Rotorua

In the meantime, tourist towns like Queenstown and Rotorua have floundered, as New Zealanders look past the destinations or experiences favored by international visitors.

She knew she would be quarantined for two weeks after arriving at Auckland airport but instead of being taken to a local hotel, she was put on a bus and driven 140 miles away to Rotorua.

Instead – with no warning, or chance to buy water or use the toilet – she found herself on a four-hour bus trip to Rotorua, a city 225km away, to spend her quarantine there.

When she tweeted about her experience – New Zealand’s government had started to use hotels in Rotorua and the South Island city of Christchurch to quarantine returning travellers as Auckland reached capacity – it didn’t take long for responders to chide Ellen for what they saw as complaining.

Hard-hit tourism is New Zealand’s largest export industry, employing 15% of New Zealanders and contributing to almost 6% of GDP, and it was in the context of rescuing this industry that on Wednesday Ardern suggested – informally, in a Facebook Live video from the tourist town of Rotorua – that, should the country move to a four-day working week, more leisure time may allow the domestic tourist market to expand to meet the present shortfall.