Safely Home (2020-03-26)

The Canadian government decided to throw us a curve ball in our last 24 hours in New Zealand - they announced mandatory 14-day quarantine (not just self-isolation) for anybody arriving on an international flight and connecting to another city.  Did this include taking the ferry to Vancouver Island?  We searched and we searched online, but could not get clarification to this question, and so we started our journey, half expecting to only be going as far as a quarantine centre in Vancouver.

Margaret drove us to the airport, on nearly deserted streets, as we half expected to be stopped and questioned as to why we were out driving during the lockdown.  Our tickets and passport were kept close at hand just in case we were stopped.  But we made it to the airport, without issue, three hours before our flight time.

Wellington airport was almost deserted when we arrived, so check-in was super fast, although we got concerned when the check-in machine allowed us to enter all required information, before telling us to see an agent at the counter.  At the desk, it was "please stand behind the green line", from where we could barely pass our tickets and passports to the ticket agent, but all was good and we soon had boarding passes for both flights.

Marlene At Deserted Wellington Airport

Armed with boarding passes, we headed outside, where we walked around and around the empty parking lot, to get a little exercise while avoiding people.  Two policemen yelled over to ask if we were okay, and laughed when we told them that we were just social distancing.

Our aircraft to Auckland was an A320, and there were less than 20 passengers on board, so we had nobody for 4 rows in front of us and 6 rows behind us....expensive social distancing for Air New Zealand.  There were no hiccups along the way, and we arrived in Auckland on schedule.

Wellington City In The Rear-View Mirror

The joy of arriving on schedule was that we had more than 5 hours to wait in Auckland, for our Vancouver flight.  We wandered towards the international terminal, and paused in the shade of a pohutukawa tree to eat our packed lunch.  With the lockdown there are no stores or eateries open at the airports, and we knew that it would be about seven hours until we got fed on the plane, so we had come prepared.

Eventually we headed into the terminal, which required verification of passports and tickets, as only ticketed passengers were allowed into the terminal.  This terminal was a lot busier than the domestic terminal, but the extra health inspection involved only answering a few straightforward questions, before receiving a green sticker on our boarding pass, to indicate that we had complied with Canada's new requirement - no fever, no cough, not refused boarding on another flight because of covid-19.

Under normal circumstances, the walk from security to the gates meanders through the duty free stores, but today large moveable panels blocked all view of, and access to, the duty free stores.  When you most need a drink, you cannot get one :-)

The flight to Vancouver was much busier than the flight to Auckland, and almost every seat on the 787 aircraft was occupied.  A lot of the passengers were Brits returning to London, transferring in Vancouver.  Our seat mate was a young woman from Saskatchewan, whose New Zealand adventure was cut short by the covid-19 pandemic.  Thankfully there was no sign of coughing or sickness around us on the plane, but we wore masks the whole time, just for a little bit of extra insurance.  It is sad that although we are all in this together, you have to treat everybody as a potential "enemy". 

Although we were almost an hour late leaving Auckland, we arrived in Vancouver on time, and cleared the formalities very quickly - we had to answer a few additional questions on the electronic immigration / customs machine, and then a CBSA agent read us chapter and verse of the emergency regulations requiring us to self-isolate, and required us to acknowledge that we would do so.  We were asked where we were going to, and when we said "Vancouver Island" we were asked how we were going to get there.  We responded that we were planning to take the ferry, and all was good, we were free to go....almost.

They had problems with the luggage system, so with several false starts it took us almost an hour to recover our bags (almost the last bags to appear on the belt).  But at last, the bags appeared and we headed for the taxi queue.

There was no problem getting a taxi, and we had a good chat with the taxi driver enroute to Horseshoe Bay.  He told us that usually there are over 3,000 taxis operating in Vancouver, but now there are less than 100.  Some drivers are too scared of catching the virus to work, while others have quit driving due to the lack of fares.  Our trip took us through downtown Vancouver, where most stores were closed, but a few remained open, as the closure order is not mandatory.  We made it to the ferry with about two minutes to spare.  

