Today started out peacefully . . . We left our tiny A-frame cabin at the Wonderland Makarora Lodge. It was overcast & sprinkling rain when we left around 10:00am. We made a left turn, headed straight for Queenstown, about 2 hours away. A few minutes into our drive we spotted a rainbow! A gorgeous rainbow. In the midst of so much uncertainty and nerves, it made me feel calm and at peace. Rainbows are such a wondrous thing, and they gave me hope that these trying times will pass and we'll be renewed for it. I made Doug pull over so I could get a few pictures. They'll surely not do justice to the beauty in person, but I couldn't resist snapping a pic of the gorgeous rainbow with sheep grazing in the foreground!
Today was always going to be a big day because we were arriving to our new "home" in NZ, to settle for the coming months. We had been stocking up on essentials little by little over the prior days, so we were anxious to get to the house, unpack and do our part to stay put.
We knew we couldn't access the house until mid-afternoon, so there was no rush to get to Queenstown. We made two stops along the way. First to a grocery store in Wanaka, and second to Lake Hayes to enjoy a picnic lunch. While we were chowing down on our cream cheese/smoked salmon/cucumber sandwiches, Doug got a message from the AirBnB owner that the property would be ready for us earlier than planned. It was all ours as of 2:00pm. Yay! We excitedly cleaned up our belongings and hopped back into the car. We still had a little time to kill, so I mentioned to Doug I wanted to pop into a liquor store to get a few bottles of wine/beer just to have at the house. It's a good thing I did, because that little request kicked off a fortuitous series of events . . .
Henry's Liquor Store
15 minutes later we were perusing the aisles of Henry's Liquor Store in Queenstown, constantly reminding the girls not to touch their face or anything in the store. A few minutes later we noticed their TV was on and it was broadcasting a live announcement by the NZ Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. We immediately stopped what we were doing and parked ourselves in front of the TV with the two store employees (we were the only shoppers in the store at that time).
Jacinda announced that the country will move to Alert Level 3 (Restrict) nationwide, and that as of Wednesday, March 25, it will rise to its highest level, Alert Level 4 (Eliminate). Her speech is here. That means that the whole of NZ will be required to stay at home for minimum next 4 weeks, and that all non-essential businesses will close within the next 48 hours. While the news stuck a note of immediate panic (naturally), it was also a huge relief to us. We're happy NZ is moving to take such important measures early on to stop the spread. As massively disruptive the measures are to the everyday fabric of life, they are absolutely essential to keep this virus from spreading and to help save lives. For that reason, hearing her news live brought us relief & reassurance.
Time to Hustle
The news also made us hustle into gear. Facing the new reality that all non-essential businesses would be closing within 48 hours, we needed to make our limited time count. Thankfully we've already done a good job of stocking up little-by-little the past few days on food, so we're good to go there. But what we really needed was more cold weather clothes! It's already quite cold here all the way in the South of NZ! We were fortunate that the shopping center we happened to be in had several clothing retailers, so we quickly did the rounds and got long underwear, fleece jackets, etc. I also lucked out and found some great hiking shoes (that brings the tally up to all four of us finding hiking shoes this past week).
There were two other stores we hit up . . . a bookstore & K-Mart. We stocked up on a ton of books for the girls (both pleasure reading & some school-related workbooks). Doug is already good in the book department; I picked up a new one and a word search one for myself :) At K-Mart we were able to get a few household items we were keen to have handy or cooking & general family entertainment (salad spinner, puzzles, board games, soccer ball, badminton set, art supplies, etc.). The stores we shopped at were definitely starting to buzz with people, but I suspect nothing like the grocery stores. As our final stop, Doug popped into the grocery store and picked up some final items (milk, yogurt, eggs, produce, meat). He said it was a zoo. I suspect it will be quite frantic at the grocery stores over these next 48 hours. I found it reassuring and calming when the PM spoke directly to the people saying "It [the supermarket] will be there for you today, tomorrow, and the day after that. We must give time for supermarkets to restock their shelves, there will be enough for everyone if we shop normally."
Clown Car
I'm paraphrasing the list of things we purchased in that four hour shopping spree. To say we struggled to fit everything into our car - which was already basically packed full with our luggage & supplies already purchased in prior days - would be an understatement! But we were determined. Where there's a will, there's a way! We had already put down one of the back seats to buy us storage space. The girls were already comfortably squished into 2/3 of the back seat. We piled stuff into the middle - high up to the roof - and down at their feet. Sadie sat on Paige's lap (which they absolutely loved!). I had three bags of heavy groceries on my lap/feet and even Doug had stuff at his feet. We had another bag on the counsel between us in the front. Thankfully it was only a short 10 minute drive from the shopping center to the house, so we could all grin & bear it. The girls didn't stop giggling the whole way there. They were loving the theater & adventure of it all! Time to get to the house, hearts full of gratitude for having the opportunity to do all that shopping.
Crystal Cottage
We arrived to our rental home (penned "Crystal Cottage" on AirBnB) about 5:30pm. Seeing the house, stand alone amidst beautiful views and space all around, put smiles on all of our faces. It was exactly the kind of set-up we were hoping for/pictures indicated, and we all bound out of the car to check it out. Mind you, a big storm started blowing through literally minutes before we got in the car. So we pushed through the strong winds & rain to get inside.
With its windows all around, the house treats us to gorgeous mountain/hill views in every direction. It has a nice size open plan kitchen/dining/family room, and a new kitchen with modern appliances. Best part of two rooms is that they have amazing amounts of shelves and drawers to put our things. It really ticks the box on all levels. I took these couple pics after the rain had stopped and the skies started to clear:
Moving Day
The first order of business was for me & Doug to sanitize all the surfaces, light switches, door knobs, etc. in the house. The house itself was spotless, but we wanted to do a deep clean sanitization before we settled in with all our stuff. It takes a time & elbow grease!
It felt like moving day. Cleaning, unpacking, organizing/sorting, deciding where to put all your stuff in a logical way, etc. Doug & I divided and conquered. After we'd cleaned, he focused on the kitchen and I focused on getting loads of laundry in (wanted to wash all our new clothes before wearing them) and unpacking/organizing into the closets all the clothing for the four of us and other knick-knacks.
First Family Dinner
We plopped down at the table late for our first family dinner in the new NZ pad. We took turns sharing our usual "high/low" from the day. Unanimously all of our highs were related to the house, the amusing packed car ride, and the opportunity to source so many things last-minute to help us settle comfortably here for a long stretch. Very grateful.
Sidenote: Our first dinner was a yummy soba noodle, kale, carrot, chicken & sesame dish by Chef Doogie.
Loads More to Do
We ended our night (morning?) at 1:00am, working on more stuff & emailing an update to our families after the girls hit the sac at 11:00pm (yikes, need to get on a better schedule!). We made a huge dent in our first few hours at the home. We're starting to see the floor again, but we have tons more to do in the way of organizing all our food staples, "pharmacy" health/hygiene items, paper goods, etc. Things to keep us busy in the days to come :)
We lay our heads on our new "home" pillows, especially grateful that we made the last-minute decision to cancel going on that 3-day hike. We would have been out without any reception, and come back to a country already shut down and no home base locked in. Incredibly grateful.
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