for the kids but you can move around. For example, you can go to your holiday homes, lots of shops and businesses are open, she hasn’t run out of toilet paper, her supermarket shelves aren’t bare. So it’s not as dire as we might think.

But Rod Jackson believes our approach regarding travel with Australia should still be one of caution. “Overly cautious,“ he said.

He’s also reported as saying that he doesn’t “think we can change that approach until nearly everyone is vaccinated.” Wow. That’s going to take a while then. Because the aim for us is to get 90 per cent vaccinated, which is a lot. 

Especially considering the States had a goal of 70 percent by July, they’re close, they're at 67 percent vaccinated currently.

The UK has 63 percent of its population fully vaccinated, and Australia’s sitting at a woeful 7 percent. And outbreaks are still happening, so can all countries ever really achieve herd immunity?

And if not, are we ever going to open our borders again? Or will overseas school holiday choices really just be Australia or the Cooks for the foreseeable?