BC Ferries was being very careful.  Foot passengers boarded via the car deck, rather than an overhead walkway.  Vehicle passengers were requested to stay in their vehicles, unless using the washrooms, and almost all of the passenger area was roped off, with passengers only allowed to sit in every second row of a small area on one side of the ship.  All services on the ferry were shut down, but we managed to get two bags of peanuts out of a vending machine, to avoid having to gnaw our arms off....yes we were almost that hungry.  

We took advantage of our time on the ferry to book a shuttle service to pick us up at Departure Bay and transport us home, so there was no waiting around once we got to Nanaimo.

All was good at home, and our friend Darlene had stocked the fridge with groceries, which was excellent, as you have to wait several weeks to have groceries delivered from any of the local stores.

So now we are in 14 days of mandatory self-isolation, but we are at home, and know that as long as we did not pick up the bug on the journey home, in 14 days we will be free to roam like the rest of the population, if roaming is still allowed in two weeks time.  I suspect that restrictions will get tighter before they are relaxed.

All's well that ends well, except for the ten years that I have aged in the past 2 weeks.

Napier - Wellington (2020-03-25)

I hate rollercoasters!

And the past week has been the scariest rollercoaster that I have ever encountered.  The internet has made it all too easy to check for news updates many many times a day, which almost paralyses you, preventing you from focussing on anything else.

We tried to keep ourselves busy with Margaret visiting.  We had several long walks on the oceanfront, I spent a day helping my cousins getting the last items out of their house, right up to the wire of their house sale closing, and another few hours helping them setup in their new home.  We also managed a short out of town trip to the Tangoio Falls Scenic Reserve for a bush walk.

Tangoio Falls

In our last few days in Napier there were also some spectacular sunsets, and I took the photo below from the oceanfront path in Westshore.

Norfolk Pine Tree at Sunset

Five days ago we were feeling good about our chances of getting home to Canada before flights were suspended, and then early on Monday afternoon the New Zealand government announced that at midnight the country was going to a level 3 response to coronavirus, with a move to level 4 just 48 hours later.  At level 4, travel is severely limited.  New Zealand has been seeing a 50% daily increase in the number of covid-19 cases, versus about 15% in British Columbia, so something had to be done to slow the wave.

Thankfully, we had stocked up on groceries (enough to last the three of us beyond Saturday) that morning, so within 15 minutes we had made the decision to immediately head for Wellington.  The rationale (and I think we were being rational) was that we needed to get my sister Margaret back to her home in Wellington, and if necessary we would then drive to Auckland, where we still had a hope of catching our flight to Vancouver on Saturday.  Thirty minutes later we were packed and on the road south.  Having missed lunch, we stopped about 5 pm at a park in Norsewood, where we carved buns and cheese with my Swiss Army knife.  Then we drove on to Featherston, where we had a 10 minute, two metre-spaced visit on the roadside with my other sister Tricia, before making the assault on the Rimutaka Hill in the dark with pouring rain.  Not the most fun part of the trip.

We were almost numb by this time, with 5 hours of reading news and trying to interpret the impact on us, but I was too tired to focus on doing anything about it.  The NZ government covid-19 website was somewhat confusing regarding whether or not foreign nationals qualified for domestic travel under level 4 lockdown conditions, but on Tuesday morning we told ourselves that we could wait a while longer, before driving to Auckland.  Getting to Auckland would be no problem, but getting food to eat for several days once we arrived in Auckland would be a challenge, as dine-in restaurants would be closed, and takeaway restaurants were also being told to close.  We would have to find a hotel with cooking facilities and buy groceries, but didn't know what we would find open when we arrived in Auckland, although we would have 8 hours to figure that out while driving.

New Zealand has a population of less than 5 million people, but the day of the government lockdown announcement grocery stores sold enough food to fed 10 million people.  No panic buying here.

Our rental car was due to be turned in, in Wellington, on Wednesday morning, but we figured that possession is nine tenths of the law, so as long as the rental company did not declare it stolen, we could get to Auckland and drop it there, even if we had to drive it into a wall and pay the $2,000 deductible on the insurance....desperate times call for desperate measures.  At least we were not yet thinking of buying a gun, so not totally devoid of moral fibre.

