New MIQ and

The new MIQ ‘‘lobby’’ system launches tomorrow and there are already concerns that the dedicated site could battle with the demand for New Zealanders wanting to come home.

Thousands of people were expected to log on when the site goes live tomorrow.

Tekla Kridle will be getting up at 4am hoping to get her foot in the virtual lobby – and for the Christchurch resident the clock’s ticking.

Kridle, who spoke to the Sunday Star-Times from near Perth, said if she wasn’t back by the end of November, she faced the prospect of a financial hit, too.

‘‘Our dilemma is if we don’t make it back within 26 weeks, we will have to start repaying our super,’’ she said.

That gives her until the end of November to return from a trip she initially expected would have been over by now. She said she headed over the ditch to see her daughter, but then got caught in Darwin’s lockdown.

She spoke to the Ministry of Social Development but their response was rather blunt: ‘‘You chose to travel during Covid.’’

Kridle is well aware others have more pressing dilemmas driving their desire to get back to New Zealand, and it’s one element of the new managed isolation system that troubles her.

‘‘It’s luck of the draw, so anyone who has real hardship could miss out.’’She’s sceptical about the lobby process and is worried the site will crash under demand.