Pre Day 1: Getting ready to travel to NZ

I live in Melbourne, Australia and had just learnt that a close relative in Wellington, New Zealand is quite unwell. I made the easy decision to try and see them before they die, but also knowing that it was probably going to be a difficult process to get there given the many travel restrictions in place in this time of Covid-19. We also decided as a family (wife, daughter and myself) that we would all make the journey.

Initial research revealed that the only flights going to New Zealand were from Sydney to Auckland, which would require flying Melbourne-Sydney-Auckland-Wellington. So this was clearly going to be more tricky and expensive compared to the normal direct Melbourne-Wellington flights that we'd taken in the past.

Delving into the process further, there were a a number of hoops to jump through:
  • Permission to transit through Sydney airport: with the border from Victoria to New South Wales closed we'd have to get approval for transiting through Sydney airport.
  • Permission to leave Australia: unlike most countries in the world, Australia was restricting the ability for citizens to leave. We'd need to get an exemption on compassionate ground to exit.
  • Permission to enter hotel quarantine in New Zealand: the hardest part of travelling was knowing that we'd have to quarantine in New Zealand for 14 days before being allowed to freely enter the country. This was also going to cost us big as it is only free to returning New Zealand citizens, not for those entering for less than 90 days. There is a waiver available on compassionate grounds which hopefully we can get.
  • Flights: across all sections of the journey were not that many flights compared to normal times. The upshot was that we couldn't make the journey to NZ in the one day, but would need to fly to Sydney, stay in hotel quarantine overnight, and then travel to NZ the next day. Most of these flights were also more expensive than normal, presumably because there were few travellers taking them.
The key hurdle was getting permission to leave Australia. Having assembled the key documents, including a letter from the hospice advising that my relative was terminally ill with limited time left, I submitted my request. I was unsure how compassionate the government officials would be and also thought it could take days to be processed, even with their statement that compassionate requests were prioritised. Under the circumstances I had become very conscious of the too-rapid passage of time. So it was with great relief and a real credit to the Australian Department of Home Affairs that 4 hours later we got the approval to go.

The rest of the process of organising the other exemptions, permits and flights went fairly smoothly and so we were all set to go ...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7: Covid test results + hotel security

Image
Late in the day we got our Covid test results back and, as expected, we all tested negative. So that was some good news. The next test will be on Day 12 of our managed isolation experience and if we are still negative then we're allowed out on Day 14. Some more info came out about the case that tested positive in our hotel on Monday. A  press release  from the Ministry of Health advised it was someone who had come from the USA via Sydney and had tested positive at around day 3 of isolation. We still wonder how close we came. Did we walk past the infected person  Security Something that has intrigued us from the moment we arrived here was the level of security in place. It was very clear that we were being monitored and confined. This may be a luxury prison (by normal prison standards) but a jail of sorts it certainly is. And it is surely just human nature to think about how to be free whenever one is confined ... The exterior of the hotel is surrounded by a double layer o...
Read more

Day 13: The distortion of time and space in isolation

Image
We had our Day 11 of isolation Covid tests in the morning. If these come back negative then we'll be officially allowed to leave in a few days. The comfort factor during the test was definitely lower than our Day 3 tests, so we lucked in with the first nurse who had the very steadiest of hands. We also got quizzed about our onward travel plans by one of the military folk -- I imagine they want to know where everyone is going so they can trace all movements in case there is an outbreak. We also spotted some people on their way out which made us jealous, but also excited about hopefully leaving soon ... The distortion of time and space in isolation We've really noticed the effect of living in one room for the last 11 days and the lack of variety from day to day. The only certainties are the double knocks to advise there are food bags outside our door. Most days we also go walking and then there are semi-regular temperature and Covid checks. Other than that the only variety is wha...
Read more

Day 11: Covid results, keeping entertained and animals

Image
Thankfully my one-off Covid test results came back negative which was good news. Clearly I'd just had a cold but what terrible timing for it to happen during isolation. Our rooms aren't serviced and so we've been doing all the cleaning, dishes, changing towels and linen etc. ourselves. For some reason vacuum cleaners aren't available and so our well trodden carpet has been getting grottier by the day. Today I was down on my hands and knees picking up what I could to try and slightly decrease the grot factor. Every night this week we've been hearing the sound of fireworks being set off. We haven't seen a single firework in the sky however. It is likely that all the action is happening in the parkland and residential area to the north of where we are (but we are facing south), and the sound is being bounced off the huge concrete warehouse wall that we can see from our room. Passing the time We've been enjoying taking turns to choose movies to watch, which has ...
Read more