Tuesday morning arrived cool and crisp, but turned into a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to go on a bush walk up the Koro Koro Stream, a walk that Margaret has mentioned several times over the years, but which we had not tackled.  The grade was easier than we had expected (only 350 ft. of elevation gain), and we had an enjoyable walk up to the dam that had been originally built for the town water supply.  A great stress reliever, and we only passed about 8 people, whom we stayed as distant from as possible, although we could not always manage two metres of separation.

Koro Koro Stream and Path

Outflow from the Dam

But our stress relief was short-lived.  We arrived home to an email from the Canadian High Commission in Wellington (I had registered us on the Canadian government website a few days earlier, to ensure that we received pertinent updates) which included the words - "We encourage Canadians in NZ to travel to their international departure city as soon as possible".  And so the rollercoaster began its rapid descent into the next crisis.  The New Zealand government did however extend domestic travel until Friday midnight, as there were still many locals trying to get home.

It took me three attempts, and more than 3 hours on hold, to reach a live person at Air New Zealand but it was worth the wait.  I explained our situation, and begged for a flight to Auckland by Friday night.  The agent went one step further and got us on a direct Auckland to Vancouver flight on Thursday.  So we leave Wellington at 1:45 pm on Thursday, and should arrive in Vancouver, about 21 hours later (also on Thursday, thanks to the wonders of time zones).

The rollercoaster has now loop-de-looped and ascended to another high spot.  Keeping our fingers crossed that there is not another panic attack to come.  This morning we returned the rental car in Wellington as planned, and are having a lower stress day as we enter our last 24 hours in Wellington.

Stop the world, I want to get off!

Napier, New Zealand (2020-03-20)

What a difference a day makes!

There is finally light at the end of the tunnel.  I had a call from Air New Zealand a few minutes ago, only 30 hours after my conversation with the volunteer call-taker, and we now have a confirmed flight from Wellington to Auckland on March 28th, and on to Vancouver.  There is no chance of a flight home before March 28th, so we now at least have some certainty on our travel plans.

This assumes that they don't run out of aviation fuel, the flight crew don't come down with covid19, the Canadian border stays open to Canadians, and that no other obstacles arise in our remaining days in New Zealand.

Kudos to Air New Zealand for getting back to us as promised and for accommodating our needs, in a time of great stress for everyone.

Now we can relax a little, and enjoy our last week in New Zealand.

Napier, New Zealand (2020-03-18)

How do you spell stress? C-O-V-I-D-1-9

We have been trying to heed the government of Canada's advice, telling all Canadians overseas to head home, but that is not a simple process.

Looking at our booking online, we can see that Air New Zealand has cancelled our Wellington to Auckland flight on March 28th, but our Auckland to Vancouver flight is still okay.  So we at least need to get a flight to Auckland sorted out, even if we cannot get out earlier than March 28th.  To complicate matters, we see different details for our reservation on the iPad than we see on the pc.  The pc shows the flight as booked, but the iPad shows us on a later flight out of Wellington, which would have us miss our connection in Auckland  Grrrrrrrr!

Air New Zealand is asking only people travelling in the next 48 hours to contact them, but we have tried to contact them anyway, on the premise that we would like to travel in the next 48 hours.  Yesterday we called the airline's New Zealand toll free number, but after hearing an initial recorded announcement and a few clicks, it rang busy.  So I tried the Canadian contact number (via Skype), and it just rang and then went dead.  Air New Zealand can also accept contact via social media - email, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc.  I sent them a message on Whatsapp and got a reply within 5 minutes, but after answering a few detail questions, there was no further communication.

There was no response on Whatsapp overnight, so this morning I started phoning again.  I tried the New Zealand number about 15 times, and continued to get the busy signal after the recorded announcement.  Then I tried a Skype call to the Canadian number and on about the third attempt, I got through to the automated assistant....at least I was making progress.

