Stay Home, Be Kind, Save Lives

Well what a difference a week makes. It’s hard to believe that it was only last Saturday that we sat outside a local bar, enjoying a late afternoon pint and remarking just how quiet it was. And a little weird for it to be that like on a Saturday afternoon.

Little did we know just how weird it was going to get. 

By the time we were dressed and ready to set off for work on Monday, we had already received an email from our employer telling us that from Tuesday the offices would be closed. Then, around 1pm on Monday lunchtime, the Prime Minister made a breathtaking announcement. From Wednesday night, 11:59pm to be precise, the country would be locked down. We were to stay at home and not go out, other then to buy essentials or for exercise. Minimal contact with the outside world. 

If we’d stopped and thought about it, we knew this day was coming. We’d seen the situation develop, first China, Australia, Europe and the US. And now it was spreading in New Zealand. We could sit back and see what happens, monitor this situation and act when the situation got desperate, the PM explained. Or we could take this opportunity to try and head off the virus. At the pass so to speak. It wasn’t going to be easy and she realised that what she was asking the country to do was huge. But the alternative didn’t bear thinking about. That option wasn’t really an option.

“Everything you will all give up for the next few weeks, all of the lost contact with others, all of the isolation, and difficult time entertaining children – it will literally save lives. Thousands of lives.

The worst case scenario is simply intolerable. It would represent the greatest loss of New Zealanders’ lives in our country’s history. I will not take that chance.”

I am in no doubt that the measures I have announced today will cause unprecedented economic and social disruption. But they are necessary.

I have one final message. Be kind.... Go home tonight and check in on your neighbours. Start a phone tree with your street. Plan how you’ll keep in touch with one another. We will get through this together, but only if we stick together. Be strong and be kind.”

I’d like to think that our first thoughts on hearing the announcement were for those less fortunate that us. After all we have a house with plenty of room, a view of a volcano cone and don’t mind each other’s company. Mostly. But our first thought were less charitable than we would care to admit; can we still go running and do we have enough wine? Yes. And no.

So whilst other households were no doubt checking food supplies, counting essentials, making arrangement for their families and checking on relatives and neighbours, we jumped in the car and went to the nearest off licence. Hoping against hope that we weren’t too late!

We weren’t. In fact there was plenty, enough for us to fill our trolley without the remotest feeling of guilt. What was odd though, was that the customers in the shop were very wary of each other. Already taking keeping our distance to heart, to the point were circuitous routes were taken around the isles to get to where we needed to be without invading other’s bubbles. Ahh, bubbles. We will hear a lot more of that word over the coming days. But for now it’s our personal space, the boundaries within which each of us must operate. And stay. For our own health and that of everyone else. Every interaction is a risk. A risk that could burst the bubble. 

So with the car boot loaded, we headed home where we will stay for the next four weeks. The traffic was busier then usual, the evening peak had arrived early as households dashed around to make their final arrangements. Hard to think that in just two days time the entire country would be locked down - holed up in our individual castles whilst we all wait it out. Being asked to stay home and watch TV didn’t, on the face of it, sound like a big ask. But we’re sociable creatures, even if we don’t like to admit it, and New Zealand is an outdoors kind of place. This isn’t going to be easy but the reward far outstrips the cost. Like the Prime Minister said stay home, be kind, save lives.