Just another day in quarantine

Hello again from New Zealand! Things are both vastly different and remarkably unchanged since the last time I wrote. Allow me to explain.

We were some of the last foreigners allowed into New Zealand before the borders were closed to tourists. Since we were arriving from overseas, we were required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival, after which time we would be free to move about the country. Or at least, that was the situation about two weeks ago when I last posted.

However, about 5 days into our 14-day self-isolation, New Zealand announced that the entire country would be going into a minimum 4-week lockdown starting in 48 hours. Only essential services would be open, and movement around the country would be restricted. Suddenly our 2 week quarantine would become a 5 week quarantine.

So, we had a decision to make. Did we stay in New Zealand and hope that the quarantine lifted on time so that we could see some of the country before our tourist visa expired in June? Or did we try to catch a flight home rather than spend money on an apartment? Would we even be allowed to leave the country given that we were still under our 14-day mandatory self-isolation? And what would we even do if we did make it home, since the US economy was so thoroughly in shambles?

Ultimately, we decided to wait it out. New Zealand was acting early and thoroughly enough, we reasoned, that they’d have a decent chance of stopping the spread of COVID-19 in a way that the US had already failed to do. New Zealand was probably a safer place for us to be. Plus, if we stayed, we’d be together. If we went home we’d both be able to live with our respective families during the crisis, but seeing each other in person would become next to impossible for the duration of the epidemic.

So, here we are. It’s now 9 days into New Zealand’s 4 week quarantine, and Auckland is essentially a ghost town. You see, when New Zealand means only ‘essential services’ can operate, they mean only essential services. It’s not like the US where it seems any store that could conceivably sell something useful is allowed to operate, in New Zealand right now the only things that are allowed to operate are grocery stores, banks, and pharmacies. That’s it. Only a few days ago did they even make an exception to allow online deliveries of items like appliances and blankets. They are taking this quarantine seriously.

It’s still too soon to know if the restrictions are working, but we’re hopeful. New Zealand’s immigration has also been quite helpful and accommodating given the situation. Byron and I received notice that due to travel difficulties our tourist visas will be extended until September 25th of this year. This was a huge relief, as it gives us time to figure out a plan moving forward, and also makes it more likely that we’ll have time to see something of New Zealand once the quarantine is lifted. We’re also in the process of applying for working holiday visas, which would allow us to remain in the country for one year and work temporary jobs to supplement our travel funds. Given that we had only budgeted to be traveling for 8 months or so before returning to the US to look for jobs, the ability to earn some extra income during this time would be amazing.

In the meantime, we are still here in our Auckland apartment. I’m still reveling in our ability to make our own food instead of having to eat out all the time (also NZ closed all the restaurants even for take out, so we couldn’t buy restaurant food even if we wanted to). I’ve been keeping us well supplied with homemade scones and shortbread, and drinking probably 4-5 cups of tea a day, most of it from the tea garden we visited in Sabah, Malaysia what seems like forever ago. (While proofreading this blog post for me, Byron insisted I talk up the tea more. The tea is truly great, thank goodness we bought a box of 100 tea bags!)

Fortunately for us, Auckland is full of many lovely parks within walking distance of our apartment. Our two favorites are Victoria Park, which has a great track for walking or jogging, and is lined with impressively huge trees, and Western Park, which feels more like a nature walk with winding trails, a variety of plants, and many trilling birds.

Even with our daily walk, most of our time each day is spent indoors. Thankfully I am uniquely well suited to quarantining, given that I love being cozy, making myself little indoor nests, drinking tea, reading, writing, drawing, painting, and of course, knitting.

My foremost concern is my dwindling yarn supply. You see, unfortunately, the New Zealand government mistakenly classified yarn stores as ‘non-essential’, which means despite being in the land of mountains and sheep, despite being in a city with at least 4 yarn stores, I cannot buy any new yarn supplies. I have only what I brought with me from home and what I bought in Hanoi back in February.

So the knitting continues – the sweater especially is coming along nicely, though I’ve had to improvise when I ran out of the colors I wanted! – but with trepidation. For every row I knit brings me closer to the nigh-apocalyptic scenario of having no more yarn at all. Knitting less is simply not an option. I think I can make it, I think my yarn supply can last three more weeks, but if this quarantine gets extended? I shudder to think of it.