A New Zealand couple living in New South Wales who have planned a wedding three times over the past two years, are now facing another hurdle as new self-isolation restrictions for overseas visitors to the state would see family miss the wedding by 24 hours.
Following four positive cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has ordered all international arrivals to quarantine at home for 72 hours.
Perrottet insisted the NSW international and state borders would remain open.
It comes as Kiwis Brendon Peters and Kaitlin Kloss are trying for a third time to wed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Six members of their family in Christchurch are scheduled to land in NSW the afternoon of December 8 but the wedding is planned for December 10, meaning the family members would miss the event by 24 hours due to the new 72-hour isolation requirement.
Both sets of parents and Kloss’ two sisters, due to be at the wedding, applied for exemptions on Monday night, appealing to the NSW Premier to allow them to have a shorter self-isolation period.
“The border closures due to Covid have been so hard on us, like many others, and I never expected when I kissed my mum goodbye at her 50th birthday party in February 2019 that I wouldn't see her again for three years but here I am staring down that barrel.” Kloss told 1News.
"Families have been put through hell, just being put in and out of lockdown, not being able to travel, especially with the trans-Tasman situation."
Peters and Kloss, who have been engaged since 2019, would also lose about $50,000 if they cancelled the wedding.
“Things are continuing to spiral and rules that were being relaxed are being reintroduced,” Kloss says.
“We have got six days to get a solution and to be honest, I feel like I’ve continued to hold out hope and pivot, jump over every single hurdle thrown at me. I have run out of hope at this stage.
“I feel heartbroken. I cannot believe this has happened so close to the finish line. I feel like I have been running a marathon and then fallen so close,” Kloss says.
Air New Zealand cancelled more than 1000 flights up until the end of the year last Monday due to continued border uncertainty between New Zealand and Australia.
Chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the "difficult decision" was made as it appeared unlikely quarantine-free travel between the two countries would resume this year.
Kloss said the airline had been "super-helpful" in re-booking cancelled flights and feels disappointed by the NSW and New Zealand Government over "their unwillingness to open up the trans-Tasman bubble soon enough".
A long-awaited wedding
The couple met in Christchurch after Kloss immigrated there from Canada in 2010. They moved to Sydney in 2014.
The wedding was originally planned to be in Canada in late August 2020 but was re-planned for August 2021 amid the pandemic. The pair then booked a venue in the Hunter Valley for December 2021 after international travel restrictions hampered their second attempt.
"We have already spent so much money on trying to secure MIQ rooms, changing flights and changing venues," Kloss says, adding everyone in the family are "really stressed".
"Everyone has reached a point where there are concerns for mental health and we are at a point where we need to be reunited.
"I just hope that somebody hears this story and knows mine is not the only story like this. People have endured so much trial and tribulation for the past 18 months.
"We don’t want to sacrifice our own wellbeing and mental health when we have done everything that has been asked of us," Kloss says.
The three-day quarantine order for NSW is on top of a federal government requirement for travellers to enter quarantine for two weeks if they have been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi or the Seychelles in the past 14 days.
Perrottet said 141 people have come to the state from the nine countries of concern over the past 24 hours, and all have been sent to hotel quarantine for 14 days.
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