The New Normal

 

This past weekend, someone from Sydney (Australia) flew to Wellington to visit friends and enjoy New Zealand's "coolest little capital city in the world".  He or she returned to Sydney after what sounded like an awesome weekend if all the places he/she visited is any indication.   Apparently, he/she had already received one AstraZeneca vaccination dose and had tested negative for COVID-19 prior to flying.  However, after returning to Sydney on Monday and having symptoms, he/she tested positive for COVID-19.

By all accounts, this person did everything they were meant to do.  It's reported that he/she downloaded and used the COVID-Tracker app that we are meant to be using in New Zealand, because at the last count, there are 14 locations of interest where this person apparently spent time while in Wellington. And yet we still have the outcome of the alert level changing as of 6pm this evening for the Wellington region. 

Someone reading this from another part of the world, may find NZ's way of dealing with this pandemic quite different from his/her own country.  If you're curious how New Zealand is doing things, have a read of this article on Newshub - "As it happened:  All the latest following confirmation of COVID-19 case in Wellington".

I don't live in the Wellington region anymore.  I was, however, travelling to Wellington this morning for work meetings and to take a course tomorrow.  As I walked towards the Air New Zealand check-in kiosk at the airport, one of my work team rang me to tell me that the rumour was that we may go into lockdown again and ask if I was still going to fly to Wellington.  

I asked Air NZ personnel what would happen to the flights if the alert levels changed.  I was told, "I don't think it's anything serious.  We've never been through this before, so we don't really know."  I shook my head in agreement and said, "I guess we just have to see what happens."

I made the decision to continue with my trip and arrived just in time for the press conference which announced the change to alert levels.  All day the emails have been coming fast and furious ... where to work, where you can go, what you can and can't do.  My course is going ahead, but I've decided not to attend.  I'm not sure it's a good idea to sit in a room with 25 Wellingtonians (in Winter) all day discussing mental health when everyone's mental health will be 'touched' by this recent event.

New Zealand ... "The Team of 5 Million" ... has received a lot of praise for how it has been managing the pandemic.  But the longer this goes on, the more this becomes the new normal ... well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Consolidate

In 2014, I met a friend for dinner in Wellington.  We had worked for the same international company, but in different regions of the country.  We had met one month after my life changed considerably in 2011.  She told me that I didn't look well at all, and we started a conversation about healing.  It was then that I decided to adopt her idea of picking a word (or in my case, three) that would be my guide for the following year.  I've been picking those words every year since.

After a year like no other, I didn't know what words I could possibly select that would serve as my guides for 2021.  Where was I?  Where was the world?  What was going to happen next?

After reviewing all of my words since 2015 and realising that the world is now a different place, I decided that what I needed to do was consolidate.   Someone said to me that if you make the decision to move, you consolidate your resources.  You bring them together in order to move forward, to make a change.

Today is exactly one week from the seven year anniversary of the last time I wrote about Living in Aotearoa, and this is how I left my blog back on 26th June 2014.  I wanted to remember what it looked like, what I had created in 2009, because that my was journey then.  But it's time to make a change in order to move forward.
 

The Coolest Little Capital

Little Eyes in the Sky

Matariki (photo from New Zealand Tourism Website, 100% Pure New Zealand)

Matariki, or 'little eyes' in Māori, refers to the cluster of stars known as Pleiades which rise in mid-winter each year.  When Matariki rises in the skies of New Zealand, it marks the start of a new year for Māori. Traditionally, Matariki marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of the planting season.  Today it seems to incorporate the themes of remembering those who have departed and a celebration of new beginnings.

According to the New Zealand Tourism Website, this weekend will mark the end of the month-long celebration of Māori New Year.   Apparently, there have been celebration events around the country, none of which I've attended, oddly enough.  I suppose I've had my own personal remembrance though as I've been thinking a lot about family and those most important to me in the last month.  I think this is one of those things that happen when you move your life to the other side of the world with no family or close friends around you.  They may be far away, but at least we're all under the same sky.

It's All Relative

Mason

Yesterday there was a story on the national 6pm television news about a new 24-hour cable network for dogs.  No, I didn't make a typo.  Yes, you did read correctly.  Dogs.  Canines.  Man's (and woman's) best friends.

Apparently, the TV station is meant to provide dog owners with a means of babysitting, or shall I say, dog-sitting.  Who is this for?  It's meant to be for dog owners who need to keep their dogs occupied when they are busy or away.  Interesting idea, as I know many of us have witnessed dogs watching TV.  Having not had a canine companion since I was a little girl, I haven't had to concern myself with this for years.  But I have heard many stories about dog owners coming home to messy homes due to their beloved dog who got bored during the day.

As a side note, this doesn't seem to happen as frequently with cats.  Cats seem to be given more freedom than dogs.  My evidence of this is what is becoming ever more and more frequent - daily visits from my neighbor's cat, who just spent all afternoon with me laying in the sun.  But back to the dogs ...

