Aotearoa

I’ve been quiet on here, but in fact a lot has been happening. One of the things that happened was that Tanya, Felix and I went to Aotearoa New Zealand in June 2021. After waiting for so long for the trans-Tasman bubble to be created, it was a fantastic chance to see family over there, and we had a great time introducing Felix to his aunts, uncles, and cousins, and catching up with his grandparents. We started in Auckland where we explored the beautiful coastline to its west.

Paratutae Island and Wing Head next to Manukau Entrance.

We spent time in Nelson where we enjoyed the beaches and sunshine of the top of the south. And we visited Christchurch and had a wonderful trip to Arthur’s Pass in the winter cold.

Looking across to Temple Basin From the Otira Valley.

What was to have been a three week trip turned then into an extended stay when there was a covid outbreak in Sydney and we postponed our return to wait it out. We traversed the country, revisiting people. The extra time was a welcome reason to hang out more with family, and we were glad not to be locked down in Sydney. But it was also characterised by spikes of harsh anxiety and decision fatigue. Was it better to stay in New Zealand’s relative safety or head back to covid-filled Sydney? Should we wait to be vaccinated? We waited and reasoned and tried to make the best decision at each fork in the road.

Then there was a covid outbreak in Auckland and an immediate lockdown for all of New Zealand. We jumped online and booked flights for the next day, to get home while we could, and started to pack our strewn affairs. Later that evening a phone call from a friendly Air New Zealand rep informed us that in the next few minutes the Australian government would pause quarantine-free travel and our flight would be cancelled. The news broke while I was talking to her, and my phone vibrated on my ear as alerts rolled in. The relief of the decision being taken away from us was short lived. We went back to waiting. A couple of weeks later some "red zone" flights — with hotel quarantine at our considerable expense — were made available. We tried to book but there was a single flight to Sydney and it booked out without us even seeing a fare. We later heard some of the flights had only 12 available places. We went back to waiting.

We were lucky — we had a place to stay, helpful family, access to covid vaccines and testing, we were only locked down for a short couple of weeks, and none of us got sick. Quarantine-free flights were reopened in November and we managed to get seats on one of the first few planes to leave Auckland. Home in Sydney we found our apartment untouched, the lemons we left in the fridge during our trip that was to last only three weeks shrivelled but not the smouldering husks I had imagined they would be after five months. I am very thankful to New Zealand and our amazing family there for keeping us safe that whole time, but I was also very happy to be home.

Heidi

Jervis Bay