Level Three

The initial four-week period of COVID-19 Level Four was extended by five days last Monday, as Jacinda Ardern wanted to maintain the lockdown past ANZAC Day to ensure people weren’t tempted to use the relaxation of the rules to go on holiday over the long weekend.

Today is the first day of Level Three. In practical terms, not much has changed. The main thing is that food establishments are allowed to open for contactless takeaways – either drive-by, pick-up or delivered – so today we had our first lunch “out”, at The Larder, who provided us with a beefburger and fries (me) and risotto (Nicola). I drove down the hill, even though it’s less than 10 minutes’ walk away, to ensure that we could get back home pronto and eat it whilst it’s still fresh. Who’d have thought that such a small thing would be considered a great leap forward, even two months ago? Just as a reminder, two months ago was the end of February, and we’d just returned from Costa Rica; other events from around this time included going to the dentist, taking tours from cruise ships (including the now notorious Ruby Princess!) and ZBD Tours, pub quiz and going out to see Tom Skelton. Happy days!

We are due to stay in Level Three for two weeks initially, after which there will be a further review. Hopefully they will then decide to take us down to Level Two, which allows shops and restaurants to open, with appropriate spatial distancing rules. This also includes Zealandia, so I’ll be able to go back and pick up some tour work. A large proportion of the volunteer guides fall into the “vulnerable” category, as many of them do guiding in their retirement, and are therefore over the age threshold. So us “younger” types may be called upon to fill the demand – if demand there is, of course. We’re not clear on how much there will be for paid tours yet, as it will, at least initially, be Wellingtonians who’ll be our main customer base. As the rules get relaxed further, to Level One, and hopefully eventually Level Nought, other New Zealanders will be able to holiday in Wellington and hopefully will come to see us.

Here's how that all-important chart has been tracking:

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. For the time being, we’re still maintaining our spatial distance, taking walks, doing virtual pub quizzes (both in NZ and UK). We are of course supporting our local hostelries as much as possible – tomorrow we’ve got dinner from Café Polo – and generally waiting for better things.

Mushroom Burgers

Whilst Jonny and Sarah were staying with us I had to come up with a range of vegetarian alternatives for Sarah when the rest of us were eating meat. In some cases, such as tom yum soup, this can be easily effected by substituting in tofu for chicken. When we had a steak night, I made a mushroom burger for Sarah. I didn’t really measure out the ingredients, so this is more of a guide than set in stone, but here’s the recipe:

This makes two good-sized burgers.

6 portobello mushrooms

¼ red onion

1 slice of bread

I egg white

Herbs

Salt and pepper

Coarsely chop the mushrooms, finely dice the red onion, and breadcrumb the bread. Mix all the ingredients together, season to taste, and add in any other herbs – oregano or thyme are probably good flavour combinations. Form into burgers either by hand or using a ring (I find a ring is better because you can squash the mix together well so it doesn’t fall apart), and bake in the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

And Then There Were Two

The latest news from the government is that it is likely that they will take us down to COVID-19 Level 3 next week, and that this will last for a further two weeks. In terms of practical differences for us, this doesn’t really change anything. We don’t have anyone that we need or want to include in our bubble in terms of extended family or carers, we’re not getting married or dying (we hope!), don’t have children, aren’t going to be swimming, surfing or mountain biking any time soon. So it’s a further two weeks of socially isolating, hoping the weather stays good enough for going outside for walks, and lots of Netflix.

Jonny and Sarah have been with us for almost a month now, but have managed to find flights for a reasonable (i.e. not extortionate, as they were a couple of weeks ago) price with Qatar Airways, so this morning at 9:30 we drove them to Wellington Airport, there to meet with Macbeth board a plane to Auckland, and thence Doha and London. It’s going to be weird not having them here! They have been very good house guests, helping out with cooking and cleaning, and also providing us with useful players, particularly for bridge. They have rented a house on Airbnb for two weeks to self-isolate when they land, then go to Sarah’s parents in Yorkshire for a month before they can return to their own home – which is still currently rented out, as they weren’t planning to be back in the UK until June.

There was no queue at New World as we returned – an eventuality I had anticipated – so I was ready, list in hand, to go and do some shopping. They had some things which were missing last week (oranges, frozen peas), so I restocked, but no large bottle of OJ. There’s always something weird that they’ve not got, but the basics are all there.

So that’s us on our own now…but we’ll see people online. Andrew (Jonny’s brother) is organising a weekly quiz for the family, so we’ll be participating in that. And of course we have our own quiz night on Tuesdays, which is replacing our usual pub quiz.

End Of Week Three

The lockdown continues here in New Zealand, and we are getting used to our various routines. These include:

·       A daily walk. Weather permitting, but so far it’s been fairly rain-free so we’ve been able to get out most days.

·       Infrequent trips to the supermarket. Whilst the news is full of reports of queues stretching for miles and waits of hours, I’m assuming this is purely an Auckland phenomenon, as this is where the news organisations are based. It certainly hasn’t been my experience at Miramar New World.

