On the island bit - the travel situation is quite different to NZ. We have a lot more traffic for business, multiple busy airports, a rail link to the Schengen

On the island bit - the travel situation is quite different to NZ. We have a lot more traffic for business, multiple busy airports, a rail link to the Schengen area and cheap access to international travel. We probably had a lot more routes for the virus to get in, and I think the assumption now is that it was circulating since the winter (although most of the news websites I can find are screaming tabloids). Politically, locking down borders was not palatable to the government - I don't think we ever closed the border actually, we just made it very impractical for people to travel. Someone was actually able to get to Paris for a haircut a month or so ago. https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/18/locked-down-brits-in-need-of-a-haircut-can-just-get-one-in-paris https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/18/locked-down-brits-in-nee...