And so we are free! It turns out that even as we developed some skills in quaran-time — e.g. we can amass many steps in a very small area, we can be (mostly) kind to each other even when there is no place to escape to, we can pay attention to that which is immediately in front of us — but we were less prepared for the uncertainty and lack of control when we were released.
After 14 days of predictability and pattern, yesterday nothing worked smoothly. There was a lot of waiting around and nobody left dinner at our front door! It took all of us much longer than expected to get back to Auckland and we had little control. (It was so nice to see the faces of our fellow returnees though, when everyone took off their mask post release.) It is said, with freedom comes great responsibility, and it may take us a minute or at least a good night’s sleep.
We are in Whangarei, a lovely sunny spot on the East Coast of the North Island, a little less than 3 hours drive from Auckland. We have a charming little house. We are still figuring the house out, but the garden is a delight. We have a bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc chilling for our pre-dinner drink on the patio.
Not a lot to report today. This morning I had a work call – it’s not all holiday! Adding to the stress of last night was figuring out where I would set up my laptop – background, wifi signal, lighting, and some piece of furniture that would stand in for a desk.
After the call we went for a walk around the Hatea Loop, a 4.2 km walk that follows the river by the town basin. It was lovely in the shady parts and hot in the other parts. Along the walk we saw boats and the marina, sculptures, trees with sweaters, the nascent Hundertwasser museum, and an impressive hydraulic drawbridge that we crossed and saw open twice! We’ll leave it to our friendly engineers to explain in the comments the benefits of this type of bridge.
We’re reveling in the trees, flowers, birds and sunshine, and we look forward to sharing these when we’re a little more put together. But since we now have our freedom, we have to feed ourselves. This morning we got a coffee from a café and actually sat there to drink it (no masks!). This afternoon required a trip to the grocery store. Total immersion!