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!