Managed isolation

 

Day 7 of managed isolation and all is well.  Covid negative on our first "swabs".  Hooray! Will be swabbed again on day 11.  Fingers crossed we will continue covid free.  

We have been "busy" with various activities like reading, games, a 1000 piece puzzle, Facetiming with family and friends, going on a 45 minute walk each day and just general lazying about.  We've done some yoga and Mike can be seen above doing a quick cardio workout. The food is passable- too many carbs for my taste but at the end of the day so grateful that we are being taken care of.  

More soon.  

Hoki Mai to NZ and Managed Isolation

 

We arrived in Auckland this morning. What the NZ government has organized in their COVID response at the border is nothing short of a marvel. 

NZ airport officials greeted us off the plane, we did a Covid screening (no test yet) with a nurse and we then went through border patrol and customs. They then loaded most of the 36 passengers onto a bus, welcomed us at the hotel in downtown Auckland where further paperwork and another health screening were done and then we were sent to our 2 very nice hotel rooms with food arriving at the door.   We will be tested on day 3 and day 11 and have daily health checks.  We cannot leave our rooms except for some brief, organized "walks" that we can sign up for several times a day.  

This is what good government can do. And it makes it even more laughable that Trump is criticizing Jacinda Ardern's government response to Covid given the most recent community outbreak here. 

More soon from the Antipodes!  

Flying the Empty Skies...

 

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the airline industry (and tourism in general of course) and that was readily apparent last evening when we flew out of San Francisco.  The International Terminal was eerily quiet except for a few travelers and a policeman on a bike practicing his skills by riding through empty ticketing booth lines and "stay 6 feet apart" circles marked on the floor of the terminal.  We arrived extra early for our flight, got some sushi and ramen at one of the few restaurants that was open and we waited for more passengers to show up.  This just didn't happen.  

We boarded the flight and there were a total of 36 people on a plane that usually carries about 300 passengers.  The 4 of us were all seated together during takeoff but there were only about 10 people in our part of the plane and they did allow us to move to empty rows to lay down, as long as we were social distancing and wearing our masks. 

Being the chatty one that I am, I asked one of the flight attendants about how he felt about the flight being so empty. He said, "it's very strange and it is not sustainable. Not sure we will be able to keep doing this much longer".  He reported that this was fairly typical of flights over the last few weeks with an average of about 50 passengers. Sadly there have already been layoffs at Air New Zealand because of the pandemic with more likely to come.

We all slept during the 12.5 hour flight and I slept more than I have ever slept on a long-haul flight.  Mike and I were "reminiscing" about the last time we did this move with a 19 month old who screamed for 2.5 hours on the plane and a relatively calm and easy 4.5 year old.  Traveling with a tween and a teen is damn easy.  They both were stellar yesterday.

More after we settle into quarantine somewhere in NZ.  

Up, Up and Away to the Land of the Long White Cloud

In the last week we have:

• Watched a 40 foot container drive off with all of our stuff, expected to arrive in early October.
• Said goodbye to our 2 kitties, Artemis and Chai, until they can fly to NZ and quarantine in October. M and I had to go over to our dear friend's house to get Chai out of a basement ceiling where she had been hiding for 24 hours.  
• Said good-byes to our Portland peeps and my mom/beloved Oma to my children
• Spent time with my sister, my nephew and his wife and their two kids and helped my sister move while wildfires burned around us.  

That last one seems like a fitting metaphor for our departure from the USA.  I think both Mike and I have been worried about whether something might go horribly wrong as we got closer to our travel date whether that be on a macro level (Trump always brings some kind of fresh hell to each day) or in our own little microcosm.  We had an iPhone go on the fritz (my nephew had a spare one), I made a wrong reservation for a rental car (but remedied that easily), we barely fit everything on the container but..... we are about to board the plane here in San Fran. 

Flying during this pandemic is absolutely eerie.  The international terminal, usually bustling with travelers, is a ghost town.  We are disheartened to hear about a small but notable surge in Covid cases in the Auckland area but still feeling a sense of relief at our decision.  

We will write more from quarantine.  Until then...

 

Winding down and winding up

 

We are leaving in 2 weeks. 

Let me say that a little louder...

WE ARE LEAVING IN 2 WEEKS! 

It’s a strange thing to be winding things down while simultaneously putting our foot on the gas pedal. I had my last day of work yesterday and a nice (socially-distant) gathering with my lovely co-workers. Today I’ve gotten a mammogram (boobies!), detailed one of the cars, called an electrician to put up some lights in our house, helped M pack for a short trip and for her 6-10 weeks without access to her stuff as it is shipped across the Pacific and touched up paint around the house. There is plenty more to do in the next 11 days before we fly to California to spend time with my sister, nephew and his wife and kids. 

I am going to whine a bit now about how hard it is to not be able to freely see friends and family and spend quality time with them before we leave because of the pandemic. We’ve had a small “bubble” of loved ones that we have spent time with but knowing that we won’t be back for a while amplifies the longing to connect with our loved ones. 

And there is the list of things to do. A long list that we are trying our best to plow through. I’m not sleeping well, my gut is a wreck and I’m worried I’m missing or forgetting things but one way or another, we will be on that plane on August 18. 

...And I’m thankful we won’t have to wear masks for much longer.