24/03/2020
The day before the State of Emergency
Gloomy thoughts crowd in; overtaking my earlier joy at being back here, after a hurried return by bus from Auckland, spurred by the government announcement that Level 4 was to be in place at 11.59 pm, 25/03. Have I returned home to die? So dramatic, but I’m not feeling well.
A state of emergency is not where I want to be. I dunno, it’s in the air. But there’s a little black cat and a streaky apricot sunset to greet/meet me.
Dreams of the last two nights have been virus related; in one my inhaler filled up with brown goo like chocolate mousse shaving cream/foam.
28/03 DAY 4
Pano-pandemic
If you took a panorama shot right now it would reveal a wide sweep of beach and sky, the seas waves irregular and loud, dotted with the occasional dark surfer.
A young woman in grey sweats jogs past me through the shallows, her young dog bounding close to her. An older couple walks, their steps measured and in time. More women solitary walking, like me.
Someone posted a clip on Paekākāriki Tauhokohoko of a hedgehog on the beach, happily investigating the contents of the sand with its snout. Snuffling around.
They titled it ‘When the humans go away the mammals come out to play’
I have never seen a hedgehog on the beach. Someone commented that it must be sick. Tom Sainsbury posted a funny vid of a deluded space cadet going on about “dolphins in the canals of Venice, for the first time in 342 years”.
There are reports that China’s skies are now smog free. (Possibly for the first time in 100 years).
Decided to listen to every CD I own. The house is already a tip after three days, hate to think what state it (and I) will be in after four weeks.
29/03 DAY 5
Deaths: 1
The death was a seventy-year-old woman. Lovely quiet, calm day. House is littered with clothes that I have nowhere to wear. Resolved not to be on Facebook so much.
Sister S says there are roadblocks up North, ostensibly to stop tourists, or/and Aucklanders driving/escaping up to their baches. I reckon it’s more likely to control drug traffic and crop stealing at late harvest, dealers infringing on others’ patches.
Had a good socially-distanced walk with M, two metres apart yesterday. Gave him some hand sanitiser – now replacing lemons as the currency du jour in Paekak?
Saw H and L, had a good twenty-minute gasbag with them, from opposite sides of The Parade. M stood in the middle of the road with cars and cyclists going past sporadically. A woman fell off her bike because she had her dog with her on a lead and another dog lunged at it.
She was OK.
Hopefully, M will buy me a hot water bottle when he does a supermarket run.
Later: 589 cases. 12 in hospital.
Eggs are scarce in Aus too, says S. And loo paper, people are so greedy, selfish.
01/04 April Fools.
Took lots of good photos on my walk and posted them, a Paekak photo essay.
Was so hot, people were swimming, but the water was cold (of course). I was tempted, didn’t take the plunge. The ‘wild swimmers’ as they call them in the UK are out every morning around seven. Brrr!
In Ocean Road there was a kerbside concert happening; Sir John and a few others sitting on chairs listening to a guy playing cello. I didn’t say hello, thought I’d catch him on my return, but it was over by then.
708 cases now.
03/04
Faaark….Aussie death toll is now 24.
Dark times ahead, says J.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, say I.
One week down, three to go? Doubt it.
If anyone asks for another Zoom meeting tonight, might claim I’ve got a G ‘n T over the fence date with the neighbours instead. Too much online socialising.
This pandemic is the great leveller. Before I was existing under the poverty line, now I’m looking pretty OK, with a view of the sea, peaceful in my bubble of one. Enough food. No car, but can’t drive anywhere now anyway, only to the doctor, chemist or supermarket. And I’m already well adapted to self-isolation. My situation hasn’t really changed, but the world around me has.
Ha, I’ve only just noticed that the jumbo jar of gherkins I’d left in the fridge has gone. The two art department guys from L’s film I’d rented the house to must’ve enjoyed those with all their beers.
L thought it was very amusing that they’d been so unsettled by the ‘ghost’ – all those strange noises in the night, that they’d spent hardly any nights here during the shoot, preferring instead to drive back into town after a twelve-hour day.
07/04 DAY 14
54 new cases. Some bad news yesterday – Bauer Media has closed down, they turned down the Govt. bail out. That’s ALL our magazines gone – The Listener, North & South, Metro, Women’s Weekly, Women’s Day.
