The OIA documents provided to the Herald show an initial application was filed to travel to Northland on September 29 under the "business" category. That application was denied on September 30 because it didn't reach the threshold, the documents show.
A new application was made on October 1 under the "social services" category and was approved.
The paper trail shows police were contacted by a motelier on October 4 who questioned the women's arrival in Northland. The police query coincided with a weak positive result picked up in Whangarei.
The following day - October 5 - police began making inquiries, and queries into the women's travel documentation prompted MSD staff to make checks.
Documents released from Hipkins' office showed one MSD staff member emailed another saying: "Have just had a look at this and it should have been declined (approved in error) - I will reopen the case and revoke it."
One of the women returned a strong positive test on October 8 and a snap lockdown was announced that evening to stop the potential spread of the Delta variant. By then, all three women were back in Auckland.
The following Monday the head of MBIE Carolyn Tremain briefed two advisers in Hipkins' office, saying it was MSD's job to monitor compliance of travel permits granted for "social services" and the agency had now brought in a "double-check system".
This led to the October 13 briefing from MBIE to Hipkins, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash. The briefing said: "It is our understanding that the intention was to decline the application but it was approved in error."
On Wednesday this week the Herald revealed OIA papers show the women - who had earlier been blamed for using "false information" to get travel permits - had no links to gangs and weren't sex workers, as had been suggested.
Among the documents released is a summary of a police investigation into the women which found "no offence" and no "deception" in obtaining the travel documents.
Throughout this time the women were publicly vilified for crossing the border, with then Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins accusing them of using "false information to travel across the border".
The case also saw reporters quizzing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over whether the women were sex workers and former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters was forced to apologise for falsely claiming the pair were helped by Hawke's Bay-based Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam.
The latest
This week the Herald revealed it had actually been a blunder by a government worker that sent Northland into an 11-day lockdown after travel documents that were meant to be declined were mistakenly approved.
One of the women at the centre of the matter said the Government owes her and the country an apology and an explanation.
She is one of the three women who had earlier been blamed by the Government for using "false information" to obtain permits to travel.
Asked about the blunder this week, former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins claimed there was nothing new in today's reporting as the error that led to the Northland lockdown in October last year was made public.
Harry Tam also told RNZ he wanted an apology after being wrongly implicated.
Tam said he was working long days at the time, pushing a vaccination drive for gang members, and found the accusations disheartening and depressing.
"It really upset me because I felt like I was there doing a public service at the risk of my own health and I'm getting vilified for something that I know nothing about.
"I was just fortunate that QC contacted me and offered his services to me and I took it up and we got an apology from Winston," he told RNZ.
