Our Lockdown Life
Sharing tales of our little bubble life in New Zealand
May 1, 2020
Lockdown Day 37, Day 4 on Level 3
Times are weird. Our new norm involves never leaving the house, living our own version of Groundhog’s Day. We have nowhere to go and we don’t know when we’ll be able to go. For now, we sit, impatiently, waiting for an unknown date to arrive to take us back to pre-COVID times.
Will it happen? Will we ever go back to that life? Who knows. What we do know is that we need to stay positive, see the good in these long, slow days at home and even have a little fun.
This blog post is simply a diary of our quarantine time. An inside look for those who are interested in our bubble life and a few photos of fun things we’ve been creating during our days.
Government Lockdown
As I type this we are on Alert Level Three. After almost five weeks of a nationwide lockdown, we’ve moved to Level Three on the alert system, restrict. Our lockdown has been strict, but effective with no signs of community transfer and out of around 1500, we’ve had 19 deaths, most of which came from a nursing home. Our orders were to stay home and only leave the house for essential items. Only supermarkets, dairies (corner convenience shops), and pharmacies were open to the public. Local bubble walks were allowed, but driving to the beach, trails and such were not.
Level Three is similar to level four, our orders are to stay home. Takeaway (to-go) food options became available for pick-up and delivery. Some Kiwis missed McDonald’s and KFC so much, they waited all night in line at the drive-thru. Pretty disgusting if you ask me, especially in a time where we need to support local businesses.
Level Three also means we can expand our bubble by including family members, partners, and caregivers. We can drive to do outdoor recreational activities such as walk, hike, go to the beach. Inter-regional travel is allowed, but this still restricts us to a limited area.
I’ve returned to work. The brewery has been functioning at full capacity with a limited staff, and the bar side has opened to provide takeaway food, beer and coffee. Going back to work was weird, but it felt wonderful to reconnect with my co-workers and socialize face to face.
For the next two weeks, we will stay at this level, then hopefully move down to Level Two, which restricts gatherings of 100 or more and public establishments opening, bringing us back to some kind of normalcy. Wellington currently has zero cases of Covid-19, which we can thank to our incredible Prime Minister Jacinda Arden and the government supporting her.
Our bubble life
Our day begins around 7am when our little one wakes us up. The mornings are slow. We cuddle watching Disney plus, we eat breakfast in bed, we read, we play, we do puzzles, we take it easy. If it’s nice out, we’ll go for a neighborhood walk to stretch our legs and let Lia release some energy. Ryan works on and off his photography jobs. I write and blog a little here and there. We’ve built forts, baked cookies, played in the backyard, looked for teddy bears left out for kids to search for on walks.
Some days I’m happy as ever and others I’m down and worried. As I said recently in an Instagram post,
“We are all waking up each day, trying to navigate through weird waters unsure of what the new day will bring. It’s a wild roller coaster of emotions, and although it feels hard in the moments, it’s comforting that we are all on the same ride. The scene and the struggles may look different, but collectively we are on the same tracks unsure of when we’ll get off. This way of life we’re living has put our minds and bodies into flight or survival mode, which affects us internally. Our sleeping habits are off, our dreams are WILD and rather than look forward to future plans, we are only concentrating on the current times.”
Sometimes the motivation comes, sometimes it doesn’t and I try to accept it and embrace the lazy days with our girl.
Ryan and I are familiar with working from home life. As freelancers, we’ve been doing it since the early days of living in New Zealand. We are also used to spending plenty of time together, another reason why we love our lifestyle in New Zealand. Every once in a while, we recognize we need space and sneak away to a bedroom for some time or switch up sleeping in. Lia also takes these magical two-hour naps every day that give us “me time.”
I’ve taken up trail running, exploring our beautiful backyard across the town belts. It's my release and each time I return, I feel lighter and happier. We are blessed with incredible ocean views from a number of trails. We’ve also taken longer walks with Lia in the backpack or the stroller. I discovered a bike pump track that is the perfect toddler obstacle course. In the mornings there is plenty of light and nobody there except for another Mom and toddler named Monty.
My favorite part of this entire lockdown time is the magic Ryan is creating with our girl, turning her bedroom into a portal to the outside world. Out her window lies the Milky Way, Dolomites, NZ’s Southern Alps, Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming), Lago di Braies (Instagram Lake) and more. Lia and I had a romantic Italian dinner overlooking the Colosseum in Rome, my favorite even though our tablecloth (our duvet) was stained with spaghetti sauce, entirely worth it.
What our future looks like
Covid-19 has made a wicked disruption in all future plans. Our big European trip in August and September is most likely cancelled, at least our big big plans for the trip have been postponed. New Zealand has mentioned that borders may be closed for up to 18 months until the vaccine is available globally.
Residents and citizens will be able to re-enter the country, but will most likely be forced to quarantine for two weeks in a government issued temporary home. Maybe as the months go by, it’ll change to at-home quarantine, but we really don’t know. There is a good chance that those on a work visa like us will not be allowed to re-enter the country until after this is all over.
Unfortunately, we cannot risk leaving and we will be remaining in only New Zealand for the foreseeable future. While my backpacker heart breaks for the plans I was making for our European holiday, I’m crazy grateful to live in such an ethereal country full of every type of landscape and climate.
Well I think I’ve rambled for long enough. I can’t wait to share our future local travels and I look forward to the day, everyone is safe from this monstrous virus.
Stay safe and stay healthy,
Viktoria
