The Delta Strain

Once more unto the breach, dear friends…

New Zealand recently opened up travel bubbles with Australia and Cook Islands, allowing two-way quarantine-free travel between these countries. Unfortunately, Australia is not quite as Covid-free as we’d like to think, and last weekend a traveller from Sydney arrived in Wellington, had a helluva good time, and then departed back home on Monday; he started to feel ill, and subsequently tested positive for Covid. This has led to Wellington being moved up to Alert Level 2 from Wednesday until Sunday, with a review on Sunday to assess the situation. Sydney, meanwhile, is in a lockdown due to an exploding cluster of the highly-contagious Delta variant, which has now increased to over 100 cases. New Zealand has temporarily suspended travel with New South Wales.

 

How to have a good time in Wellington

We were due to fly to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on Thursday; but with the announcement at lunchtime on Wednesday, it seemed less than 100% certain that we would be able to go, especially as we’d visited the Te Papa Surrealist Art exhibition on Tuesday, one of the “Places of Interest” that the infected person had also visited; even though we’d gone three days later. I checked with our local testing centre and they said we didn’t need to get tested (Nicola is vaccinated anyway).

As part of the travel arrangement with Cook Islands, you have to fill in a contact form with details of where you’ll be staying, etc. It also asks if you’ve been to any Places of Interest. We duly completed this, listing that we’d been to Te Papa and the advice we’d been given about testing by Wellington DHB.

At this stage, there was no suggestion, or indication, that we couldn’t go. I’d also spoken to Air New Zealand, who’d given no hint that they wouldn’t carry us. However, through an abundance of caution on our part, and the fact that we’d had no contact from Cook Island Ministry of Health, we decided to postpone our travel plans. Fortunately our accommodation refunded us, and we have flight credits with Air New Zealand.

The following morning, 13 people who’d travelled from Wellington were removed from the Cook Islands flight NZ940 – the flight we would’ve been on – because they’d been in Wellington. So it looks like we made the right decision.

But I was fuming. Why did they wait until PEOPLE WERE BOARDING THE PLANE before taking action? The organisation is a complete shambles. In response to a story in Stuff, I wrote an email detailing this. The Stuff reporter contacted me the next day and asked whether I was still planning to travel, to which I said “yes”. But this wasn’t the story she wanted to write, so I didn’t get quoted. Instead she wrote about how people had no confidence in the travel bubble. People from Wellington have since been permitted to travel to Rarotonga if they haven’t listed any Places of Interest…so why were these 13 denied travel? In response to being badgered, Air New Zealand have finally refunded their airfares from Wellington and contributed to their accommodation costs overnight in Auckland. But if they knew this already, why didn't they act sooner? What a shitshow.

It now appears that the Sydney traveller wasn’t infectious, as no cases have subsequently been detected in Wellington over the last four days, despite extensive testing. We’ll be able to rebook to travel, but have now missed the crucial “kids are still in school” window that we’d been hoping for. Ah well. I'll check out accommodation and flight options again tomorrow.

Surrealist Art

Te Papa are holding an exhibition of Surrealist art at the moment. This is likely to be very popular, so we decided that a Tuesday morning would be a good time to go along as it wouldn’t be as crowded as at the weekend. Our best-laid plan included breakfast at The Larder, then we headed into town and parked at Te Papa. 

As expected, there weren’t many people there, and we were able to make our way through the exhibition, spending as much time as we wanted. The exhibition documents the Surrealist movement, how it grew out of the Dadaist movement, which itself was a response to the horrors of trench warfare in World War One. They had many significant paintings and other works on loan from around the world, including several by Salvador Dali, the best-known proponent of Surrealism. There were also some sculptures, books and films, and a display which recreates the painting Not To Be Reproduced by Rene Magritte:

 

There was also this famous sofa: 

So if you want some serious art, go see this exhibition.

Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys has been a successful musical in the US, UK, and around the world for a number of years. This touring production in New Zealand has been playing in Auckland, and has now come to Wellington. What’s not to like?

First, of course, dinner. We haven’t been to Loggy B’s for a while so thought to head along there for a pre-theatre dinner. They’ve changed up their offering since Covid, and now offer a prix fixe menu for $75, with three options of starter, main and dessert. It’s still cooked to Logan Brown quality, of course, but they don’t have the full à la carte they used to offer. As fashions in dining change I guess they have to do what they can to stay in business. That said, we had no problem deciding on what to have – the pāua ravioli is still on the menu, and will probably never leave.  And it was delicious.

We arrived at the Opera House in good time for the show, and took our seats in the stalls. The show is told in four parts, from the point of view of each of the four main protagonists – the original members of the Four Seasons. It starts in New Jersey, where a band eventually forms (some early members drop out), they’re occasionally a threesome as one member is banged up in prison, and eventually Joe Pesci (yes, that Joe Pesci) introduces Bob Gaudio to the band. The show documents their early life, problems with debts, gambling, drugs and women, as well as playing some of their best-known hits. Of which there are many more than you think, as memorable song after memorable song is belted out by the accomplished cast of singers, dancers, and musicians. Thoroughly enjoyable, and if you get a chance to see a production of this (it’s finished now in New Zealand, sadly), you should go.

The next day I was working at Zealandia, taking a tour. I was chatting to one of the guests (I only had two people on that particular tour) and it turns out he was the lead saxophonist of the show! I should’ve asked him for Frankie’s autograph.