September 7, 2021
We’re here in downtown Auckland which is in full Covid-19 lockdown right now. We’ve been at level 4, the highest level, for almost three weeks. It’s likely to last another week or more.
Above is a seldom-seen sight, an empty highway at midday. Only businesses deemed essential are open. This all started with one case of the delta variant.
Some people thought this was an extreme reaction but it’s working and it looks like New Zealand will be able to stamp out this latest outbreak. Already, all but Auckland have gone down to a much more relaxed level 2. In the meantime, us Aucklanders can only eat at one restaurant: Kitchen! While the food’s good here, the service is often lacking and the idea of having to cook all your own food sounded fun at first, but now, not so much! I’m not optimistic about the chances of this place staying in business with their DIY policy.
We still have our application go sail to Australia in but we’re not holding our breath. They are having a very major outbreak with little chance of containing it. In the meantime, we’ve been given a visa that’s good until the end of June, next year. We’re thinking, if we stay here, we might head back down south to Stewart Island and maybe Fiordland this time. Who knows.
Just a side note: we did manage to get fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. We’re sure glad we made the effort and NZ was kind enough to accommodate us. It’s giving us a lot of peace of mind right now while Covid is in the community!
-Rich
