Whanganui's Cook Islands Community Group chairman Nga Apai is welcoming the opening of the Cook Islands travel bubble with New Zealand.
Apai said people in New Zealand and friends and family in the Cook Islands were pleased the bubble had finally opened yesterday.
"It has taken too long to establish, but we are glad we have got there."
Apai said the cautious approach from the nation's mata'iapo (chief), who were looking to protect the island and its people from Covid-19 potentially entering the country, was one of the main reasons the bubble took so long to establish.
"They basically overruled the situation and was the reason things weren't progressing.