New Zealand

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Freedom again

Above:  Released on the official first day of summer, 1 Dec 2020. My flight touched down around 0840 on Tuesday two weeks ago, so I am allowed out from Managed Isolation at the same time today.  But due to traffic for Kim coming to pick me up during rush hour, I advised the facility that […]

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Isolation food

Today is my last day in Managed Isolation for I will be free at 0840 tomorrow.  But I’ve organised Kim to pick me up at 0930 because traffic would be bad otherwise. I have kept to the routine that I had set but wasn’t as strict and didn’t set targets like when I did my […]

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Isolation routine

Today is Day 3 of my Managed Isolation; the day of arrival is counted as Day 0 here.  So far, I’ve got myself into a routine. My previous experience with quarantine in Kuching really helps with the discipline. My routine is roughly as follows: 0645: Wake and coffee. 0730: Yoga including sun salutations. 0830: Breakfast. […]

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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 […]

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A very tough decision

Should I go or should I stay? I had been toying with the idea of going back to Kuching to see my 93 year old Mum. I had already missed two trips, one in April and another in June, due to Covid-19. And my next trip to see her is booked via Taiwan, Japan and […]

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Home sweet home

Pretty soon, it was time to head to Queenstown airport for Jo and I to fly back on the 1505 flight to Auckland.  While distancing was in place at the airport and on board, normal inflight service of coffee, tea, water and cookie had returned since our flight few days ago. It had been a […]

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Bungy jumping

Kim seems to have a revolving door stream of visitors.  As we leave today, David is flying down to join him here. After picking up Dave at the airport after 0900, we called by A J Hackett’s bungy jump site at Kawarau Bridge. They had said on the phone yesterday that they were fully booked […]

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National Transport & Toy Museum

Today we took a drive to Wanaka.  I’ve been several times before but this time Kim wanted to take us to the National Transport & Toy Museum. We had a recommendation to grab lunch at Big Fig cafe.  It certainly didn’t disappoint.  They had a good selection of salads available.  Three salad choices with a […]

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Buying lunch for the restaurateur

This morning, Greg left us, flying back to Auckland.  For ourselves continuing in Queenstown, we have an easy day catching up with friends over lunch and dinner.   We walked into town again late morning for lunch with Caroline, an old friend of Kim and Jo’s. She along with her husband Ross have owned various restaurants […]

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Jetboating & Drybread

Jetboating We had it in our head that we should do some activities in Queenstown this trip.  Over recent years, prices gone crazily high due to the tourist boom.  Kim saw a special for jetboating and gave them a call. K-jet’s one hour jetboat ride was normally priced at $135 per person.  They were running […]

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