Reopening New Zealand's international border is next on Jacinda Ardern's COVID to-do list after announcing a 15 December end to the "Auckland prison".
Auckland has been in lockdown since 17 August - 93 days ago - as the country grapples with a Delta outbreak imported from NSW.
COVID-19 has never hit NZ harder than now: daily case numbers have surged past 200, and hospitalisations are nudging 100.
As vaccination rates rise, the government has been under immense pressure to let double-jabbed Aucklanders return to work, education and travel.
Ms Ardern relented this week, announcing freedom of movement in and out of NZ's biggest city from 15 December - but only for vaccinated Kiwis, or those with proof of a negative test.
She also announced NZ will also shift away from mass lockdowns in early December, with a date to be set at a crunch cabinet meeting on 29 November.
With the big internal decisions out of the way, the last major call is when NZ will open up to the world.
A government spokesman told AAP that decision would be made in the next fortnight, bringing much-needed certainty to overseas-based Kiwis looking for a route home.
Presently, all international arrivals - without exception - must spend a week in quarantine (known locally as MIQ - managed isolation and quarantine) on arrival, and must win that place in quarantine in a hotly-contested ballot.
The government's reopening plan, announced in August, is to allow home isolation instead of quarantine in the first quarter of 2022.
Motorists at the northern Auckland border at Te Hana have their credentials checked. Source: Getty Images/Fiona Goodall
Many see that plan as outdated, given it was designed at a time when COVID-19 was not present in the community.
"There is a strong case for limiting MIQ for those flying into Auckland to just those from very high risk countries," University of Otago professor Nick Wilson said.
"For most arrivals into Auckland, the risk could be appropriately managed by testing and perhaps some period of home quarantine."
The government's quarantine policy has caused frustration.
Thousands of Kiwis who have caught COVID-19 in the local outbreak are isolating at home, but those seeking to come home who are fully vaccinated and don't have the virus are either stuck overseas or must quarantine in hotels.
"This is awful situation for families ... having Christmas dinner with an empty seat at the table with a waiting for a family member to come home," opposition leader Judith Collins said.
The opposition is accusing the government of fear mongering when it calls overseas-based Kiwis "cumulative risks" and to allow them to come home is "opening the floodgates" for the virus.
"No one is fear mongering. We are simply describing as the reality of what we will need to manage," Ms Ardern said.
"This is a considerable change in the way that we have managed COVID-19 and we're ensuring that we step through these changes deliberately and carefully."
