False Start
This wasn’t the start we had imagined. It’s been comically askew.
After making a heavy push through summer to leave California well and to ensure our immigration went smoothly, spending two weeks in an Auckland quarantine facility, then bursting free into our new surroundings for 5 days… WHAM-O! NZ’s first community COVID case in nearly 6 months produced a nationwide lockdown. Five weeks of lockdown later, we—and the whole of New Zealand—are ready for a new chapter.
Fortunately, we made good headway to settle in during our 5 days of blissful COVID-free-ish existence here before the lockdown. We explored neighborhoods, went to our first rugby match, gathered a few supplies, secured a car, got into a long-term rental house, and visited the kids’ future school. That's paid dividends while businesses have been shut down. Sometimes it pays to move fast.
One bright spot of NZ’s highest lockdown level is that outdoor exercise is allowed. That’s meant daily walks to the beach, local nature reserves, and peeking in storefront windows. We feel lucky about where we’ve landed.
Although the lockdown has felt like a whiplash from openness to isolation, change came this week.
Auckland’s lockdown level was reduced, and Lisa started work. With those changes, we’ll gladly ease into our ‘new normal’ here. We’re still weeks away from in-person school or travel beyond Auckland, but we’ll get there. I’ll keep working from home. Lisa will get her bearings at work. And the kids will probably keep surprising us with their resilience, energy, and not-so-subtle unspoken queues of when they need extra… time, attention, conversation.
So, cheers to the occasional false start. This one has reminded me of our limits of control.
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