A lot has happened in the three weeks since I last posted. Auckland has now been in either Level 4 or Level 3 lockdown for nearly 10 weeks, since 18 August when a “snap” lockdown was announced for the entire country after discovering a single case of COVID-19 in the community.
I wrote in my last post at the beginning of October that we seemed to be getting the outbreak under control, and that I hoped we were past the high point of the bell curve. But unfortunately, as the chart below shows, that has turned out not to be the case.
The government has conceded that we won’t be able to eliminate the Delta strain in the same way that we have managed to stamp out COVID every other time it’s managed to get into the community here. Which is really unfortunate. Aotearoa’s days of being COVID-free are officially over. And we’re now getting a taste of what the rest of the world has been experiencing these past 20 months or so.
On Friday this week we recorded our highest number of new cases in a single day of the entire pandemic – 129. The numbers have felt bleak by New Zealand standards. But ‘bleak by New Zealand standards’ is still a hell of a lot better than basically anywhere else in the world.
Here in Wellington, we still have relative freedom of being at Alert Level 2. Laura and I went out to dinner last week for the first time in months, which was both really nice and also kind of strange. (Though we had the most amazing ramen, so it really was a lovely treat!)
In frustrating news, the US Postal Service has suspended mail delivery from the US to New Zealand. They announced it with zero advance notice, so there was no opportunity to have last minute mail sent through. Not that there was anything in particular that I needed per se, but I’ll definitely miss Mom’s hand painted cards that she sent to me every month or so, and the occasional surprise piece of mail from other friends and family.
We’ve also had a couple of earthquakes this month – the first decent shakes we’ve had in a while. Last week there was one of those funny ones where I jumped under my desk immediately, and other people didn’t even react. I guess that’s the difference between lifelong Wellingtonians and transplants. But then there was another one on Friday which happened while I was driving and I didn’t even feel it.
But in good news, we’ve also had our second COVID doses at the beginning of the month, so Laura and I are both now fully vaccinated. I was so excited I literally jumped up in the air afterward as we were leaving the clinic. It’s all another step closer to getting back to some semblance of normal, and being able to travel to see family again. And, beyond that, it’s protection from a really freaking scary disease, which doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere anytime soon.
Like with the first shot, I had almost no reaction to the second one, except for fatigue. I was exhausted. But again, that’s such a small price to pay.
I expect that I’ll probably need a booster of some sort before I actually go back to the States, at whatever unknown future time that ends up being. But again, it’s great to be getting one step closer, and know that I’m protected when it does inevitably enter the community here in Wellington. This week the South Island had their first community case since the original outbreak in March 2020, which was a bit of a wakeup call. In Wellington – city of public servants – people are taking the rules really seriously. But when I went just an hour north of the city, I was dismayed to see cafes where staff weren’t wearing masks, and people seeming to be a lot more lax about the rules.
Today is Labour Day here in Aotearoa, and it’s been really lovely to have a long weekend, especially since work has been quite busy with online conferences and presentations lately. Today I met up with a friend and her dogs, and even though the weather wasn’t great, we went for a really nice walk in the mist.
My Life in Aotearoa New Zealand 