OK, I started this blog on April the 8th. Didn't get much further than uploading a few pictures. We've been busy.
This is one of the short walks in the Tarararua's we did with Liselot, the daughter of Nienke's fraternity club friend Hadewych. Liselot came to New Zealand and was suddenly confronted with the threat of the famous lockdown.
Confronted with the terrible fate of having to stay with two old people for a few weeks she was smart enough to get a ticket in time for a flight back to the Netherlands and thus cutting short her long cherished 3 month trip through New Zealand.
We finally managed to do a track we'd been wanting to do for a long time. Unfortunately not a loop track, so you's have to bring one car to one end first. Now, as a group, we just split and walked towards each other.
Nice little stream along the surprisingly nice Mangaone walkway.
We did something like this once before, walking the Skyline walk in Wellington, but then we managed to forget to exchange car keys halfway. A bit wiser now we both had a set of keys with both our car keys on them.
For sale, deep down in the forest. Comes with a lot of hectares and the advise that a bit of TLC (tender loving care) may be necessary. I doubt this machine will ever produce smoke again other than being set alight purposely.
With Liselot on her way to the airport (she managed to pass Singapore airport with 5 minutes to go before total lock down) we had our lock down bubble all to ourselves again. Here you see Nienke in her new office for the coming 4 weeks.
Morning briefing at the Medical centre. They had asked me to come in and see what I could do. So I started by writing a hygiene protocol. De-cluttering the desks turned out to be a surprise to many. Some desks even turned out to have a colour.....
After making lists of all the patients who were on blood-thinners and needed to have blood checks regularly, I checked all of them and confirmed a dose they could stay on for the coming weeks without having to have their bloods taken. A medical student helped calling them all. After that I organised the flu jabs to be given outside of the practice in a sort of drive through.
And the then weather changed. Was it still nice and warm the previous days we suddenly had the first announcement of winter coming.
Weather like this always comes with beautiful rainbows. We were wondering when our Bantams were starting to lay eggs. Turns out it takes them 6 months!!! Expensive eggs. We are supplying a few neighbours with eggs and pine cones for the fire. Even got some veggies back. Maybe trading it the new thing!
An empty beach during lock down. Surprisingly though, as suddenly lots of people are out there walking, cycling, running, walking dogs (for the fourth time that day, poor animals). Maybe something good comes out of this after all. Anyway, when we did our beach walk, there was nobody there.
The only thing we found were the names of the kids of my Dutch colleagues written in the sand.
We're pretty lucky to have to be in lock down in our little paradise. It won't be very straining either as we've just been in lock down together for a year in South America. No bite marks at all!
On the second flu jab day I had professionalised our drive through on the Marae (a sacred Maori communal place). Well, professional, I basically unpacked our camper van.
Even brought my Milwaukee builders radio and iPod so we could entertain the people with some good music.
Only thing missing was the sausage sizzles (a traditional Kiwi fundraiser). I could have done it, had our camper van parked close-by, so the only thing missing were the sausages.
And then when you come home you see a perfectly flat ocean in front of you. Fish are jumpin'. Darn. Apparently the earth shakes a little bit less because of the lock down. That may explain a long row of near perfect fishing days. If only....
Even at sundown it was nice and flat.
That little dot you see just above the waterline is the volcano Mount Taranaki, in a direct line 200 km from us.
Strangely enough everything quietens down. Not much work to do at the practice, besides, they split up the teams so one team can continue working when another has to go into quarantine. I made a list of the insuline patients and started reviewing them at home so the nurses can advise them during the coming weeks. So still on the front line, but now beach front. I really hope we won't get American situations here. So far not too bad in NZ, 1350 positive patients and 'only' 5 deaths. Unfortunately some tragedies close by in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile Nienke is very busy working from home in our other office. Trying to keep her team members busy, doing her own work and being on call for the Civil Defence Emergency operations centre. It's amazing how many people want to help others, but it is good to streamline those efforts.
Not everybody manages lock down very well. You have to feel sorry for families in small houses, with abusive husbands or difficult children. Also for the old people, often living alone. Nienke and I are looking after our neighbour and Nienke has set up a Sims road email group so we can tell each other how we are all doing from time to time. We meet during walks and have short talks at a safe distance. The only two dumb idiots who breached the rules were the Health minister (I have yet to meet a smart one) who broke his own rule by going mountain biking (with his campaign van, his smirky face plastered all over it, parked in the middle of an empty parking, shouting out "Here I am, the health idiot!!"). And our opposition leader who travels from his home in Tauranga to Wellington, 525 km one way. He is 'essential' he says and his (high speed fiber) internet connection at home was not very good. Of course he means there is hardly any press in Tauranga and much more in Wellington. Pathetic little Pinokkio. You have to feel sorry for him though, his competitor Jacinda Adern is sooooo good, he is absolutely no match. In soccer terms it's like Premier division compared to the lowest regional division possible, and then the juvenile version of that.
During one of my rabbit shooting excercises I noticed a few big branches had come down in the storm.
So, we got our gear out, started up our old tractor and got to work.
Pulled the biggest branch of safely with the help of three connected farm chains.
As it happened in one of the far corners of our property I had to drive 'Fergie' over the dunes. My poor spouse watching me with a horrified look on her face.
Job well done, fence saved. The danger of our pigs moving over to the neighbours and eating their flowerbeds is gone.
Proud! Since we already had so much firewood I brought this lot straight to our Dutch colleagues. Dumped it on the driveway, avoiding a bubble breach. They gave me a chocolate hare as thanks.
Normal activities as our Friday night Drink Club are a 'no no' now. So we came up with an alternative. We come together over Messenger. Of course we try to make each other jealous so we positioned ourselves with a bottle of chardonnay and crackers with blue cheese next to the fire. No need to chill the wine because we were freezing. Didn't want our friends to know that of course.
Even managed to stay a few minutes more. We just finished a pub quiz I made. All online, via messenger. Was fun and we'll do it again further down the week. We're also sharing songs of the day.
Easter weekend was destined to be a 'work in the garden' weekend. We tried to get rid of the weeds in the veggie garden (again) without using chemicals. I guess the sweat dripping from my face technically doesn't count as chemical treatment. Not very good for my trigger fingers by the way. Hope I will get that operation soon after this is all over.
Now it's getting colder all kind of creatures are trying to get into our house. We're catching so many mice and rats that even Nienke got used to it and is now brave enough to throw the bodies away herself.
I started the hot tub yesterday evening and then forgot all about it. Realised that this morning while yawning in bed, after the wind woke me up. So I made us some breakfast for in the tub! Toast with eggs and hot cross buns with Nutella! Do not say anything about Nienkes hair. I know, we're getting very close to the dangerous phase of the lock down. That moment you realise you need a haircut and your spouse is the only one that could do it....... 😱😱
Pretty windy this morning. I've got the feeling there is a separation coming in the Netherlands. The alternative Kiwi flag behind there is clearly of a better quality.
Stay safe everyone!
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