Two teenagers from Maidstone stuck in New Zealand say there is hope of getting home now the government have introduced new measures to fly British tourists stranded abroad back to the UK.

Lydia Watson, 19, from Oakwood Park and Emily Wright, 18, from Wateringbury arrived in Tairua, New Zealand on March 11.

The pair were left worrying how long they would be stranded in New Zealand after their flights were cancelled and the country went into lockdown.

Now Emily says they are both relieved they have been able to book their flights home.

"We got an email saying a route from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur then to Heathrow has opened up with Malaysia Airlines so we both booked a flight for April 13.

"Fingers crossed it all goes to plan this time."

Lydia and Emily were due to fly back on March 26, the same day Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called a compulsory four week lockdown.

Lydia said: "Shortly after arriving we realised the situation was getting serious so we brought our return flight forward.

"Our flight was then cancelled and there was no possible way of us getting back as so many countries closed their borders.

"We received no information about when other flights would become available and no clarification from the British Government as to when we could return.

"I felt as though we had been left in the dark for so long. We just want to come back, before the situation gets any worse."

Yesterday the government announced a £75 million partnership with airlines to enable special charter flights to bring back UK residents from priority countries.

For Lydia and Emily, the new announcement could not have come sooner.

Lydia added: "When we found out our flights were cancelled we had just two days to sort out accommodation and that was really stressful because we didn't know how long we'd be here.

"We are currently isolating in an outhouse which belongs to one of our friend's relatives. If it wasn't for them, we would have been stuck."

Despite the announcement, not everyone stuck abroad has been able to share the excitement.

Lorenzo Gacuma, an intensive care nurse at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, is currently stuck in the Philippines.

The 26-year-old has been contacted by the Foreign Office since the government's announcement, but is still unsure about when or how he will get home.

Mr Gacuma has registered his details and location with the official body and has been told it is working with the Philippine authorities to "find a solution".

However, Mr Gacuma is worried the special chartered flights will not reach him and that he will still have to wait until the end of the quarantine on the island he's staying on, currently set at Tuesday, April 14, to secure his journey home.

He said: "There are no flights from where I'm staying in Bacolod City to Manila - the capital where international flights go from.

"Countless Brits have spent their life savings on flights but they're getting cancelled with no refunds.

"This explains why the emails from the Foreign Office are very generic and are sign-posting us to easily accessible information.

"This is a massively complex issue in terms of how we are all stranded on different islands who are handling their lockdowns in different ways.

"And the brunt of the matter is, we can't afford a flight home for it to then be cancelled."

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