On Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern's government released three pieces of cabinet advice prepared by the expert group driving New Zealand's Covid-19 response.
The papers strongly suggest New Zealand should not consider new bubbles until next year, and paints a grim picture for any Kiwis who believe normality could be around the corner.
New Zealand hopes to vaccinate every consenting adult Kiwi by the end of the year - but the advice suggests even that vaccination programme could be less effective should a more damaging variant emerge.
"It is not inconceivable that, by the end of the year, there could be an established variant that is significantly resistant to the vaccine," the advice states.
"No-one knows what the outcome of this pandemic will be in say 3-5 years time."
Authored by David Skegg, a University of Otago epidemiologist, and several other authoritative figures, the advice confirms "further significant re-opening of New Zealand's borders should not commence before early 2022".
It does not suggest setting a target on vaccination rates before opening borders, arguing authorities should aim to "as close to 100 percent as possible".
Advice provided in June outlines less restrictive quarantine arrangements - known in New Zealand as "MIQ" - which could include home isolation with enhanced testing, proposing to trial it amongst fully vaccinated Kiwi travellers.
In updated advice - showing the evolving nature of the virus and the policy response - those plans are thrown out the window.
"In the seven weeks since ... the global situation has deteriorated significantly," Dr Skegg writes.
"The Delta variant of concern has now been reported in 124 countries; the World Health Organisation expects that this will become the dominant circulating variant over the coming months.
"It is sobering to see what apparently resulted from the infection of a single person with this variant in Sydney.
"Even with current settings, New Zealand is liable to experience an outbreak similar to that in New South Wales over the coming months.
"We could not recommend rolling out this scheme until as many New Zealanders as possible have been vaccinated."
On the trans-Tasman bubble, Dr Skegg is plain: only vaccinated people should travel.
"We recommend that, once vaccination programmes in Australia, New Zealand, and the Cook Islands are well advanced, travel between such "bubble" countries should be restricted to (fully vaccinated) adults (and their children)," he said.
Ms Ardern says her government will give a formal response to the advice on Thursday.
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Sadly this will be the end of my Australian business. Stink
"In the seven weeks since ... the global situation has deteriorated significantly," Dr Skegg writes. "The Delta variant of concern has now been reported in 124 countries; the World Health Organisation expects that this will become the dominant circulating variant over the coming months. It is sobering to see what apparently resulted from the infection of a single person with this variant in Sydney. Even with current settings, New Zealand is liable to experience an outbreak similar to that in New South Wales over the coming months. We could not recommend rolling out this scheme until as many New Zealanders as possible have been vaccinated."
In other words we want you to be on edge in case something happens because we do not have the borders controlled as well as we should and we want you, all 5 million of you to pay for the ineptitude and the scaremongering of the current regime. In this way the government can keep you under some sort of control which is what they like to do. Freedom? It's just a myth! Get used to living under the thumb or should that be the boot?