Life in New Zealand Lockdown

Long time no blog posts. I didn't realise it had been so long!

Well, how about life at the moment! It's kind of weird how quickly our new normal becomes normal.

It's also scary that back in January when many of us on this side of the world were enjoying our summer holidays while at the same time the Australian bushfires were out of control and COVID-19 was barely a thing. Look at us now, so many countries in full lockdown, like us here in New Zealand, as hundreds of thousands of people around the world, are contracting this virus and ten of thousands of people are dying from it. It seems unfathomable that this is happening in our sophisticated world of science, technology and knowledge, but it is happening. Everywhere!

All those futuristic pandemic movies many of us watched in the past are now our reality. Words that were not a normal part of our vocab such as pandemic, unprecedented, PPE, quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing, essential workers, essential businesses, essential outings, clusters and lockdown are now used daily. Frightening how quickly things can change.

I'm so thankful to be living in New Zealand, and so proud of our country and how we are handling this. No matter what political persuasion you might be in New Zealand, our government is incredible in trying to make sure every one of us is safe and provided for, as individuals, businesses and organisations. I feel like we have never had so much transparency in decisions and why they are being made. Life in our house revolves around the news, the daily 1pm update on our COVID-19 numbers and the 3pm update from our Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden.

The days are long and slow. That's a good thing though, it could be seen as a blessing really that people have this opportunity to step out of the busyness and rush of normal everyday working life to wind down. I do realise that for many people though this comes with a whole other set of worries, financial, business, even coping with children at home every day and maybe less than ideal 'bubble' living situations to be stuck in 24/7.

My 'bubble' is small, just three of us here and the two cats who are thrilled that we are home all day, every day. Days are spent doing school work so that I am super prepared for whenever we go back to real live school, cleaning, cooking, laundry, reading, walking, exercising and playing games online such as Sims, don't judge! LOL, As I said, it is all seems very slow. I'm spending a lot more time on social media interacting with family as well which is really nice.

I'm not bored, not antsy, sometimes a little anxious about what is happening in the world but all in all, I feel safe in lockdown and more relaxed about my families safety as I have a 94-year-old grandmother and also my parents who are very vulnerable healthwise.

I do miss my friends at school and the students but it's the school holidays so I wouldn't have seen a lot of them in any case. I really miss the freedom to go out for a coffee, however, we have a Nespresso machine here at home which is taking a hammering!  Other than that and of course the ability to visit my family, I don't really miss anything else. Yet!

I went to book club last week, in my bedroom, via ZOOM. It was great! LOL

Something I am loving is the community spirit throughout New Zealand. At first, I thought the national Bear Hunt in the Window idea wasn't a good idea, how wrong was I! It's so much fun going for a walk to spot all the bears and how creative people are being. There is great humour out there. I love the chalk art on the footpaths as well, which is a Girl Guide initiative. I love seeing families out walking or biking or skateboarding or scooter-ing. Out walking sometimes, is like playing human dodgems trying to maintain the two-metre distance! People are so friendly as well, or maybe it's just me because I am like that anyway, greeting strangers, cooing at babies and toddlers, chatting to cats and dogs. The Princess hates it when I do that, though HaHa. I do love walking and talking with her though. Another blessing from this situation.

 

I hope life in your lockdown and with your 'bubble' if you are in a 'bubble' is going as best as it possibly can. If you are an Essential Worker out there, THANK YOU!!!

Stay safe, stay well.

Kia Kaha, beautiful people!

Rachaelxo