Travel in COVID times

Breakfast arrived early and by 7:30 am we'd had our final health check. We then proceeded to the exit area and were provided letters stating we'd completed our 14 day isolation period and had also received a negative Covid test on day 11. We were then free to leave! A taxi van took us out of the hotel grounds, and we keenly took in everything we saw with absolute joy and amazement. This included driving past another isolation hotel where residents were walking around a caged area in the carpark and again we felt grateful for the hotel we'd been in with all its greenery. Upon arrival at the airport we were let out and genuinely felt free. We stumbled into the departures area and sat down in a spot that had a good view of what was going on. For at least 10 minutes all we did was watch people and remark at how amazing it was. People largely without masks, people hugging, no obvious social distancing. It was like another world. Happy to be free and out in a very strange world ....

We had our final monitored walk in the morning and imagined what better walks we'd be enjoying elsewhere soon. In two days we'd be going for a walk on the beach with a view of Kapiti island, no one watching us, without a mask and for as long as wanted. Bring it on. After a day of working we started packing things up and getting sorted for the last steps in the morning: final packup, health check and going through the military-overseen process of getting our letter of release. After that it would be off to the airport. The TV news led with a main story about a new community transmission case in Auckland city. The city had gone into high alert, with CBD workers advised to work from home the next day, and intensive testing and tracing underway. It was an interesting contrast to Melbourne where such individual cases hadn't really gained as much attention, but I can understand that New Zealand has truly eradicated the virus and so every time there is a new case that pops up, usu...

In the morning we received our negative Covid results from our tests two days earlier. Always good to have such good news delivered to your front door by the army. So now we're all set for being cleared to leave on Friday. Freedom is feeling very close although still a bit of a surreal concept. The rest of the day was spent doing work, including lots of drop outs while having an online meeting (I'm very much looking forward to having reliable internet again!). What we see going on in other peoples’ rooms On our monitored walks we get to see into other peoples rooms when they have their curtains open. It has been interesting watching peoples' lives unfold in this strange environment that we all find ourselves. The things we've noticed are: Families with small kids are probably doing it the toughest:  The thought of having one or more small kids to keep entertained in a single room must be hard, especially if one parent needs to work. We see lots of playing going on, espe...

The end of our isolation is feeling very close now. We haven't had our final Covid results back yet but we're hoping they're not far off. Today was a day of working and watching the afternoon rain. I had an interesting chat with one of the army guys working here. Within a few minutes we had discovered we both knew someone from his hometown, which reminded me of how interconnected New Zealand is. He was saying that the army are concerned about losing personnel because so many have been pulled in to support the isolation and quarantine effort, which is not what they'd probably envisaged doing when they joined up. The challenge will be to keep them engaged and morale up until things return to normal. Let's be realistic -- that probably won't be the case until a vaccine is widely available. Things to have in isolation If you happen to find yourself heading to an isolation facility anytime soon, here is a list of things we have found useful and those things we wish w...

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...

It was great to wake up and learn that Biden had been elected president. We'd been paying more attention to the US election than normal, both because it was a particularly interesting election but also because we'd had a bit of time on our hands. It has also been great seeing how well our home town of Melbourne is going with the virus and we listened to the update from the premier Dan Andrews about the further easing of restrictions. It seems that when we get home it will be a very changed city from the one we left a couple of weeks ago. Although I'd received a negative Covid test result yesterday, it was only today that we were officially released from isolation and allowed to leave the room as there had been the need to wait 48 hours since the last symptoms had been observed. This was brilliant and so we all went out for a walk, plus later in the day sat in the central park area and took in the sunshine. The Hotel The Holiday Inn Auckland Airport in Mangere where we'r...

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 ...

We were chatting with a security guard on our walks and he said we were quite lucky to be in this hotel and should be glad we're not in one of the city hotels. He told us that the city hotels didn't have easy walkaround areas like we did here and that exercise at some involved guests being taken by bus to another area for walking. With only 12 people allowed per bus and 4 buses per day, it could sometimes be 3 or 4 days between walks. At our hotel you could go for a walk in every on-the-hour slot if you wanted to. I got a bit concerned as I woke with a bit of a tickle in my throat and a warm feeling in my head, which could be a fever. Together these could be signs of Covid-19. I rang the nurses station and they had us come down for temperature checks. Thankfully my temperature was normal, as were the others, however to be on the safe side they decided to do another Covid test on me. Later that day they turned up outside our room in full PPE and I had my second Covid test, which...

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...

Working from isolation We set about trying to all do work today, which was no simple matter. Three people in the one room, with a desk that can take two people side by side and the need to have online meetings presented some challenges. Added to that the wireless internet cycled back and forth between good to very bad. So we got some work done, but I had numerous meetings with glitches and dead spots, along with minor successes in disconnecting/reconnecting only to then have it drop out minutes later. I discovered at the end of the day that the wi-fi signal in the bathroom was a fair bit stronger, as it probably picks up on the more powerful routers in the outside corridor vs the small thing in our room. The room does have a bit of an echo to it. It also feels a bit weird to be having work meetings from the bathroom, but if it works ... In isolation the need to have working internet does feel a bit like the need for oxygen! Covid alert At about 4:30 pm there was a sudden announcement o...

So this morning we had our first Covid test, which officially happens for everyone on Days 3 and 12 of their stay in managed isolation or hotel quarantine. It was ... not as bad as we'd expected. It probably helped that the nurse was very experienced with an extremely steady hand. She also had clear access to us (which probably wouldn't be the case in a drive-through). The swab went right in and the pressure on the back of the nasal cavity could be felt but was quite gentle and not that uncomfortable. The only slight discomfort was when she was pulling the swab out and our eyes watered a bit. So now we wait a day or two for the results to come through. If we tested positive then we'd be moved out of our relaxed managed isolation and into much more restrictive hotel quarantine, so we're really hoping we are clear. We've found the daily walks a highlight of our days here. After calling security to book in for a spot, we're allowed out onto the fenced in perimeter ...