And K is out of a job, so is his tenant. People seem most upset about T he Listener, should try to buy one today if there’s any left. How are Aucklander’s going to know the best restaurants and schools without Metro magazine to guide them!
But seriously, this a huge cultural change, a permanent fatality from Covid-19 shut down. (Retribution from a multi-National for our government’s lack of Business as Usual?
‘Don’t be hard on yourself” – Advice from Nigel Latta.
I am engulfed by contradictory emotions (just) even thinking about writing. Maybe I should let it go, just for this time. I’m not in the write headspace.
Nigel Latta also reckons that even though we are technically “allowed” to have a distanced walk with a friend, we shouldn’t, because others may see and copy, or be upset by it!
This is interesting, more and more things we are not allowed to do and we accept them. It’s a gradual giving away of our power, our freedoms.
He also says – “It’s a noble sacrifice, take pride.”
M F was so pissed off about not being able to drive to the beach, posting a rant on Facebook. Entitled!
For the next two years or so apparently, we won’t be able to buy as much food, clothing and goods. A global economic depression is looming. Good for the environment though, at least.
“Step away from the bad news!” Nigel also says. But where to? Out of the house, out to the street? Contradictory advice, Nigel.
08/04 DAY 15
My neighbours kindly offer to pick up some things for me from the supermarket. I got bananas and mineral water, wanted two of each but they could only get one, reporting that there were a lot of bare shelves.
J rang, said she went to the supermarket at 7am, but still had to queue for an hour.
M got shitty with me for sharing a Facebook post of a Brazilian nurse claiming the virus is a hoax. I only sent it to him, J and K, but that didn’t placate him.
What do I miss? A proper café coffee/ Sushi/ Chips/ Catching the train into town.
We’ve been ‘advised’ not to make any overseas travel plans for eighteen months. A year and a half! Our borders will be closed until there’s a vaccine. And this lockdown will probably be extended a further two weeks.
50 new cases.1,210 total cases, 282 recoveries so far. Twenty to twenty-nine-year-olds dominate the cases. (No surprises there).
09/04 DAY 16
Over two weeks! Busying myself working out roughly how much money I’ve saved not being able to do anything. Unfortunately offset by how much I’m drinking.
“Enjoy your staycation,” says Jacinda, referring to Easter.
10/04 DAY 17
44 new cases. 1,283 total, confirmed and probable.
One million workers on Pay Subsidy. We’re preparing to return to Level 3, all returning NZ’ers must now go into fourteen days of managed quarantine, which means they can no longer quarantine at home, but have to isolate in hotels and motels. Also, a tracing app is being developed, for contact tracing. The 5G conspiracy theorists are going to hate that.
Russell Brand interviewed Julia Cameron, of ‘The Artist’s Way’ fame. She suggested that we list twenty-five things we are proud of, which took me two days, kinda got stuck at No.11. She advised frivolity, falling in love with yourself, and giving up on perfectionism, and asked “What would you do if you didn’t care what other people thought of you”?
Ahead of you there, Julia.
11/04 DAY 18
‘Bubble overlap,’ that’s what M is risking by seeing me. We must “maintain the integrity of your bubble,” says Dr. Ashley Bloomfield. (Great name).
M meets me for a socially distanced coffee at The Lost Jandal (now permanently lost). We sit facing each other, ten feet apart, for a natter, watching people queued down The Parade for their daily caffeine fix; waving their no contact bank cards at the eftpos machine, wearing gloves. M is back at A & J’s house, he tried to isolate at the Bollinger’s bach but was too freaked out by the resident mice to stay more than one night. He’d made the mistake of leaving a banana out, uncovered, in the kitchen. I laughed so hard I spurted coffee foam everywhere, luckily we were socially distanced.
DAY 19, 12 /4 EASTER
Last night had pasta with a side dish of boiled fly, had to cook a new lot – arggh.
4 deaths now, 18 new cases, 15 clusters, in Auckland and Christchurch.
So, we can’t move out of Level 4 early, and the decision will be made in a week. Level 3 will have additional restrictions.
“Week three may feel the hardest”- Jacinda.
