A catamaran and a plan: desperate to get home, New Zealanders set sail across the Tasman

With government-controlled quarantine spots in very short supply and long waiting lists for flights home, some stranded citizens are taking to the seas

• See all our coronavirus coverage

New Zealanders stranded in Australia are sailing across the Tasman Sea aboard small boats with seasick strangers in a desperate bid to get home, saying the notoriously perilous trip is easier to navigate than the country's fraught border system.

The country's borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic - only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter, and all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ).