With 10 active cases and quarantine botch-ups, it could be months yet before Australian and Pacific visitors are allowed in.
Meanwhile, Australian Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has warned its border will mostly likely be locked down until 2021.
That has businesses feeling nervous.
For Skyline - an adventure tourism business in Queenstown and Rotorua - the weekdays are the hardest.
Locals are visiting in the weekends and school holidays, but in between the luges and gondolas are quiet.