Boris Johnson has thanked Nurse Jenny from Invercargill for her care during his recovery. My friend L rang, she’s been in hospital for three days, diagnosed with a hole in her bowel. No one can visit her, feel so sorry for her.
DAY 20 – over three weeks!
19 new cases. Total 5 deaths now.
Went for a walk before it rained. Danced. Watched Netflix.
Rinse and repeat.
DAY 21
Quote of the Day – “It’s only when the tide goes out that you can see who’s been swimming naked”- Warren Buffet. Sister J says she doesn’t get it.
DAY 22
Threatening to rain. Jacinda had lots of information about moving into Level 3.
20 new cases, 4 more deaths.
Am getting over this. Want to do something else – go into town, see friends. Have coffee in a café, maybe some vegan chocolate cake with coconut yoghurt. Fish tacos, and a beer at Laundry Bar. Amazed it’s taken me twenty-three days to get to this point.
DAY 24
UK death toll is now 14,500+
My nephew posts a video on Insta, filmed cycling around the empty streets of London, Tower Bridge, the docks and the Embankment all eerily deserted, like that opening sequence in the zombie film 28 Days Later.
Had a skype call with G & N in Auckland, G is having to teach art remotely, which she says isn’t even remotely fun. Her students are turning off the volume and just horsing around, making fun of her and recording the lesson, adding captions etc, then sharing that with the class. She doesn’t feel inclined to continue, says some of the kids turn off the camera so she doesn’t even know if they’re there, or not. School has only been back three days, and the govt. hasn’t decided if they’ll go back physically in Level 3. Teachers aren’t happy to go back, endangering themselves just so the parents can go back to work. (It’s businesses who are pressuring them, no doubt).
Later-
Looks like we’re not going back to Level 3 tomorrow – “No one wants to lose the huge gains we’ve made” – Jacinda.
“The only real danger that exists is man himself” – Carl Jung, and also, “We are the origin of all coming evil.”
We’re moving out of Level 4 April 27, so in a week.
DAY 28
Four weeks in iso-lockdown!
5 new cases.
DAY 29
Feeling inexplicably angry, and hard done by. Like everyone who’s ever done me wrong should apologise to me.
COVID-19 BLUES
Got the Covid-19 blues / It comes all up in your shoes / never asks permission / doesn’t wait or listen / just takes you over / those damn Covid-19 blues.
DAY 30
Went for a long walk to see the horses, but none to see; they’re all grazing further along. There’s an electric fence, but I could easily climb the gate, and a horse could jump it. Why don’t they? Probably want to stay with their friends in the long green grass.
We can do recycle bins again, but it won’t actually be recycled until Level 2.
Am making future plans –
Go to Japan/ Get paid to write/ Go to NYC/ Make a short film.
There are 3 new cases, 2 more deaths, Total cases = 1,451
DAY 32 25/04 ANZAC DAY, the 75th anniversary of the end of WW2.
People are going to go down to the end of their driveways at 6am for a dawn Remembrance Service.
Nobody told me there’d be days like these (strange days indeed…)
I catch the almost empty train into town, just to investigate, my curiosity got the better of me. No one challenges me or asks me what I’m doing, they assume I have a legitimate, valid purpose, a good reason to be there. I walk the deserted streets, get a coffee from a Cuba Street no-contact hatch, then ride the train home again, curiosity satisfied.
DAY 41 04/05
Big socially distanced and abandoned socialising day yesterday. Met M for a coffee and ice cream at The Lost Jandal or Abandoned Thong as M & A call it. Matt related that A asked, “Shall we include Lindsay in our bubble now?” and he said ‘No, we don’t know where she’s been!”
The cheek.
I’ve been here, (mostly!) You take my days now Paekākāriki. I watch your changing skies from my windows, uninterrupted. These are quieter days, no 2am freight train, no boy racers, no cars at all; just an absence of man-made sounds that envelopes the village, shroud-like. I can walk your beach at night, uninterrupted by fishing lines and boom boxes.
There are no visitors here anymore, just us, trapped here, contained for now. But it’s a good place to be, in a pandemic.
Photographs by Lindsay Christopherson
Editor’s Note: These numbers are the author’s recordings at the time but they may not align with subsequently published epidemiological data.
