The Lunar New Year is proving bittersweet for Chinese Kiwis unable to travel to see loved ones amid the Covid-19 border closures this year.
It comes as Auckland was alight with colour to mark the new year following the trying times brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I think it is amazing, wonderful," one woman said. "Among a whole year of pandemic, finally we can come to a time to celebrate the good times together."
Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple, in Flat Bush, was also much busier than normal.
"Because the border's closed, the people tend to stay in New Zealand,” Fo Guang Shan's Lintao Yu said.
For many, it means the events are tinged with sadness.
“When you live very far from each other, it's when a time when everybody has to come back together, have to have their meals together, to visit all your relatives so yeah, it's quite hard we are not home,” Pearly Cheong said.
The last time everyone was together as a family to celebrate the new year was four years ago, Cheong said.
“You want to be in that celebrative and festive mood but at the same time, you really miss home.”
Cheong has had two children since moving to New Zealand from Singapore.
“During the first lockdown I lost my grandmother, so she didn't get to see both of them before she left,” she said.
“I do hope we can go back soon.”
Kiwi tourism operators are also hoping they can welcome visitors back here soon, too.
Tourists from China typically bring in around $260 million over the 15 days of the Lunar New Year.
“If you take it over an annualised level, it's more than $1.7 billion of lost revenue for New Zealand,” Tourism New Zealand chief executive Rene de Monchy said.
De Monchy said as domestic tourism slows down, "this is where the big hole is really opening up" and we "can’t fill the hole that has been left by international tourism".
In the meantime, Tourism New Zealand is keeping up its international marketing, hoping we’ll be at the top of travellers’ lists "even if they don't know yet when that is," he said.
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