Wellington: New Zealand has already agreed to allow quarantine-free travel with Australia in the first quarter of 2021, nearly a year after it locked down its borders to protect its population from the global coronavirus pandemic.

As part of this, New Zealand is working to establish two-way "travel bubbles" with Australia and some Pacific Islands that could be in place within the next month, a Minister said on Thursday.

New Zealand's border has been closed to all but residents and citizens, with a few exemptions, since March 2020, as per reports. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson told Radio New Zealand on Thursday he was "very optimistic" the government would work out conditions for a travel bubble soon.

"There's a few issues still to talk through, including what we do in the event there is an outbreak, how we manage people who aren't in their home country at that time," he told RNZ.

Christchurch Airport, in the country's South Island, had been ready for a "bubble" since October, chief aeronautical and commercial officer Justin Watson said in a statement on Thursday.

Frontline staff had been vaccinated, and the airport had been split in two to allow for separate processing of "red and green" flights, he said. "Like us, the South Island tourism industry is eager to welcome Austral back." Two-way quarantine-free travel with the Cook Islands and Niue, both realm countries of New Zealand, is also on the cards.

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