There were hugs, tears and even a bouquet of red roses after the first Auckland-Queenstown flight touched down on Wednesday morning.
Aucklanders were able to reunite with friends and whānau and there were plenty of moments worthy of Love Actually in the wake of the region's borders reopening on Tuesday night after 119 days.
Married couple Simon and Linda had been separated by the Delta outbreak. He was seen folding her into his arms with a bouquet of home-grown red roses.
"The last three weeks were quite hard, but it's okay, we're here now," Linda said.
READ MORE: Matty McLean in tears as he reunites with siblings
"I've got three weeks off so it's lovely — and it's Christmas."
Breakfast weather presenter Matty McLean also had a beautiful reunion of his own with his sister Mikaela and brother Rob.
They had not all been together for three years.
"This is really special and it's so nice to see you."
Air New Zealand's Leeanne Langridge said it was "magic" to see Aucklanders reuniting with their friends and whānau.
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"It was kind of that Love Actually moment, people coming through the terminal."
Queenstown Lakes mayor Jim Boult said the town was "very pleased" to see Aucklanders back and the reunions had him feeling "very Christmassy".
"I ran into a bloke who hadn’t seen his wife for four months standing there with a bunch of roses in his hand. How good is that?"
Queenstown Airport chief executive Glen Sowry said it was a "real privilege" to witness the reunions.
"Just fantastic seeing that big black A321 landing this morning was just superb.
"To be in the terminal and to see the emotion of people meeting loved ones and friends and family they hadn’t seen for all those months was just fantastic and the energy in the terminal this morning was amazing."
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