Quarantine – NZ Style

Hey guys – it’s been a while! We’ve been in Alert Level 4 lockdown since Wednesday, 25th Mar at 11:59 pm. Tonight, 27th Apr at 11:59 pm, we will move out of lockdown and into Alert Level 3. New Zealand has an Alert Level system that you can read up on here: https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/covid-19-alert-system/#covid-19-alert-system.

I’ve received many questions about what lockdown is like in New Zealand, so I’m here to share our experience. The moment New Zealand entered lockdown, all non-essential businesses stopped trading, both in person and online. This was rather difficult because the only businesses that were up and trading were supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, etc. Approximately two weeks into lockdown, the government made the exception for businesses to trade only essential items online, as long as they were approved to do so by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). This opened up the opportunity for Kiwis to purchase winter clothing, blankets, heaters, etc. This was a great move on the government’s part because now that it’s Autumn, the outside temperature has dropped substantially. I ordered winter clothes from Postie for the family and I am over the moon about the package that just arrived at my doorstep.

Even though supermarkets, pharmacies, and the like are currently open, shopping at these businesses looks much different than what it looked like before lockdown commenced. You can’t just walk into the supermarket, buy your items, and leave. Now, there’s a maximum number of people allowed in the store at any given time. This means that you can typically expect to wait in a long queue to get into the store. The longest I had to wait to get into a store was 35 minutes. The queues usually wrap around as everyone must stand two metres (six feet) apart. Before anyone can enter the store, they must use one to two pumps of hand sanitiser. Once in the store, the two metre rule still applies, which slows down the shopping experience. Whenever I need to get groceries, I usually budget an hour or two of my time for this task. Even shopping at the pharmacy is different because customers aren’t actually allowed in the store. You consult a “Personal Shopper” through a screened area at the front of the store and they source the items, bring them to you, and charge you all at the same window, kind of like a drive-thru.

Lockdown also means that all restaurants, including drive-thrus, are shut down. This is probably a good thing, but all of our meals over this past month have been home-made with no option for fast food. When I say I’ve cooked a lot, I mean I’ve cooked A LOT. Partly out of necessity, partly out of boredom. I’ve been baking on a regular basis as well. We’ve made brownies, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate cake, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, another pan of brownies…so many sweets! And with all this extra eating we’ve been doing, I’ve been making it a point to exercise (as regularly as life permits!) to YouTube videos. Blogilates is one of my all-time favourite exercise channels – you should check it out if you haven’t before. It’s really fun! Here’s one of Cassie’s newest workouts:

Meanwhile, I’ve been working full-time from home since right before the lockdown. It’s been a challenge working while having the kids at home, but I make do. Tomorrow they go back to daycare, and for this I am both sad and relieved. Over the next two weeks, I will have to pack food for the kids to take to daycare because the daycare centre will not be providing their usual food services during the span of Alert Level 3 (approximately two weeks, could be longer).

During this past month, I’ve really enjoyed spending my days with the kids – it brings me back to my stay-at-home-mom days. I’ve been homeschooling the kids at their respective levels and they both have learned so much during our time together. I’ve also done some arts and crafts with the kids. The latest thing I did with them was make home-made essential oils scented play-dough. The kids are loving it and the oils are preserving the play-dough well. We’ve also done a lot of dancing and singing together. There really hasn’t been a dull moment in the Cullum house since we’ve entered lockdown.

Overall, I think lockdown is what my family needed. We saved a lot of money during this time and we spent a lot of quality time together. We caught up on sleep and we’re all the healthiest we’ve been since the kids started daycare. Having the chance to slow down has really proven to be beneficial both physically and mentally. I’m extremely grateful for this time I’ve had at home and, while I hope it’s not under these circumstances, I’d like to take a timeout like this again sometime in the future. As we head into Alert Level 3, I am looking forward to uninhibited online trading. Our list of much needed, non-essential items grew over the past month and I’m ready to finally buy them.

Stay safe & well,

The Cullums