Blog 26 Winter in NZ

After all that running, jumping, rowing, swimming, hockey and volleyball........ we have had a lie down in a darkened room to prepare for Blog 26.

The fruit trees have been fantastic, as have the Magnolia trees and the flowers at the garden centre.... mid winter!!!!!

The hedge outside our kitchen and my bedroom window.

The Mandarins were fantastic this year and we picked some every day for two months!! The Lemon tree still has masses of lemons.

These are some of the jigsaws completed in last few months. Our daily routine is quite settled. Jobs or Gym in the am...... catch up on Sydney news at lunch time with NSW Covid update..... jigsaw in the pm before cooking meal in the evening.  Click the link for a slide show if you wish. 

https://plus.smilebox.com/play?g=9c3c0666-f0f4-44fe-9eeb-807665198537&sbid=3466

As Australia lapses into another Covid pandemic, we continue to remain Covid Free. We have had a couple of close calls. The first in Wellington where a couple from Sydney visited for a long weekend. Attended 18 different places and fell ill on the flight home, got tested and were positive. Wellington locked down for seven days but no cases developed. More worryingly, the second close call was a ship that docked here in Tauranga with 16 sailors infected and 93 workers who were identified as contacts..... as they had been on the ship. Tests were done immediately and no worker tested positive! Jacinda has already said that if there was a case in the community we would go to lockdown level four until the source was identified. Therefore although we are living a charmed, Covid free life we are well aware just how close we are to being like the rest of the world.

The Australia travel bubble has ceased since the outbreaks in Aussie so not sure how it will be for Karen Richard's proposed visit Christmas 2021 or Jill in the New Year, 2022. We get our second Pfizer jab tomorrow so that will be good. Hopefully world travel will be back on the cards for next year. We still have on hold our South Island trip in February and vouchers for flights, car rental and hotel for Noosa, Queensland........  in September 2022.

It is that time in our lives where every week we have sad news to digest. In New Zealand Dave Leavy has had four months of unpleasant living after a second cataract operation left him with blurred vision and a weeping eye. We see Sue and Rick often as Rick has his treatment in Tauranga and both Kathy and Lynette lost their 90 aged plus mum's in the last two months. Our thoughts are with all those struggling at the moment.

A few months ago I had an email from Annie and Graham in Whangamata asking me to look out photos for Jen and Simon who live in the USA as their house had burned down and they had lost everything. Click on the news link to see the dreadful fire.  Fortunately they were ok but you can imagine the shock and sense of loss. I looked out some photos and sent them through. Click on the video which will play after a short advert.

VIDEO: Massive house fire reported in Lakeland (actionnews5.com) 

On the plus side Annie looked through her photos for Jen and sent me a lovely photo of her and her mum and Auntie Audrey. It reminded me that yesterday, on the anniversary of Elvis' death, Auntie Audrey visited Annie's sister Jennifer in the USA. While she was there she visited Graceland and I am sure she would have been well into her late 70's/ early 80's when travelling.

Another notable date on the calendar was the birthday bash of Janet James who reached the ripe old age of 70. We phoned her during the party so she had a NZ surprise.  Janet seen here with friends.

We have just heard on the news that Auckland has a Covid case in the community, discovered this afternoon which is not linked to MIQ or the borders. B...... will have to wait this out and will write later.

As you would now expect from Jacinda, we have one case in Auckland which has put the whole of New Zealand in Lockdown level 4!  Our second jab is cancelled tomorrow! 

This what NZ lockdown looks like in Auckland on Day 1. That is why we beat it last time and we will do it again.

Queen Street in the centre of Auckland and below State Highway One!

The news so far is that they have linked the case back to Sydney to a returning Kiwi in MIQ. This person fell ill the day after arriving, was moved to the MIQ for infected people and in the next 8 days it was somehow the cause of the current outbreak.... which now stands at 21 people.  That part of the jigsaw is still under investigation. The North and South Island is at level 4 because the first case in the community went to the Coromandel for a long weekend visiting bars, cafes, tourist places and therefore other NZ travellers from all over NZ could have been at these places and, potentially, could spread it to all parts of the country.

We have made a new date for our second Pfizer jab on September 4th. but all waste water tests including Tauranga have so far been negative and the + tests are in Auckland where the existing cases live so we are hopeful it will be a short sharp lockdown. NSW today announced nearly 700 new cases and rising daily. They didn't shut down hard enough and are behind the spread at the moment. Poor Jill...... and it is her birthday next week!

Happy Birthday Jill.

August 24th. We continue to have rising cases, mostly in Auckland but also Wellington. Lockdown remains throughout the whole of New Zealand and will be reviewed on Friday.  I suspect Auckland will be locked down for some weeks yet as the majority of the cases are linked to a Samoan Church service and luncheon which had over three hundred people attend. So far 105 people at that service have returned positive tests with more to come as we come to the tenth-twelfth day of infection.

On a brighter note the latest jig saw deserves its own pride of place. It is Mount Manganui and was sooooooo difficult. We are stoked to have completed it.

The Pohutukawa Tree comes out just before Christmas . The other good news is we are back in touch with our neighbours for morning coffee, socially distanced of course. Weather is a consistent 15 degrees daily and spring flowers are coming.

Lynn took this while on her walk this am. 

The Paralympics start tonight so our house will be wall to wall sport yet again for the next week.... especially with the Cricket test starting tomorrow. Lockdown is good when you can watch sport all day!!!! It is unlikely that I will set aside blog time in the next week so I will sign off now and hope you all stay safe and well. Finally, thank you to all of you who respond to the blog with your news..... it is always good to hear from you.

Take care,

Alison and Lynn.