Lockdown 35/47 – I feel it in the Earth

Day 35 of my diary of a LOTR Fan Museum owner during our national lockdown (extended from 28 to 47 days: 33 at level 4, 14 at L3) – in NZ we’re uniting as a country to beat Covid-19 to break the chain and save lives, but …

New day in the new job of STAY HOME, be kind! We’ve eased up slightly to L3 alert and there’s a scent of freedom in the air.

Nicknamed lockdown lite, it’s a relatively slight relaxation of the lockdown, mainly around people being able to return to safe work. But oh what a difference in the mood!

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”

I’m not one of the hundreds who queued at Macdonalds for a burger at 5am nor at any point during the day, but I felt the vibe when I went out for my ride on Brego this morning.

What a gorgeous day it was! Sunny, no wind, birds singing (without realising that the carnival is over). But the change in the vibe was so apparent. More people, all smiling; more traffic; lots of walkers and bikers but they no longer owned the roads; people back at work doing roadwork. And most of all, the fishermen were back beside the sea with their rods.

I was so happy to be out, to breathe the free air again - but I also felt sad. Sure I’m so pleased for the economy and people’s livelihoods. And I’m expecting it will be ages before some things recover (like tourism!). But will any lessons be learned? Will we now better care for the environment? Will our society be more fair? How will we make a better world for our young people?

In the rush for our takeaways, online purchasing and just the sweet taste of a little more freedom, let’s not forget some of the lessons we’ve been learning about what we really value as a society. It’s good to have this 2 weeks to think before opening up to something more like “normal”.

Today I am saluting those countries and states making hard choices about whether and when to relax lockdown requirements and how to do this carefully and thoughtfully. Best wishes, Kathy xx