Auckland Airport

As I type this it is almost the end of day 3 and we are doing okay. It is a wet afternoon here and we have been confined to our rooms this afternoon as it is another Covid test day. This will be our third test in less than a week and so far all good. I found out that all children over 6 months have to have the same number of tests as the adults, poor little things.

On Wednesday morning we got our first negative result and were issued with blue wrist bands. This means we are allowed to go outside for daily exercise and for a smoke if you wish. Our exercise yard is the car park in front of the hotel and we can see it from our room so provides some entertainment as well. In the main exercise area you are not allowed any equipment such as balls or skipping ropes and you can only walk.

If you want to run there is a smaller caged off area where one person at a time can be running lengths. Regan used this area this morning for a few lengths to get the heart rate up. Twice a day there are family sessions where the larger area is divided into smaller spaces and each family bubble have a space to play. One family pretty much filled their are with chalk drawings on the pavement. I look forward to their next artwork as it poured with rain last night so a blank canvas for them.

The food so far has been good and the misses have been more about what we felt like rather than the quality. This morning for breakfast we had a salami bagel with pickles which tasted good but a bit full on for breakfast. In the morning we also get a drink, fruit and a sweet treat. There is plenty of food and we are amassing a treat pile already.

We placed a supermarket order which arrived today and will give us a option if the menu doesn’t appeal. We were also allowed to order a small amount of wine this time. They will release it to us slowly over the stay. We are allowed one bottle of wine per person per day which is plenty for us!

We have been keeping ourselves very busy starting the job hunting and sorting out all the admin tasks we need to do now we are permanently living back in NZ. So no Netflix bingeing as yet.

The rules for people returning to NZ have changed. Managed isolation will reduce from 14 days to 7 days with a 3 day home isolation after that. Unfortunately this doesn’t start until 14th November which means we still have to stay here. Our timing was a bit early to cash in on the relaxing of the rules.Read more