Abstract
New Zealand has been widely praised for its COVID-19 response, especially in the early stages of the pandemic when the country avoided the extended lockdowns and tragic deaths that many other nations endured. A key part of the response was one of the world's toughest border control regimes that - across the course of nearly two and a half years - saw many New Zealanders unable to return home, made immigration extremely difficult, halted international tourism and education, and prevented all but a handful of face-to-face diplomatic and business meetings across borders. In this chapter, I reflect on the impact of this response for a geographically isolated nation for which so much depends on its interactions with the rest of the world. I reflect on how it has impacted New Zealanders' engagement with the rest of the world - has the age of Zoom made it easier, or has the lack of in-person contact had negative impacts on a country that inevitably has to work hard to be heard in the international arena?