4/5/20
Had a normal lockdown day with a walk on the Peninsula track circuit.
So what is a "normal" lockdown day. Well, here's how we've been passing most of our lockdown days so far.
We wake up without an alarm. It gets light here about 8am (this will change today with daylight savings time), so we wake up around 8 to 8:30 and get up slowly. We come out to the kitchen table and have tea and a slow breakfast, reading emails, the news, checking current covid-19 stats and updates. We read with much interest all that is going on with facebook. All this news and social media takes up quite a bit of time. I usually don't get around to brushing my teeth until 11-12. We work on little projects like banking. And then we have stressful projects to tackle like health insurance , calling the airlines, dealing with the rental car, etc.
We've been trying to stay in contact with friends more than normal. For me this means that I have video chatted once with Lucas, once with my brother, and every few days or so with my mom. Also had a couple chats with my boss Nate. For Elisha it means nearly every day talks with her mom and with her brother. It means zoom calls with her various friend groups (the other day she had . She's also part of this video messaging app called Marco Polo where her and her friends record messages to each other and send them. Sometimes Elisha wakes up with 15 videos to watch and then must do a couple of her own. In the words of my German friend Norbert "Zis is too much for me"
Since the day we left Vanuatu, we've had lots of tough decision to make, and these have proven to be stressful and time consuming. A lot of these decisions are based on should we stay or should we try to go? Will we stay in the current accommodation? What insurance should we get? etc, etc. Our decision of whether to stay or go has often been made for us in the end by border closures or recent restrictions; however, part of the decision boils down to do we feel it's better/safer in NZ or at home? To us, it's pretty clear that NZ is a more stable country, more calm, less hysteria, stronger central leadership, better healthcare facilities, better preparedness, lower virus load, and thus much less risk than being at home. But we do miss our parents; however, we realize that b/c of their ages and immunocomprimization (of my dad), that we have to do a strict self-quarantine.
Elisha is feeling an overwhelming burden of stress at the time time and is very fearful of the tragedy that is unfolding in the US. NZ feels very safe, so we have thus far decided to stay.
After doing newsy and social media stuff, we work on our projects/activities. I'll work on my blog, sort pictures, and other writing projects. During this time is when Elisha will chat with her mom, zoom with her friends, or work on her marco polo videos.
We have lunch outside on the deck about 2ish. We do an hour to 2 hour walk in the evening. We come back to cook and watch the NZ news and eat around 8ish. At night we either watch the NZ Bachelorette, Australia's "Married at First Sight" or "The Office" episodes we have on our hard drive. Those 2 reality shows ended this weekend; however, Amazing Race Australia is starting up soon.
The lockdown rules are that we can only use the car to do once a week shopping, or visit the doctor. We are supposed to exercise locally.
4/6/20
We learned that Vanuatu is being hit directly by a category 5 cyclone (cyclone Harold). Took a walk as usual
4/7/20
Just a normal day. Took a walk. Elisha went shopping
4/8/20
We had a picnic lunch with our landlords, which was nice. We continued to be baffled by how many people back home in the USA think this is all a hoax and also by how much derision there is in the US for something everyone should be working together to solve. Watched the season finale of Married at First Sight.
4/9/20
Just another typical day, but we did our contributions to our retirement IRAs. Walked around the peninsula. At night we watched the Armageddon style movie "2012"
4/10/20
Good Friday
I biked to Arrowtown (Elisha joined as far as the Shotover bridge). From Arrowtown I biked 17km up the 4WD Macetown road that goes up the Arrow River Canyon to the ghostown of Macetown. Macetown was a major gold mining town in its day, but of course is now deserted. There are a couple of restored buildings that I checked out as well as a quartz crushing battery. The road forded the river So many times, but the ride down was lots of fun. The Arrowtown area has some really nice fall colors right now. I made it back to our place, 51 miles later, right before it was totally dark.
4/11/20
Did a lot of facebook arguing today. Some friends on FB are subscribing to some really crazy (and scary) conspiracy theories. Had lunch down in the grass by the lake, in the warm sun. Walked out towards Jack's Point. Watched the tear-jerker movie "Lion" tonight.
4/12/20
Easter Sunday
We had a nice brekkie with Kiwi bacon and Swedish pancakes. Started a puzzle that our landlords gave us. We took a bit longer walk. Showered and dressed up (with bowtie) and had a steak and twice-baked potato dinner with a chocolate bunny for dinner.
4/13/20
Celebrated Easter with family back home, and of course took a walk.
4/14/20
It snowed on the mountains today! Bad weather, so a nice soup and tea day. Elisha went shopping and also made banana bread. We also started doing an indoor workout program with Betty Rocker online
4/15/20
It snowed a lot on the mountains. I went for a walk early in the morning to get nice views of the mountains, but then just a normal day for us
4/16/20
I face-timed with Sherman today. Elisha made chocolate chip cookies
4/17/20
Elisha went shopping, and I went along for the ride to get out of the house. The radio station we listen to was doing a top 50 countdown of high school hits, so that was fun. Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" was #1.
