We made it to NZ! All told it took us 34 hours from Detroit Metro Airport to our Managed Isolation Quarantine hotel. We wore masks the whole time except when eating! And our ears hurt!
DTW and LAX were pretty empty. Boarding and deplaning was orderly and controlled. The whole experience was much more civilized. I wonder if passengers will tolerate a return to the big smush post pandemic.
We boarded our 13 hour flight to NZ at 9 pm PST (midnight Detroit time). Our section of the plane was about 2/3 full. The flight was uneventful, but long. Jim slept, I pretended to.
When we arrived, the transit passengers (those travelling on to Fiji and Australia) deplaned first. It seemed as though it was about half the plane. The rest of us (109) went through a COVID screening process and temperature check. We proceeded to immigration and biosecurity. Then we waited for our charter flight to Christchurch. It was interesting to chat with some of the other returnees (2 meter distance with masks). Everyone is so grateful to be able to escape to NZ. Christchurch is in the South Island, but that is where the quarantine rooms were available. The NZ government will return us to Auckland at the end of the quarantine. We were given a brown bag of snacks (shortbread, potato crisps, and chocolate) and a boarding pass. The only issue with all this was that it added another 6 hours onto the trip.
Once we arrived in Christchurch, families with children were deplaned first. We got on a bus for a 5 minute drive to the hotel. The NZ Defense Force (NZDF) has been deployed to help with the logistics of getting everyone where they need to be. A nice young recruit helped us with our bags. When we arrived at the hotel, our details were recorded, we had another COVID screening interview, were issued with blue wrist bands (not sure why) and were instructed on correct protocols – stay in your room most of the time, wear a mask whenever outside the room, 3 meals a day will be delivered, managing laundry, how to access the exercise area etc.
Our room is a standard hotel room on the ground floor. We have a fridge and the ability to make coffee and tea, unlimited WI-FI, and free access to the Christchurch City library e-books. We will have a COVID test on Day 3 and Day 12. Release on Day 14 requires two negative tests. Every day we get a health check and a well-being monitoring. The staff are paying attention to how people are doing in isolation and provide support and people to call. We think that the parents with 3 little kids probably are at the greatest risk.
So, it’s New Year’s Eve in NZ – summerish. We’ve just ordered a bottle of NZ Pinot Noir to honor the occasion. It’ll be amazing if we make it past 7 pm! What we need most at this point is a good night’s sleep! For now, we are overjoyed to be maskless in our room.