·        Quiz night (1). We’ve organised our own quiz night, with an expanding roster of teams participating. Each team sets and delivers a round of questions. After the initial quiz, where all the questions were too hard, we’ve introduced a rule whereby the team scores the average of all the other teams on their own round, so there’s no incentive for setting difficult questions. The scores last week reflected this.

·       Quiz night (2). Garage Project run an online quiz on Friday nights. You can either register as a team and compete for a prize, or just play along silently at home. After the first week, it was abundantly clear that those teams playing competitively were googling the answers, so we’re not going to participate like that. We may give them another go at home this Friday.

·       Lenny Beige. On Tuesday and Friday nights, Lenny entertains us for an hour with songs, stories and general nonsense, via the medium of Facebook Live. This, of course, is a breakfast-time activity for me, and since the clocks went back I’ve had to get up earlier for the start time of 8:00am. Whilst everyone else is imbibing wine-style drinks, I’m having toast and coffee.

·       Games. We’ve been playing our repertoire of board and card games on a regular basis.

·       Cookery. Whilst I’ve been managing most of the cookery duties, our guests, Jonny and Sarah, have taken over some nights for vegetarian cookery; they’ve also been doing bakery, so recently we’ve had muffins (both blueberry and spinach varieties) banana bread and cinnamon buns.

In terms of the Government’s progress, there will be an announcement on Monday, 20^th April (Day 26) on the expected COVID-19 status. The initial lockdown period was four weeks, and that will be up on Wednesday 22^nd. On Monday we will learn whether level 4 will continue, or whether we will be downgraded to level 3, or even level 2 as some are advocating. Our level of new reported cases has been falling daily, and the number of recovered cases is now more than 50% of all confirmed cases. Whilst the number of deaths is expected to continue to rise, as this lags by two weeks or more, it is expected to peak at a low number. So far, there haven’t been any from the “healthy” population – they’ve all been people with underlying health conditions, including the large cluster from an aged care residential home, which accounts for six out of the total nine.

Here's that important chart:

What are the most important things to do once we’re allowed to do them again? Firstly, get a haircut! I’m looking increasingly shaggy these days and in need of a good shearing. Secondly, get out to those local businesses which have suffered from being in lockdown for a month – the local cafes, restaurants and other shops. As staycationing becomes a thing it’s likely that Zealandia will become a popular destination throughout the autumn and winter, so there may be opportunities for more guiding during what is generally regarded as “slack” season.

Hopefully life will get back to something resembling normality in the near future.

Lockdown: Day 14

Oh, we’re halfway there

Oh, oh, livin’ on a prayer

Yes, two weeks have passed since New Zealand went to COVID19 Alert level 4 at 23:59 on Wednesday, 25^th March. At the time, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said that the initial lockdown period would be four weeks. Whether this continues to be the case remains to be seen – we’ll see where we are at the end on 22^nd April. In the meantime, we’re staying indoors most of the time, with only a daily walk in our local area, and very occasional forays to the supermarkets which remain open.

Nicola’s nephew, Jonny, and his fiancée, Sarah, were in New Zealand touring in a campervan when the lockdown was announced. They had 48 hours to find a safe haven, or face being on a camp site in the van for the next four weeks; and were fortunately able to make it to Wellington with a day to spare. It’s all well and good being in a van whilst the weather is fine, as it is at the moment, but less good when it’s pissing down outside – it can become difficult to get rid of the dampness. They are now staying with us for the foreseeable future. This is good for us, as it means we have four to play bridge! We’ve also dug out the Wellington Monopoly game, and had a go at that, as well as Scrabble, yaniv and yahtzee. At the moment the weather is fine so we’re able to get out during the daytime…when the rain arrives, as it inevitably will, we’ll be more reliant on these. We also have Netflix and a whole bunch of DVDs (outdated technology, but you know, it works!) to get through.

At the moment we don’t have a clear idea of what will happen when the four weeks is up. Will New Zealand be coronavirus free? The aim, at the moment, seems to be elimination, not containment. If this is the case this may allow some semblance of normal life to resume, but possibly with the borders still closed until other countries are certified germ-free.

In the meantime, we are observing the levels of compliance, or not, with government directives. At the weekend there was a guy out paddleboarding. I took a picture, and hadn’t decided whether to dob him in, but ten minutes later the police launch arrived on the scene, and presumably he was given short shrift by them. Another noticeable feature is that the virus cannot catch up to speeding runners or cyclists…at least, I assume that’s the information they’ve been given, as they’re definitely not keeping 2m from pedestrians as they whizz past. Yep, as in any given situation, some people will be dickheads whilst the majority of people are polite and friendly. As the weather has turned cooler over the last couple of days the number of people "taking exercise" outside seems to have mysteriously diminished...

At the supermarket on my last visit, people were queuing and behaving sensibly in the aisles. However, there have been reports of people not doing so. As for supermarkets with queues stretching out into the carpark, this could be a problem in the rain. One supermarket has trialled using a text message-based queuing system so you can sit in your car and wait for your number to be called. I’m hopeful that this will have been rolled out by the time I have to make my next big shop on Thursday.

This is the most important chart in New Zealand at the moment:

Let's keep an eye on this one.