4/18/20
I spent a lot of time working on my resumé and USAjobs profile
4/19/20
It snowed a lot on the peaks overnight. I had a happy hour hangout with Sherms, Triggers, and Tom Day. A moose ran through Tom's yard while we were talking (he was lying in his hammock outside, which was funny in itself since his yard was still full of snow). I also facetimed with my brother.
4/20/20
Worked on my application and resume for USAjobs. Addressing all of the nation this morning, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern extended the lockdown Level 4 by 5 more days with the quote "we need to lock it in" It meaning the gains we've made. When she addressed the nation declaring the Level 4 lockdown, it was "go early go hard". It seems like it's working. The last several days we've had 5, 3, and 5 new cases even though testing is dramatically up.
4/21/20
We finished our puzzle. It rained most of the day, but we still did our daily walk
4/22/20
Worked on various projects and wrote emails. I mentioned we've been doing the Betty Rocker workouts which are HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts. We also end with Elisha's brother Jeff's 4 minute Tabata workouts. We were inspired by those and have started to make some of our own. So today we filmed our first 2 Tabata workouts.
4/23/20
There are several travel books in our apartment for guests to read and one is Lonely Planet's Top 500 places to visit. There is a pull out map inside of it that has numbers labeled on the map, without names (a key at the bottom to the numbers), so we made a game out of guessing, which was fun.
4/24/20
I biked to Gibbston on the bike path network as it was a beautiful day. Gibbston is a an important winery area. Lots and lots of small, local wineries. I also took some singletrack loop offshoots. It was a beautiful ride following along the Kawarau River Gorge with its glacial blue river and lined by brilliant yellow trees in the height of their fall colors. There were also some really cool suspension bridges to cross, including a large one that used to have cars, but now is home to the original bungy jump. I also found some delicious blackberries along the way. The fall colors were just awesome along the whole ride. It was a big ride of 51 miles.
With ANZAC day approaching the movies on the TV are war related, so tonight we watched Born on the 4th of July.
Had a normal lockdown day with a walk on the Peninsula track circuit.
So what is a "normal" lockdown day. Well, here's how we've been passing most of our lockdown days so far.
We wake up without an alarm. It gets light here about 8am (this will change today with daylight savings time), so we wake up around 8 to 8:30 and get up slowly. We come out to the kitchen table and have tea and a slow breakfast, reading emails, the news, checking current covid-19 stats and updates. We read with much interest all that is going on with facebook. All this news and social media takes up quite a bit of time. I usually don't get around to brushing my teeth until 11-12. We work on little projects like banking. And then we have stressful projects to tackle like health insurance , calling the airlines, dealing with the rental car, etc.
We've been trying to stay in contact with friends more than normal. For me this means that I have video chatted once with Lucas, once with my brother, and every few days or so with my mom. Also had a couple chats with my boss Nate. For Elisha it means nearly every day talks with her mom and with her brother. It means zoom calls with her various friend groups (the other day she had . She's also part of this video messaging app called Marco Polo where her and her friends record messages to each other and send them. Sometimes Elisha wakes up with 15 videos to watch and then must do a couple of her own. In the words of my German friend Norbert "Zis is too much for me"
Since the day we left Vanuatu, we've had lots of tough decision to make, and these have proven to be stressful and time consuming. A lot of these decisions are based on should we stay or should we try to go? Will we stay in the current accommodation? What insurance should we get? etc, etc. Our decision of whether to stay or go has often been made for us in the end by border closures or recent restrictions; however, part of the decision boils down to do we feel it's better/safer in NZ or at home? To us, it's pretty clear that NZ is a more stable country, more calm, less hysteria, stronger central leadership, better healthcare facilities, better preparedness, lower virus load, and thus much less risk than being at home. But we do miss our parents; however, we realize that b/c of their ages and immunocomprimization (of my dad), that we have to do a strict self-quarantine.
Elisha is feeling an overwhelming burden of stress at the time time and is very fearful of the tragedy that is unfolding in the US. NZ feels very safe, so we have thus far decided to stay.
After doing newsy and social media stuff, we work on our projects/activities. I'll work on my blog, sort pictures, and other writing projects. During this time is when Elisha will chat with her mom, zoom with her friends, or work on her marco polo videos.
We have lunch outside on the deck about 2ish. We do an hour to 2 hour walk in the evening. We come back to cook and watch the NZ news and eat around 8ish. At night we either watch the NZ Bachelorette, Australia's "Married at First Sight" or "The Office" episodes we have on our hard drive. Those 2 reality shows ended this weekend; however, Amazing Race Australia is starting up soon.
