Wellington adventures in covid, New Zealand

Ain't nothing gonna get me down

 Starting in the middle of the story: we are all isolating in Matt and Sarah's house in Wellington for 7 days after Matt went down with the dreaded covid.  This is certainly our closest encounter with SARS-CoV-2 and so far none of the other seven inhabitants have tested positive.  It's a wrench that has always been hovering above our travelling gears but until now has, perhaps surprisingly, not dropped into the works.  Well now it has and here we are and there you go. And since I am too lazy to rewrite my own blogs, I can conclude this paragraph at the end of story and tell you that everyone except Toby and Maisy have now tested positive. More of the end of the story coming in the middle of the blog. Confused.

But before the now or the after, the before...   First the ferry.  On a perfectly still, sunny and cool Thursday morning we eased out of Picton harbour to make the serene passage through the Marlborough Sounds and across the slightly choppier Cook Strait to Wellington.  I like to spend as much time as possible out on deck although the wind and the cold discouraged this to some extent.  Inside we were treated to a steady stream of somewhat incongruous British soap operas. As we approached Wellington the Captain announced that they could see dolphins from the bridge so we all trooped out and enjoyed the spectacle of two pods of dolphins slicing through the white-capped turquoise waves.  They seem so free and happy.

Leaving Picton shortly after the sun breaks through the morning mist

The sublime Marlborough sounds

Sailing into Wellington

Sarah, Matt, Maisy and Rose live fifteen minutes from the ferry.  Theirs is a covid story of adventure.  Matt is from New Zealand but has spent 20 years living in England and Chamonix where he met Sarah.  They had come for a visit in March of 2020 and got stuck here.  They decided to settle and had their worldly positions shipped over to them.  They spent the first year in Matt's parents' holiday home on the Coromandel peninsula and then moved to Wellington, attracted by the sea, trails, job market and lifestyle.  We had planned to spend four nights (currently will be 18!) in their home here then travel up to the Coromandel to join them again there via a couple of nights in Taupo and Rotorua.  

Fish and chips on the beach

All began well on Friday with a walk to Red Rocks while Sarah and Maisy went to gymnastics and swimming.  We saw about 30 seals, just a few metres from the path, lazing on the rocks during their post-fishing siesta.  Dinner was fish and chips on the city centre beach, which in hindsight might have saved us from more covid cases sooner.  Saturday I ran with Matt before a family walk at Mount Victoria and through the interpretive nature and activity trail.  

On the Red Rocks walk, before we reached the seals

Sun, sea and seal

There's a comforting familiarity to the way these sea mammals find a comfy rock and get into relax mode, bellies presumably full of the morning's fishing proceeds 

Epic high speed slide with a view of Island Bay

We didn't set out to do a tour of the Pacific Rim but it has been fascinating travelling through this vast area united by its common fault line and its attendant disasters-in-waiting

Sunday we had big plans to visit the market and Te Papa which is the national museum of New Zealand.  Sadly Matt woke up feeling awful and tested positive for covid.  And because we humans like to assign meaning to random coincidences, the earthquake that gently jolted the house at thirteen minutes past eight that morning definitely felt like a timely omen.  

Portents of doom

Writing while Matt was the only case: And so here we are, all isolating in a house best suited to four people with one room sealed off for the patient.  All that is except for Rose who, thanks to her own recent covid case, is exempt from isolating and can still go to school.  If, and it's a big if, we all manage to avoid testing positive, and if (smaller but not non-existent if), we can get to Auckland on Saturday morning, we may still be able to make our flight to Australia. Fortunately we can still go out for walks, play in the nearby forest and on the soccer fields, and we have just picked up an enormous click and collect order.  

Tree fort, adopted, renovated, improved

Hand ball!


Island Bay beach

This is the first time that covid has affected our travel plans in an unexpected way and it's our closest (known) brush with covid.  Which feels very fortunate, some 10.5 months after moving out of our house. The kids are having fun with each other, the adults (except poor unfortunate unwell and lonely Matt) are enjoying each other's company and we have everything we need. The days have some sort of rhythm around breakfast, walking to the forest, reading books, playing games, doing some school work, lunch, quiet time, mud kitchen, painting, scootering the side passageway and doing similar the next day.  It's quite nice to have a bit of a break from the touristing.  I don't think it is wrong to feel that we should take advantage of doing things unique to a place while we are here, but it can be tiring and for now it is good to have our hand forced and to be having an experience of a different kind.

Felicity and Maisy

Toby and Maisy cooking up a storm in the backyard mud kitchen

Felicity and Rose at Craft Central

The guy has big boundless energy and he is also a reader and a carer

Thursday, May 19th update: we were due to end our isolation this Saturday. Yesterday we booked a (fully refundable!!) flight to Auckland to connect with our flight to Brisbane later in the day.  Today the next big spanner dropped right into the works because I tested positive.  I had a scratchy throat yesterday but I put it down to swallowing something awkwardly at lunch.  This morning I felt like I had the faint onset of a typical cold and decided to do a test.  There it was, after literally dozens of negative tests over the last 2 years, a very pale but definitely there little line by the T.  In fact after setting the fifteen minute timer I decided to pass the time completing my passenger declaration form for Oz.  I forgot about the test and only when I wondered if I had forgotten to set the alarm did I look down and see the result.  This means that I am definitely stuck here until next Thursday.  There's no double jeopardy here so as long as everyone else in the house tests negative tomorrow, they can go (cautiously) gallivanting on Saturday (which they did for 2 days before the next round of positive tests, more about that in the next post).  

Groceries here come in paper bags (hallelujah).  This paper bag has swapped its grocery load for a 10-yr-old child's head 

It's a faint line with big consequences

Sometimes the spreadsheet gives way to paper and pencil, going back to the proverbial drawing board, one of many, many iterations that are trying to hit a moving target