These Kiwis are flying home

Coronavirus

Every day new information comes out, new advice, new alerts. What to do, what not to do. We have had a very exhausting few days with all these questions and not so many answers. Since my last story – only 2 days ago, seems like weeks!! We have come to a decision and we have booked our tickets home! So we fly to NZ in 10 days time, when our lovely home owners come home. We feel some relief at this, here is an answer.

Just looking at how things are changing and how quickly, we are wondering what things will look like in 10 days. Will more borders be closed? Will NZ have closed the door completely? Will our home owners be able to return as planned? We just have to do what we can with the information we have at the time. At this stage most airlines are still flying with a few disruptions and restrictions. We have a commitment and we intend to fulfil that obligation.

It’s the most crazy thing. Would you ever believe that we would live through a situation like this? There is no other topic of conversation at the moment, facebook, TV news, people on the street, we are all talking about it. Some taking it more seriously than others, some panicking, some don’t care. I don’t mind admitting that I have had the full range of feelings about this. But we have to keep our heads and as I said, do the best we can with the information we have at the time.  We have booked our tickets home, that’s the best we can do, if things change, well, we just re assess at the time and work it out.

We spoke with all our up-coming home owners and the consensus is that we have made the right decision. Puerto Rico is under Curfew now. They have to stay in their homes and are not even allowed to go to the beach, this is both Vieques and the Big Island. I am so heartened by the things I read on the Vieques community page and the way that lovely community comes together in these hard times. We have some very dear friends there and we are very sad that we are not going to be able to get there this time.

In the lead up to a house sit, we generally have many email conversations. We form a relationship with the home owners and when we meet, we often feel like we already know each other. This is true for the house sits which were coming up and it is really sad to realise that we are not going to get there and meet these people, that, even though we haven’t actually met, we would call friends. Everyone has been so wonderful and understanding. They have had to cancel their holidays as well, they have had to endure restrictions on everyday life too.

So here in New York, in our little corner of Long Island, all restaurants and cafes are closed, NYC is like a ghost town, we feel we are already in “Self Isolation” As far as I know the public transport is still running. Some supermarket shelves are still empty, or they empty as soon as they are stocked, either way, there is still food there, just some lines are going very fast. This is America! Surely food will keep coming…….

So we are going home, this part of our adventure is coming to a pre-mature ending. Well we didn’t see that coming!

We will have to “Self Isolate” when we get back. We have been doing research on what this actually entails. We can get a family member or public transport or a taxi to our final destination, but once there we have to stay there. We will have to get someone to bring groceries, but no visitors. That is going to be very tough! We have been away for a year, we are going to want to see people! We can go for walks or bike rides or even go for a drive as long as we stay away from everyone else. We have been offered several places to go for the isolation period, Our friends and family are wonderful, we DON’T have “nowhere” to go! So amazing how people pull together.

But you know what? We are not the only ones in this situation and I know that we are so much better off than some. My heart goes out to all who are having to lose their jobs, the ones who are sick, the ones isolated from their families and CANT get to them. This is a shit situation for the whole world and this story is just a tiny tiny paragraph of this massive novel.

Keep yourselves safe!