The lockdown rules are that we can only use the car to do once a week shopping, or visit the doctor. We are supposed to exercise locally.
4/6/20
We learned that Vanuatu is being hit directly by a category 5 cyclone (cyclone Harold). Took a walk as usual
4/7/20
Just a normal day. Took a walk. Elisha went shopping
4/8/20
We had a picnic lunch with our landlords, which was nice. We continued to be baffled by how many people back home in the USA think this is all a hoax and also by how much derision there is in the US for something everyone should be working together to solve. Watched the season finale of Married at First Sight.
4/9/20
Just another typical day, but we did our contributions to our retirement IRAs. Walked around the peninsula. At night we watched the Armageddon style movie "2012"
4/10/20
Good Friday
I biked to Arrowtown (Elisha joined as far as the Shotover bridge). From Arrowtown I biked 17km up the 4WD Macetown road that goes up the Arrow River Canyon to the ghostown of Macetown. Macetown was a major gold mining town in its day, but of course is now deserted. There are a couple of restored buildings that I checked out as well as a quartz crushing battery. The road forded the river So many times, but the ride down was lots of fun. The Arrowtown area has some really nice fall colors right now. I made it back to our place, 51 miles later, right before it was totally dark.
4/11/20
Did a lot of facebook arguing today. Some friends on FB are subscribing to some really crazy (and scary) conspiracy theories. Had lunch down in the grass by the lake, in the warm sun. Walked out towards Jack's Point. Watched the tear-jerker movie "Lion" tonight.
4/12/20
Easter Sunday
We had a nice brekkie with Kiwi bacon and Swedish pancakes. Started a puzzle that our landlords gave us. We took a bit longer walk. Showered and dressed up (with bowtie) and had a steak and twice-baked potato dinner with a chocolate bunny for dinner.
4/13/20
Celebrated Easter with family back home, and of course took a walk.
4/14/20
It snowed on the mountains today! Bad weather, so a nice soup and tea day. Elisha went shopping and also made banana bread. We also started doing an indoor workout program with Betty Rocker online
4/15/20
It snowed a lot on the mountains. I went for a walk early in the morning to get nice views of the mountains, but then just a normal day for us
4/16/20
I face-timed with Sherman today. Elisha made chocolate chip cookies
4/17/20
Elisha went shopping, and I went along for the ride to get out of the house. The radio station we listen to was doing a top 50 countdown of high school hits, so that was fun. Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" was #1.
4/18/20
I spent a lot of time working on my resumé and USAjobs profile
4/19/20
It snowed a lot on the peaks overnight. I had a happy hour hangout with Sherms, Triggers, and Tom Day. A moose ran through Tom's yard while we were talking (he was lying in his hammock outside, which was funny in itself since his yard was still full of snow). I also facetimed with my brother.
4/20/20
Worked on my application and resume for USAjobs. Addressing all of the nation this morning, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern extended the lockdown Level 4 by 5 more days with the quote "we need to lock it in" It meaning the gains we've made. When she addressed the nation declaring the Level 4 lockdown, it was "go early go hard". It seems like it's working. The last several days we've had 5, 3, and 5 new cases even though testing is dramatically up.
4/21/20
We finished our puzzle. It rained most of the day, but we still did our daily walk
4/22/20
Worked on various projects and wrote emails. I mentioned we've been doing the Betty Rocker workouts which are HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts. We also end with Elisha's brother Jeff's 4 minute Tabata workouts. We were inspired by those and have started to make some of our own. So today we filmed our first 2 Tabata workouts.
4/23/20
There are several travel books in our apartment for guests to read and one is Lonely Planet's Top 500 places to visit. There is a pull out map inside of it that has numbers labeled on the map, without names (a key at the bottom to the numbers), so we made a game out of guessing, which was fun.
4/24/20
I biked to Gibbston on the bike path network as it was a beautiful day. Gibbston is a an important winery area. Lots and lots of small, local wineries. I also took some singletrack loop offshoots. It was a beautiful ride following along the Kawarau River Gorge with its glacial blue river and lined by brilliant yellow trees in the height of their fall colors. There were also some really cool suspension bridges to cross, including a large one that used to have cars, but now is home to the original bungy jump. I also found some delicious blackberries along the way. The fall colors were just awesome along the whole ride. It was a big ride of 51 miles.
With ANZAC day approaching the movies on the TV are war related, so tonight we watched Born on the 4th of July.
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| Echidna |
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| Quartz crusher |
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| our neighbors put this out |
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| Easter Dinner |
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| Elisha made chocolate chip cookies |
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| View from our deck |
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| view from our driveway |
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| cool suspension bridge |
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| bungy jump bridge |
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| cool because we had been to Vanuatu, but didn't visit Pentecost |
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| winery |
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