Yesterday, Prime Minister Ardern and her Australian counterpart Morrison met through a secure video call, alongside chief ministers and state and territory premiers, and while it was agreed a safe travel zone was the goal, just when that might happen remains unclear.
But that was not stopping Gutwein, who told media talks were already under way about quarantine arrangements.
That caught the attention of Peters.
"Well it is seriously exciting that first of all you've got a premier thinking outside the square, so to speak.
"He is looking back to a former time, when those flights took place and he is looking now at the success of the Covid-19 attack from Tasmania and New Zealand's attack as well and he sees possibilities and we need to think like that, we have got to give the words agile and nimble some real meaning and not just be a bureaucratic cliché."
Both Ardern and Morrison want a travel zone that takes in all of Australia - with the ability to exclude any state caught in a Covid-19 flare-up.
While 1.4 million people travel between New Zealand and Australia each year, Morrison said the first priority was getting Australians moving around their own country.
"It is something that will better sit alongside when we're seeing Australians travel from Melbourne to Cairns, about that time I would expect everything being equal, that we'd be able we'll be able to travel Melbourne to Auckland or to Christchurch or things like that," he said.
Peters said getting started with a state that could safely handle the risks was better than nothing at all.
"Of course we'd aspire to the big picture, but if it has to be a small picture to start off with then let's try that for a short while and make that work as a demonstration to the remainder of Australia that it can work."
Opening up the borders will require a number of controls and health checks at both ends and Peters said demanding a medical certificate with proof of a negative Covid-19 test was an obvious minimum requirement.
"I think that is the easiest test to meet, you just have to shoot downtown, go to some supermarket, stand in line, get it and get a certificate off the person who gave it to you and you're in business, it's not complicated."
If all those safety checks could be met the opportunities for tourism operators in both countries would be significant.
What the tourism industry says
The head of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, Daniel Gschwind, told the ABC getting New Zealand tourists back in would be vital, as they add about $600 million to the economy each year.
"If we could open that market, it would certainly be a filler for many of the businesses in Queensland that suffer so dramatically at the moment. It would certainly save many tourism businesses in Queensland."
And with the ski season only about six weeks away, ski fields have been waiting with bated breath to find out what they can expect.
Cardrona Alpine Resorts general manager Bridget Legnavsky said while local skiers made up 60 per cent of their market, Australians accounted for another 30 per cent.
"The transtasman bubble is like a glowing hope, that's like almost us almost getting back to normal, that would be absolutely amazing," she said.
Once the transtasman was open Peters said the Pacific would be next on the radar.
He said Niue, the Cook Islands and Samoa are all serious contenders for their own travel bubble with New Zealand.
But for now, the long-standing birthright to pop across the ditch is the focus.
-RNZ
