Day 64, Level 1: A lockdown overview, champagne, complacency and ... heading back to Level 3!

What a difference a day makes ...!

The weather this morning in the north was dreadful. Pouring, howling, hideous. Was it a sign of things to come ... ?

Spoil alert ... By 9.30pm tonight, our nation had gone swiftly from gloating to gulping ... Auckland (not the whole of NZ) is set to go from Level 1 to Level 3.

Not surprising, but a little shocking all the same.

Let's review NZ lockdown ... I can't quite believe I've done a post every single day since just before [initial] lockdown! Not bad discipline I think. 

Even when I couldn't really be bothered posting sometimes, once life got back to normal and time became more precious, I still did!

That's 142 days of posting words and photos. That's almost five months!

That's how long it is since we locked down.

Here's an overview of the year - in NZ lockdown terms.

• 3 days of Preparation (23rd/24th/25th March)
• 33 days in Level 4 (26th March - 27th April)
• 16 days in Level 3 (28th April - 13th May)
• 26 days in Level 2 (14th May - 8th June)
• and, so far, 64 days in Level 1 (from 9th June)
• That's 142 days!

Here's a photo from a Level 1 lockdown day at Omaha in June ...

 

BUT ... egad ... it's all gone horribly wrong. From midday tomorrow, Wednesday 12th August 2020, Auckland is going back to Level 3 lockdown. And the rest of the country into Level 2. 

This is due to community outbreak in South Auckland. There's a strong feeling amongst the common people that flight crew may be the cause - they've been allowed to fly in and out and come and go without quarantine. Including in and out of Melbourne. 

Mere mortals on the other hand must quarantine for 14 days. But then again, others only need to do so for half that time (I learnt this recently when learning of a family who had arrived to attend a funeral were let our of quarantine after just 6 days). None of this makes any sense. So indeed, it was a matter of when, not if, we went back into lockdown.

After 102 community-free days in NZ, it all became a bit too good to be true. And here we go again ... back in lockdown.

Call me cynical but ... surprise, surprise, life as normal with loads of complacency, a hint of smugness and a heightened sense of belief that "we've got this" was never going to do the trick. 

Despite being a small country far removed, with borders "closed", and much as we'd like to think we're a cut above the rest (we're not!) - it is evident that we are immune from nothing.

Back to today ... I was at Omaha and although the weather was atrocious all morning (as it also was in Auckland), by 2pm it had brightened up considerably. After a solid morning's work, I cleaned and packed up and headed to the Stables at Matakana Country Park for an afternoon meet-up. It was more like a lovely afternoon soiree! Annie, who I'd reconnected with yesterday, had organised for Anne Battley-Burton to come give a talk on ... champagne, cats, RHOA and life. 

Anne (not Annie!) featured on the TV series RHOA (Real Housewives of Auckland) - oh gosh she gave some great behind the scenes information about a show she initially resisted but went with. Some awful moments of anguish and upset for her, but overall she was pleased she put herself to that challenge. Really interesting to hear her storie.

She imports a very nice champagne called Jacquart - I know it's very nice because we had tastings! And got lots of info about champagne, etiquette and so much more. I learnt plenty!

Anne also runs the Pussy Palace - a home for rescued cats. Before RHOA she had 15 - now she has 200. People bring waifs and strays to Anne's Pussy Palace! She's had an interesting life, including being a Latin Ballroom dance champ and living in a chateau in France with an ex-boyfriend Count. 

I chatted away to various lovely local ladies, made some great connections and then headed back to Auckland. I left Matakana at 4.35pm, expecting it to take perhaps two hours, being rush hour, and poor weather (although nice in Matakana/Omaha by this time). I couldn't believe it, but I had the BEST trip home I think I've ever had. Ever. I pulled into the garage at 5.37pm. That's almost impossible if you try to time it right - but at rush hour - unbelievable. 

The irony is also that, with lockdown coming tomorrow, the roads will be even better. But I still wouldn't be able to carve any time of that trip of 1hour 2mins. That's a best possible time for the trip if you stick to the speed limits. No way could you do it any quicker, unless you risked a speeding ticket. 

Home, unpack, hi to Brett, watch The Chase and watch the News (no wonder Saint Ashley Bloomfield looked so guarded and pained - he knew what was coming a bit later in the evening) and then I flitted off to quiz. Something was coming ... and it did!

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
The problem with NZ ... (this is a rather heavy Share-Note!)

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... 

Yes we have great countryside and landscape - so do most countries. 

And yes there's a perception we punch above our weight - which we do in certain spheres that grab the world's attention.

But the reality is that we're absolutely not the best country we can or should be. We put on a pretty decent show for the audience out front of the curtain - but backstage, it's a shambles. The sad thing is, we've punched well above our weight in the nasty side of life for far too long for a small and youthful country. We have plenty of atrocious statistics that make me cringe and despair - youth suicide, domestic violence, child neglect and abuse ... there's a very long and horrid list.

Sure, most countries are in a shambolic state, especially during these Covid days. But we're a child that its innocence way too early, thanks to naivety, greed and desperately wanting to play with the big boys.

The problem is - Kiwis won't acknowledge the problems that are going on in Kiwi-land. Organisations, charities, good-hearted people who are trying to fix them do. But there's a lot of "not the my backyard" or "my kid wouldn't do that" syndrome going on. And, as is evident with the "we've sussed Covid, we're all right" mentality, pretence and/or hope of success does not mean success.

Long established countries like the UK are pretty good at acknowledging what's wrong with themselves. And they've pretty much acknowledged they didn't handle Covid to the best of their ability.

But ... like the guy who won't/can't acknowledge his shortcomings in order to take that vital step to improve himself, but prefers to blame everyone else, NZ refusing to accept that we're actually not "all that" will mean we're a country stuck in its issues.

New Zealand - let's fulfil the potential we have but let sight of years ago.