Socialite fashionista slams Jacinda Ardern’s ridiculous lottery-style travel rules after missing out on a spot in hotel quarantine and being stranded in the US: ‘Just a bunch of muppets’
- NZ government reversed a plan to end controversial hotel quarantine system
- Kiwi influencer Jaime Ridge was caught out and could not get a hotel place
- Ridge, 28, unloaded at Jacinda Ardern and NZ authorities via Instagram
A Kiwi influencer has blasted Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand’s managed Covid quarantine system after failing to secure a spot to return home.
Jaime Ridge, a Los Angeles-based fashion blogger and daughter of former Manly rugby league star Matthew Ridge, accused Ms Ardern of a ‘mind-boggling’ lack of compassion after her government extended the system due to the Omicron Covid-19 surge.
Ridge, 28, said the lottery-style system that travellers to New Zealand must use to get a place in hotel quarantine is ‘completely unconstitutional’ and was run by ‘a bunch of muppets’.
The MIQ system forces New Zealanders to queue in a virtual waiting room to be allocated one of a limited number of hotel quarantine spots.
They cannot get on their flight until they have a spot, even if they have an airline ticket.
Jaime Ridge, a Los Angeles-based Kiwi influencer accused Jacinda Ardern of a ‘mind boggling’ lack of compassion after her government extended its despised hotel quarantine system (pictured, Jaime Ridge)
Ridge claimed hundreds of her followers were also unable to get home, and told her followers ‘I’m thinking of you all and sharing your tears’ (pictured, Jaime Ridge)
‘How the hell do you get a spot in MIQ?’ Ridge, who starred in a reality TV series about her family when she was 19, wrote in an Instagram post.
‘Number 9000 in the “queue” yesterday and I’m just absolutely baffled. The flights are booked and have been for weeks, then the govt changed the rules (again). Who is running this show? A complete lack of competence. Just a bunch of muppets.’
Ridge tagged Ardern in her post, fuming, ‘your lack of compassion for those people abroad is mind boggling. You need to learn to practice what you preach.’
She claimed hundreds of her followers were also unable to get home, and told her followers ‘I’m thinking of you all and sharing your tears. Sending love x.’
Ridge lives in Los Angeles and her Instagram depicts a high-end fashionista’s lifestyle lived in flash hotels and restaurants while showing off the world’s top fashion labels.
Earlier this week it emerged the latest allocation of spots to enter New Zealand did not allow any places to Australians.
Kiwis in Australia remain locked out of their own country and won’t be allowed to apply for a place in the next release of hotel quarantine rooms, meaning they cannot go home for months.
Kiwi fashionista Jaime Ridge blasted the Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over the extension of the country’s hated MIQ system and she claimed her followers were equally unhappy
The system has tested the patience of hundreds of thousands of travellers bound for New Zealand and Kiwis trying to return home.
But it was due to be phased out for Australians and Kiwis on January 17 – until NZ’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins reneged on that pledge.
It is now expected to remain in place until at least late February.
On January 6 only 12 per cent of 11,000 people who applied for one of 1250 spots were successful.
People from 76 countries got a spot in MIQ, but none were Australian.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk