Still, the basic situation remains: It is highly unlikely New Zealand can avoid a cluster of the highly transmissible Omicron variant for long.
Advice from University of Auckland associate professor Siouxsie Wiles is useful: "It's just really important that we don't think that seven days is okay and that people are still cautious ... After receiving several negative tests, people could still be incubating the virus and that's what it shows us."
She adds that there are things everyone can do to reduce transmission. "Wearing a mask when we're out and about even if we're vaccinated ... Being really cautious in places that have got bad ventilation. Getting tested if you have any symptoms - that's the really, really crucial bit."
Close to home, Australia is in strife with thousands of cases of the Covid-19 variant daily. Hospitalisations are so far only rising gradually.
New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Boxing Day: "We're all going to get Omicron, and if we're all going to get Omicron, the best way to face it is when we have full vaccination, including our booster."
Although breakthrough infections are more common with Omicron, the Australian and New Zealand experiences with Delta show that differing approaches have a clear impact on outcomes.
New Zealand's Delta outbreak never got anywhere near as bad as the variant's waves in NSW and Victoria and, despite previous predictions by coronavirus modellers that cases could spiral, it continues to fall away.
A combination of the closed border, the previous lockdown and ongoing health measures, high vaccination levels, public compliance, and hot summer weather appears to be working here against Delta. Nearly 92 per cent of the eligible population have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
With Omicron, Australia has been hit hard after opting for a fast-paced border reopening. New Zealand has instead had a more gradual easing of health measures, with some staying in place.
No one should be surprised at the emergence of a new variant or that removing a lot of restrictions at once backfires. Many countries have now restored or tightened previously dropped health rules.
New Zealand has been following its own path from the beginning, although it has been influenced by data and experience overseas. The country has delayed reopening for now and that challenge remains.
Dealing with many cases of Omicron, travel chaos and staffing shortages as other countries are now, is simply an alternative set of problems.
A separate traffic light-style system for a largely MIQ-free border sometime after February would appear to be the best way forward to limit the number of Omicron cases getting in.
New Zealanders wanting to come back, or to travel overseas for leisure or business, have an advantage of their own or family homes for self-isolation on return. With vaccinations, boosters, negative PCR tests and mask-wearing, that's the lowest level of risk.
For vaccinated and boostered short-term tourists: quarantine and self-isolation could be replaced by a period of documented pre-departure self-isolation and negative tests; further tests on arrival and for a week; and use of vaccine certificates, scanning and mask-wearing while here. People who test positive here could self-isolate.
MIQ could still be applied in other cases.
Such measures could only aim to keep infections down rather than out entirely. At the moment the closed border is the safer system but it is unsustainable long term.
All countries are still stuck in the pandemic maze. We are not alone in trying to find a way out.
