On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced eligible workers from Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu would be allowed entry to New Zealand without the mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival.

The three Pacific nations are as close to COVID-free as a place can be, with just a handful of cases at the border throughout the pandemic.

The policy is designed to assist New Zealand's ailing agricultural sectors, in particular horticulture, suffering labour shortages.

"This policy will open up the ability for significantly more workers to enter the country to assist with an expected peak demand for workers in February and March of 2022," Ms Ardern said.

"We're only opening up this option to specify workers at this stage so we can undertake it in a safe and managed way."

Workers - expected to number under 10,000 - will be paid a living wage and have other welfare needs met.

They will be subject to the quarantine rules of their destination on return, making the arrangement less of a "bubble" and more of a one-way corridor.

Ms Ardern said the route would not be for people "coming and going", and would not necessarily lead to two-way openings.

"The in-principle arrangement at this stage includes critical health care need ... and coming to New Zealand for long-term study," she said.

Next week, Ms Ardern said Wellington would hold a forum on broader border changes which could be tied to vaccination rates.

"Everyone wants our border settings to change, but no one wants to throw away our hard-won gains," she said.

New Zealand's border has been largely shut to the world since the arrival of COVID-19 last March, with some exceptions including the trans-Tasman bubble and other allowances for critical workers.

Australian Associated Press