The video footage that accompanied this news feature was amusing, adorable even, especially if you're a dog lover.  But the question did come up while watching this ... where the hell is this?  To which my Kiwi mate answered, it has to be in America.   "You know there are only two places in the world that would create a television station for dogs.  Those two places are America and Japan."

Now I've been known to get my back up to such an inference about America.  (Sensitive though I may sometimes be about my homeland, I do have good reason which I won't go into now.  Have no fear though.  I'm sure to blog about this in the near future.  I can feel it coming.)  But I couldn't really debate my mate's comment.  All I could muster was ... "But what about Britain?  I understand they are very keen about their dogs."

The conversation continued ... "Yes, but only in America and Japan do they seem to dress up  their dogs in silly outfits and colour their fur."  Again, I couldn't debate.  It didn't help matters that only weeks earlier, we had seen another news feature about a 'trend' in America (California, no less ... ugh!).  The trend they were talking about was people 'decorating' their white poodles with ornaments and dieing their fur multiple colours ... day-glo colours even.  Needless to say, I was quiet when we watched that story and actually felt myself sinking in my seat.

I think feeling that a boundary may have been crossed, my mate started to backpedal.  (At least, that's the way I chose to see it.)  "Well, the numbers are probably the same.  What is the population of America?  The ratio of how many people dress-up their dogs is probably the same in Britain as it is in America.  It's just that America is so big that the numbers are bigger.  It's really all relative, isn't it?"

Okay, I'll take that, I thought to myself.  I mean, what else could I say?  How could I argue with that?  Remembering that I've been reminded by Kiwi mates that America does seem to be the only nation in the world that can make a TV programme out of anything, I came up with the following ... "Oh well, I guess America really is the land of opportunity."  No comeback from the Kiwi mate. 

Super Moon

Photo by Neil Protheroe, posted on Facebook by New Zealand 100% Pure.  The June 23 2013 Super Moon over the ocean off Kaikoura, the South Island of New Zealand.

The polar blast that hit New Zealand over the past week finally subsided a bit today.  I'm finally coming right from the flu/cold I've had since last week and decided it was time to get out a bit in the sunshine.  Driving around I could see the evidence of the storm as the river is high and brown, the bay is brown from that same river, trees are down and debris is all around.  The country definitely took a beating.  I heard in the news that the country's capital, Wellington, had over 1,000 emergency calls on Friday night and that over 25,000 homes were without power. 

Luckily, today was a much clearer day.  Just in time for the Super Moon tonight.  Here is a photo I found online (see photo caption above) of the Super Moon over Kaikoura on the east coast of the South Island, north of Christchurch.  Kaikoura is such a beautiful place.  For me, it's a definite must-see if you're going to visit New Zealand ... or even if you already live here.

Ba - a - a - a - a - h, ha ha ... only in New Zealand

I told myself when I started blogging again that I would try to keep to as much original content as possible, but this article was too good not to share.  It appeared online today on www.news.com.au and is authored by Anthony Sharwood.

The caption reads: "Sheesh, it's a sheepish sheep asleep in a sled."

Only in New Zealand:  Miracle sheep survive snowpocalypse 

• NZ experiences near record snowfalls
• Ski patrollers at Treble Cone skifield discover 3 lost sheep
• They're almost buried but still alive.  It's an ovine miracle!

THIS could have been a story with a really ba-a-a-a-a-d ending.  Instead, it is a warm and wooly tale about the greatest sheep rescue in New Zealand's history.

And trust us, there have been plenty.  

 

Picture the scene.  It has been snowing like crazy in New Zealand all week.  Snowing and snowing and snowing some more.

 

While Australian ski resorts struggle to kick start the season due to lack of snow, Kiwi skifields are struggling to open because there's too much snow to clear.

Meanwhile, a farmer near Lake Wanaka on the South Island is missing three sheep.  We'll return to the sheep in a minute.

At Treble Cone ski resort, just above Lake Wanaka, there's been so much snow this week, ski patrollers have been doing extra "control" work.  That's snow talk for checking the snowpack for avalanche danger and setting off small slides before the skifield opens to the public.

So three patrollers are up there at the top of Treble Cone's Saddle Basin when they see a small mound in the snow. There's been heaps of fresh snow recently.  Everything is covered.  Why is there a mound there?  There's no logical reason for a mound in that particular spot.

On closer inspection, the mound has wool.  It also has eyes.  Astonishingly, the mound has a heartbeat.  The mound is a sheep, and the sheep is alive.  Even more astonishingly, two more mounds are discovered.  And all three mounds are alive.  All three mounds are sheep.

The caption reads ... "Counting sheep...they found the first one on the left."

The cheeky story doesn't end here.  To see more photographs and read more about it, click here.