Covid-19: Wigan man trapped in New Zealand is finally able to return home

Ryan Cant, 29, and wife Camilla, 27, were in the middle of a mini-career break, having got married last year.

After making their way through Asia and Australia, New Zealand was meant to be a stepping stone before moving on to South America and then the USA, and returning to the United Kingdom in the summer.

Having arrived in New Zealand last week - before traveller restrictions were announced - they realised flying home was going to be far more problematic than they first feared.

After spending hundreds of pounds on non-existent flights and many stressful hours trying to rebook, the couple managed to get a flight to San Francisco and then on to London.

The couple were road-tripping in New Zealand and on their way to Christchurch on Saturday when the New Zealand prime minister made the decision to try to contain the virus - banning all but essential domestic travel.

“The experience can only be likened to trying to get tickets to Glastonbury,” said Ryan, who now lives with Camilla in Cheshire, but whose parents still live in Standish.

“All of a sudden, flights that were being advertised and priced were disappearing when you clicked through to buy them.

“The prices of the ones that remained were going up minute by minute, it was a total nightmare.

“A lot of others were in the same situation - we all ended up probably losing £1500 each.

“Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree it’s the right thing to do, and they are doing it early enough for it to make a big difference, so good on them.

“There are over 250 people in a ‘Brits trapped in NZ’ WhatsApp group, many of them without the ability to keep throwing credit card limits at the problem.

“There’s also some who literally have no accommodation - many are 18-25 backpacker-style travelers - but also people with young kids, pregnant ladies, and people running low on medication.

“The British embassy in New Zealand don’t appear to have a handle on the situation. They have tweeted they are working on it, but then closed the actual building in Auckland and aren’t taking calls.

“We are also classed as ‘key workers’ in the UK. Camilla is an area manager for a supermarket and I work in financial services - so we’re also keen to get home and support the effort.”