Back in Aotearoa

Arrival in Auckland

We arrived nearly an hour early into Aotearoa (New Zealand), landing in Auckland at 0840.  Seemingly the standard nowadays, we disembarked in batches. After a brief healthcheck of temperature (in the ear) and whether we had any symptoms, we cleared immigration and collected our bags. It was all very quick as there were so few passengers.

Biosecurity was swift as well, and in no time I was out in the public area. We queued with spacing to exit the terminal building. Near the exit was a desk where our names were checked against a list. A sign showed that we were destined for the Holiday Inn Auckland Airport which I knew was very near.

No one at the airport wore full PPE, unlike in Malaysia. But there it was mainly the testing staff that wore it and there was no testing at the airport here. The transport to the airport was a lot faster too as people streamed out constantly. Whereas at KLIA, testing meant that people dribbled out and there was a wait for enough passengers.

At the bus, there were staff (possibly Navy) that loaded our luggage. At KLIA luggage was disinfected before handled by people in full PPE but here they weren’t so strict.

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At the hotel

A little over an hour after we landed, we were at the carpark of the Holiday Inn Auckland Airport. We waited onboard the bus while the first busload was being processed.

Howie, the head honcho from the Navy, told us that we were probably at the best facility in Auckland for outdoor space. Possibly because of that, no one had tried to break out. But there had been people trying to break in, possibly to see their loved ones. One other advantage of being in a low-rise facility is the absence of lifts as one cannot enter a lift with other people; that’s a frustration of people held in high-rise five-star hotels in the CBD.

We disembarked the bus in groups of five bubbles (individuals or groups) and it was around 45 minutes after pulling in when my turn came.

At check-in we were given a welcome pack of information; our details were taken. And soon after, we were taken to our rooms by staff who had to carry our luggage. Because there were no lifts, we weren’t allowed to carry our own luggage upstairs.

I was led to what the staff described as the largest room in the hotel. But the keycard didn’t work. Upon checking the room number, it wasn’t the correct room. It was about 1100 when I got to my room, number 2022.

Lucky lucky me

I can’t believe my luck. I have a spacious room with two double-ish beds, looking out to the garden. The sliding door opens out into a small balcony and I get plenty of fresh air and chirping birdsong. I see plenty of greenery from my room.  Sure, some people are luckier with ground floor access to the garden.

We are free to wander around indoors anytime, a liberty seemingly unique to New Zealand. Even Australian quarantine doesn’t afford this liberty and it’s definitely not available in Singapore or Malaysia where you can’t even leave your room (and you’re not given an active room keycard).

The relative liberty does come at a cost to the government. The staff to guest ratio is about 1:1. That includes hotel staff (room service, cooks, laundry etc), Navy who look after our security, Aviation Security who look after our walks and private security who look secure the perimeter fence.

The hotel has a large courtyard accessible during the day, with a swimming pool (closed), ponds and plenty of greenery again.

Supervised walks are conducted hourly from 0700 until 1600, with the exception of 1300. Running and exercise on the walks is not allowed except on the 0700 and 1600 sessions.

Masks are required whenever in the public area and especially during the walks because physical activity makes us breathe harder. Only surgical masks (supplied) are permitted, not other kinds such as fabric masks.

My two weeks managed isolation here will be a breeze since I already survived, rather easily, a fully-fledged quarantine in Malaysia about three months ago.

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Rest of the day

My lunch arrived at 1300 comprising of a vegetarian curry on rice. One’s first meal here is always vegetarian. It’s also the case until one goes into the online menu to make a selection for the entire two week stay. The menu is the same each week, so I could go through two cycles of the same food. But since the menu offers a choice of vegetarian or meat for each meal, I may make some changes along the way.

Having not slept on the flight, I was rather tired and sleepy. I checked on the supervised walking time and learnt that I could join in five minutes time at 1500. I hesitated briefly before deciding to go. It proved to be the right decision. The exercise and sun woke me up but made me slightly more tired physically afterwards.

I waited and waited for dinner but it didn’t come. I was so so ready for bed even around 1700. When the dinner delivery time-band was nearly over, I rang up to check. They seemed to have missed me so brought up my meal quite promptly.

I guess it was a blessing in disguise as it made me go to bed at a better time. If I had retired around 1900, I could have woken up at 0300 and thwart my efforts to adapt to local time.

The Kiwi Managed Isolation

The Managed Isolation is very much a light version of quarantine implemented in other countries. Being a developed country, certain things are taken for granted by the people and the system has to cater for it. But overall, I think New Zealand has a different risk assessment compared to other countries.

Here are some comparisons of New Zealand vs Malaysia, some from personal experience and others from what I have read:

• Leave your room any time to walk indoors (as opposed to not even being given an active keycard).
• Dedicated outdoor time and some hotels even drive you to the park (as opposed to not even being given an active keycard).
• Choice of meals, but I’m not so sure about the paper menu (at some hotels) with tick boxes as it’s another transmission route (as opposed to no meal choices except for dietary requirements).
• Porcelain crockery and metal cutlery at some hotels (as opposed to everything leaving the room being treated as biohazard).
• Smoking and alcohol is allowed (as opposed to not at all; poor smokers).
• Airport and hotel frontliners wear masks only (rather than full suits).
• Luggage is gladly handled by staff (as opposed to sprayed with disinfectant before handled or you do it yourself).
• Two laundry bags per stay (as opposed to not at all even on a paid basis, as it is seen as a transmission route).
• Free for many people if they left before 11 August 2020 but other conditions apply (as opposed to payable except in one state).
• Booking required with limited availability at peak times (as opposed to simply arriving and if it gets busy the hotel standard may drop from 5 star to 2 star).
• Food delivery allowed at any time (as opposed to just from selected vendors and delivered to your room at meal times only, which means it may be cold).
• No enforcement of contact tracing app (as opposed to compulsory installation on one’s phone as a condition of entering the country, and once out of quarantine fines apply if one doesn’t scan into any building, shop, cafe etc).

There were a couple of similarities though … in both countries meals may come cold due to the complex logistics of catering to the large number of people. But all the frontliners were warm and helpful.