Our Prime Minister declared a National State of Emergency, as well as issuing a Pandemic Notice. These gave the Government, police, and military, the special powers necessary to declare and enforce a nationwide lockdown.
All public places (museums, etc), schools, and non-essential businesses were closed. Even online shopping with non-essential businesses is closed.
Only essential services - Government, emergency services, hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, vets, financial institutions, supermarkets, and transport for goods - are all that are still operational.
Everyone who did not work in an essential service was ordered to stay home (which includes their yards for fresh air and exercise), only venturing out to access essential services. Most importantly, people should not have contact with anyone outside their "bubble" (the people they are in isolation with).
This unprecedented move was instituted to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 in NZ. To try to prevent what has happened in Italy, Spain, and other places.
So Day One dawned bright and sunny. The usual cacophony of children heading off to school was noticeably missing (we have a play center in the next block, and both a primary and a secondary school only a few blocks away). But in spite of the lockdown, the traffic levels on our suburban street were still close to the same. People were still driving around to visit friends. People were driving around "to just have a look". Kids were hooning up and down the street on bikes, unsupervised. One of my neighbours came over to me, and two other neighbours, asking if we had any spare boxes because she wanted to pack up the lounge so she could paint it.
People in this area are treating this as if it is a holiday not a lockdown, as if there is nothing to worry about, rather than there being a global pandemic with thousands of people dying. It is definitely worrying.
I started laying in supplies at the first rumblings of "a possible pandemic". My mother was visiting from Aussie at the time, and has helped financially with it, for which I am very grateful. I was able to get enough supplies in for the 4 weeks for myself and my two "babies" - Sheba my antisocial cat, and Molly the dog, who firmly believes she should be sitting on my lap every waking moment and sleeping on my head every sleeping moment.
Ironically, I spent much of my adult life "prepping" - keeping a six month supply of food etc stashed away. After over 20 years of doing that, two years ago, I decided, it was rather pointless and a waste of much need space, so I pared it all down to "normal" supply levels. That'll teach me!
We are currently in autumn, so the summer crops in the garden are finished, and the autumn/winter crops are only just now coming up.
Coming up in the last two weeks or so, I have Japanese giant red mustard, kale, Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, cauli greens, leeks, miner's lettuce, Dutch cornsalad, lettuces, beetroot, rocket, arugula, onions, spinach, tat soi, and carrots. So the winter pantry is looking good. Today, I have spent some much needed time out in the garden weeding, and planted seed for salad mustard, more lettuces, and broadbeans.
By lunch time, the wind started picking up, and the clouds were coming over, so it was time to head in for the midday news, and some lunch.
The rest of the day was just spent pottering around, not doing anything in particular. Watching a lot of news, knitting, reading, a Skype call with Mum in Aussie, playing with the dog.
As evening wound down, and the sun was setting, I stood out in the yard to listen to traffic - that constant background hum that is always there day and night, from the main arterial ways the border our suburb on three sides. The main north/south highway that connects Wellington to Auckland via the East Coast side, the main highway running east/west that connect Palmerston North in the center thru Hastings to Napier on the coast, and a main east/west highway that connects the traffic coming down from Auckland in the north turning east to Napier and other east coast cities, bypassing Hastings.
The hum was still there, a steady stream of traffic swooshing and droning along the highways. Some of it will be extra trucks and vans hauling goods, and some of it people still in transit trying to get home. The lines at the Inter Island Ferry terminal and the domestic airports were so long and so frantic, that the deadline for people trying to get home was extended to Friday (tomorrow), to try to ease the pressure on services and stress on people.
It will be interesting to see how much of a reduction there is in the traffic, once the deadline for travel is passed, supply lines settle back to normal after all the panic buying, and the authorities start clamping down on those people who are just out driving around because they don't think the situation is really that serious.
Goodnight all, from here inside the lockdown. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Very interesting. I look forward to this series, stay safe and well.
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