After about 15 minutes, a live person came on the line, and told me that she was a volunteer, who was just taking details, so that a priority could be assigned for an agent to call us back, probably within 72 hours.  I suggested that we would like to travel within 72 hours, and was told that our priority would be increased.  I provided her all the details of the cancelled flight on March 28th, and our desire to fly earlier if possible (but only on the direct Auckland to Vancouver flight).  Knowing the stress that she must be under, especially as she is a volunteer, I wished her an excellent rest of the day, figuring that being nice couldn't hurt our priority either.  We don't want to fly on a multi-leg flight, as that could expose us to more people on the planes and in the airports.  So many things to consider, it makes my head whirl.

At least now we are in the queue for action, and so hopefully will get a call back in the next day or so.  It is amazing how that one live contact with Air New Zealand has significantly lowered the stress level - they now know we exist, and hopefully someone will care enough to call us back.  So now we can relax, and enjoy a few more days in Napier.

In a few minutes we will be heading over to the Napier airport to meet my sister Margaret, who is coming to enjoy a few days with us.  With only twelve virus cases in New Zealand, the risk is small that she will catch it enroute and infect us.  The plan is that we will drive her back to Wellington, when we know what our revised travel arrangements are, further limiting our collective exposure.

I need a drink!

Napier, New Zealand (2020-03-16)

"Should I stay or should I go now?"

These words from The Clash's 1982 hit song echo in my head, as we try and figure out the best plan for returning to Canada.  There are still only nine covid 19 cases in New Zealand, so it certainly seems like a safe place to weather the storm, if our travel plans for March 28th get thwarted by governments or airlines.  The Canadian Government says get home as soon as possible, but we only want to fly on direct flights to Vancouver (to limit our exposure to other people on planes and in airports).  The earliest flight that we can get, as of a few minutes ago, is March 25th, if we manage to get through to the airline.  We have heard horror stories of people being on hold for 15 hours trying to change flights.  But this morning Air New Zealand announced that they are suspending all flights to Vancouver as of March 30th, so we have a very small window of opportunity, to actually get home.  Otherwise we will be here for several more months.

In other news....

My sister Tricia left on the bus to Wellington early this morning, after 8 days of fun.  While Tricia was here we did a lot of walking and biking and went to one movie, "Military Wives", which I would heartily recommend.  But we also managed to help my cousins with preparing for the house move this week - Marlene and Tricia did a day's gardening while I lugged garbage up to the street, onto a trailer, and took it to the dump.  When we got to the dump, Maureen asked me if I would reverse the trailer up to "the pit".  I laughed and told her that I have never reversed a trailer in my life, so probably not a good idea.  Maureen did a fine job herself.

A few days later, we returned to help move potted plants and bricks from the old house to the new house....three trailer loads of plants and five trailer loads of bricks to be precise.  This presented another requirement to reverse the trailer, and given a lack of available candidates, I had to take care of it, which I executed well.  So I have lost my trailer reversing virginity!  We all slept well that night.

The Napier Library has a simple way of getting feedback on which books are good, and which ones are not so good - two return slots.  It might be a bit challenging for some.

Napier Library Return Slots

In our wanderings through Ahuriri I came across some words of wisdom, especially applicable during a covid 19 pandemic.  Thanks to Hair 2 Go!

Words of Wisdom

With this covid 19 outbreak, New Zealand has closed her ports to cruise ships, so the Ruby Princess  (which was also here last week) was probably the last cruise ship that we will see on this visit to New Zealand.  She departed Napier yesterday.

Ruby Princess leaving Napier

 This morning, after Tricia left for home, we decided to bike the 16 km to Clive for a coffee.  It was a good ride, but when we got to Clive the cafe was closed, so we had to bike back to Napier before we got our coffee.  While walking along Dalton Street, another sign caught my eye, and gave us a chuckle in these somewhat humourless times.

All Too True

Once fortified with a drink and a scoffin (a cross between a scone and a muffin), we headed to Countdown and stocked up on groceries before biking home, so we will be all prepared for the upcoming visit of my other sister, Margaret, on Wednesday.