The Wallabies have a one-way ticket to Auckland as they prepare to fly to across the Tasman for a Bledisloe Cup opener with no clear return date in sight.
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"Whatever happens after next week, we don't know," Wallabies forward Pete Samu said on Thursday afternoon.
The Australian squad will fly to New Zealand on Friday morning, arriving in time to beat the reinstatement of mandatory quarantine on the road to the series opener at Eden Park on August 7.
But when and where the second Test of the series will be played remains up in the air with border restrictions forcing officials to revamp the schedule.
Game two of the Bledisloe Cup is likely to be played in Wellington on August 14 before Perth hosts game three on August 21. The original schedule had Wellington hosting game three.
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The Wallabies are still waiting to hear how long they will spend across the Tasman, with players and staff prepared to stay in New Zealand for an extra week.
"To be honest, we haven't been told anything apart from next week being in Auckland," prop Tom Robertson said.
"It's pretty obvious it's looking that way but I think everything is on the table at this stage. They haven't told us anything apart from the fact we're playing in Auckland next week.
"Two weeks from that, we're hopefully back in Perth for a game. We don't even know what we're actually doing the week after Auckland."
The Wallabies now have to win at least one of their two back-to-back games in New Zealand to keep the series alive heading into the series decider on home soil.
It looms as an uphill battle for Dave Rennie's squad but Samu is relishing the challenge ahead after returning to Wallabies camp.
The 29-year-old missed the Wallabies' thrilling series win over France after an injury kept him sidelined for the end of Super Rugby AU and the entire Trans-Tasman competition.
But the ACT Brumbies star caught Rennie's eye after an impressive return for the Gungahlin Eagles in the John I Dent Cup over the past month.
Ask around ACT rugby circles and most will tell you Nicholls Enclosed Oval on a cold winter's day feels like the coldest place on earth.
So it was perhaps the perfect way for Samu to acclimatise to the conditions the Wallabies might face when they arrive in New Zealand.
"I told the guys up at Brums that Nicholls needs a bit of drainage on the field. The field there on a rainy day, especially in winter, it's not fun at all," Samu grinned.
"I enjoyed it. Gungahlin are a good bunch of boys. I've got some family playing there as well, so it was good.
"My brothers [Lualua and Antonio Vailoaloa] are playing over there, they're playing second grade I think.
"I was trying to play second grade in my first game back but they wouldn't let me, just so I could get a run around with them but it didn't happen.
"I was just trying to get a bit of game time under my belt and enjoy myself. It's good being in the club environment again, you realise how enjoyable it is being back at club and just giving back."
A knee injury kept Samu out of the Brumbies' Super Rugby AU final tilt and forced him to watch from afar as his teammates battled their Kiwi counterparts.
But it had a silver lining in the form of his baby boy Grayson.
"I feel like everything happens for a reason," Samu said.
"I just wanted to get my body right and I felt it was a good time to get that done. It actually worked out off the field, because I spent a lot more time with my newborn and my family there. I'm raring to get back on the field again for the Wallabies."
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