New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shaken off the effects of COVID-19 and on Monday announced details of an altered trade mission to the United States.
The visit is aimed at boosting exports and luring more tourists as the Pacific nation looks to fully reopen its border after more than two years of restrictions.
The trip, which will take in five cities, was placed in doubt when Ms Ardern contracted the virus a week ago, midway through a two-week isolation period which began when her partner Clarke Gayford tested positive.
Her departure late on Monday will come two days after completing isolation and is delayed because of US COVID-19 travel regulations.
Ms Ardern is scheduled to meet senior members of the US Senate when she visits Washington but a hoped-for meeting with President Joe Biden may now not happen because of health protocols.
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"In these times you roll with the Covid curveballs you're thrown," she told journalists. "That's just part and parcel of the world we live in.
"The issue we have at play here is simply Covid protocols, it does not diminish our relationships at all." The trip will have a trade and tourism focus but Ms Ardern also wants to address Pacific security issues.
"I can't imagine a more important time for political engagement with the US," she said.
"With the Pacific we've called for a return. The US has been a present force for a number of years but what we've seen in recent years was a focus to other domestic matters or other regions, slightly less than ours. So we've asked for that return."
Other engagements include a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York and delivery of the high-profile Harvard University commencement speech.
Ms Ardern's visit comes as US President Joe Biden is on a five-day trip to South Korea and Japan. Her public agenda does not include a meeting with Biden, who is expected to return to Washington on Tuesday.
"New Zealand's relationship with the United States is one of our most enduring and significant. This mission will feature political and security engagement as well as tourism and trade promotion," Ardern said in a statement on Monday.
Bilateral trade between the countries was worth about $12 billion (A$17 billion) in 2021, with annual growth averaging 5 per cent over the past 15 years, official data showed.
US travellers were New Zealand's third-largest tourism market, forming 10 per cent of total arrivals before the emergence of COVID-19.
"With travellers planning their visits months before coming in the New Zealand summer, now is the right time to be visible in the US market letting Americans know we are open for business and travel," Ms Ardern said.
New Zealand's closure of its border to non-citizens in March 2020 helped keep COVID-19 numbers relatively low. Ms Ardern early this month said the country would fully reopen its border from the end of July.
