Into the big WIDE world of Little New Zealand from room 936. New Zealand is world famous in New Zealand.
Finally day 13 had come. It had been a kinda fun time, but in all honesty we were ready to get out of Room 936.
With my negativity New Zealand welcomes me into the big wide world of little New Zealand. But getting out isn't straightforward. We'd been given a departure time of 09.30 and the lovely district nurse in uniform would visit between 06.30 and 09.15.
Bags were packed 3 days prior, nothing was going to get in our way. Up at 06.00, and then we waited and waited and waited. We feared we'd been forgotten but reception simply said 'wait'. BBBO (Breakfast Brown Bag O'clock) came with that familiar rap on the door with the back of a teaspoon and by the time the Pavlovian roommates had got to the door he had scarpered quickly. We never did manage to get there to say 'thank you' before he'd disappeared despite it being our aim of every meal delivery. Still no nurse.
Brown Bags being prepared for BB o’clock time.
And then the uniformed nurse appeared. She struck me with her tazer thermometer and I had cooled down again, not got the hots. I'm told again that I am normal! I am cooler than yesterday. I assured her that I was cooling off from her, what I didn't tell her was that I had only just put my clothes on, that the windows had been open all night and I'd just depleted Auckland's water supply by standing in a cold shower for 20 minutes. At this stage I was getting the 'hots' for NO ONE. I was on the verge of hypothermia. She signed us off as 'fit and healthy' and told us what to do if we felt wonky. That was never going to happen.
We were on the verge of release to our new venture, it had taken 17 days, nearly 3 weeks by plane. Our container is expected to take 6 weeks and at present nearing Djoubouti. If a pirate has got it, oh well, their need is no doubt greater than ours.
But it's not as easy as just going. We had 3 more check points to go to. Passport check point; Health certificate check point and check the 2 of them check point, with military, police and security at each one and a series of zig zagging chicanes between each one. It's a good job the army and air force were there as it was organized with military precision.
We all love social media. Through the wonders of Face Book I met 'Chelle and that led onto a FB friendship with Trudie.
We were fed really well, but for us the quantities were too much. I put on 20kg in 14 days. We wanted to give all the non perishable food to the local food bank. But how?
Only having recently become a FB converteee I now realise what I've missed out on all these years. We have a lot to thank Mark Zuckerberg for, good thoughtful lad that he is. FB got 'Chelle and I together and she said she'd take all the food to the food bank, then Trudie said she had a whole load as well.
We were on 9th floor, Trudie on 8th and Chelle ground so the obvious thing was to stop at the 8th, have a hand over and then continue. Security was having none of it, no one, FB friend or not, was going to a different floor to meet others. Our lift slapper card was programmed to only go to floors 9, 4th floor for our daily circumferential walk, and ground floor. We had to go all the way down to the ground floor and shout very loud up to Trudie on the 8th, down she came, handed over a ton of food and we were out. 'Chelle was there, and such is FB camaraderie, she offered to take us to the airport. How lucky are we? We got to the airport, the food got to the food bank. It's all good.
What is luck? The always right Wiki tells me it is success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions, and it is also an improbable event. I'm feeling remarkably lucky that we took off on 2 December and have made it here. So much has gone well for us and now we hear that Asian countries are not permitting people from "Corona Chaos and Plague Island"
To those who feel as if you've just been dealt a big dollop of bad luck ............. nothing I say will make any difference to you, but I feel your anguish, pain and frustration. Friends, keep safe, keep your distance and stay healthy. I'm sorry.
Maybe luck is just a feeling. The one thing I am lucky about is that we didn't arrive a week later and get taken to Christchurch where they had an earthquake at 03.00. No one will ever convince me that an earthquake is 'just a feeling'.
Auckland domestic airport was heaving, way busier than Heathrow terminal 2, 18 days earlier, in fact it was almost as busy as the concourse at the DW stadium at Wigan on match day, the one main difference being that there were teams of long long brown legged short shorted sixth formers all off to a water-polo competition in Wellington. I was most unfortunate that one sat next to me and every time I needed to go to the loo I had to clamber over her. For some reason my prostate suddenly started inconveniently playing up
Welly airport was like St Pancreas on escape day, except the sun was out and the surf was up.
But after all we had gone through it was a small price to pay to be in a place where we no longer have to act as if we are with people who are the same pole on a bar magnet, always repelling each other. We were from the northern hemisphere and suddenly we were being attracted by southerners. All the hugging had started again, oh hec!! The pub was heaving, in fact it was like a pub on a friday night, with noise and packed to the gunwales. The last time I went to the pub on a Friday night the door was locked.
Following the scrum of Wellington we headed 'over the hill' to our patch of paradise. Despite Dar Es Salaam once being the capitol of Tanzania, it also means 'Haven of peace', so I now wonder whether the plane had a navigational error and I'm actually in Tanzania. We had no idea what was in our house so stopped to buy 2 sheets and 2 towels. Isolation kills any desire to shop. Having had no choice for 2 weeks, having 23 different sheets to choose from was patience testing. Choice is so over rated.
After 1.5 hours in a car our good friend Jonathan has lent us we arrived at 'pelangi' which I now know is a pot of gold, as it is "the end of the rainbow". Maybe we landed in Malaysia on the way. I'm all confused.
It's a bit harder than usual to get wine or beer in isolation, but that is no bad thing. We were cleansed. It also makes fizzy New Zealand champagne taste blinkin' good. We had a weeny celebration as we entered our Pelangi or Dar es Sallam and I sat at my seat at the dining table looking out at the view.
It now all feels 'unbelievable' and surreal. I sit typing this with only natures sounds around me and a stunning view, the starriest sky and doing nothing more than thinking the project is about to start. I still want a goat but I'm told its not a great idea, so maybe 4 sheep to eat the grass before it takes over. I'm getting used to the idea of having to put traps out for ferrets, stoats, weasels, possums, and yes, I'm sorry to say - hedgehogs and feral cats. There is digging to do for our various trees and I'm slowly getting used to cool showers not yet having mastered the vagaries of the solar hot water panels and the wet back fire. I have to break away from this drivel to go and pick some limes and collect wood for our fires in June.
Perspective is an interesting thing innit, it's what you are used to that throws you into a different status quo. We don't have a phone signal here, so it's easy to phone up Ali's Mum, we just have to get in the car and drive 5 kms down the road. The so called 'landline' which comes via a satellite is hampered at present because it's christmas and the satellite over head, or something went wrong with the installation. I'm guessing that if we need an ambulance or fire engine we either have to send an e mail, watts ap or go for a 5km drive.
Last night as we walked up the drive who should we meet but 3 red deer, Trespassers would be prosecuted if we weren't vegetarians.
The jobs have started, today I dug over 2 new vegetable patches which are now ready for sowing, Ali weeded around the 13 of the 43 lime trees after having picked about 2 kgs. Now we need gin whilst we sit back and read about whether sheep maybe a better option than goats and worry whether there has been enough sun to give us more than a tepid shower. We've both been out and collected 3 whell barrows of fire wood and 2 bags of fir cones. It's just lucky it's summer! (update: But we did have hot water in the shower last night. Progress.).
Woaa. Can you get horses to eat the grass and provide you easy transport 🐴
ReplyDeleteWe've thought about that. I've also thought about a donkey or 2 to help me carry logs down from the woods! The plan develops.
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