Or should I say ‘Quarantine’.

We had no say in where in New Zealand that we would be placed in a quarantine hotel.

We learned once we got there that allocation of the hotels is completely random. Luckily for us, there was a hotel in Auckland that was half an hours drive from the airport that we went to.

After travelling for upwards of 30 hours, you are both physically and mentally exhausted. All I wanted to do was to eat a proper meal and sleep. After arriving at the hotel we had to wait to exit the bus as they were moving people in groups. We had to wait an equally long time in a queue outside the hotel to check in. Once we did finally get into the reception we had to provide our passports. Also our confirmed Managed Isolation Quarantine (MIQ) vouchers.

There were many hand sanitizers placed around the building and in the lifts. Once we got into our hotel room we immediately had a quick look around and then freshened ourselves up.

We had a bed, an en-suite with a shower, toilet and sink. We also had one chair, one small table and a large desk with a office chair and a TV. It leaves you with not that much space or much option if one of you is working where to sit. Often the bed was the easiest to sit on.

We were asked by staff not to go to sleep because we needed to be COVID swabbed. After being awake for many hours already, the prospect of staying awake longer was not a welcome one. We did our best to remain awake, using hot chocolate and a cup of tea as a way to boost our energy levels.

We ordered a pizza from a place called ‘Hell’ - I had a dairy free pizza and Colin had a normal one. I must say it was delicious. After a couple of hours we had our first COVID test at the hotel. The staff were quite kind with me the first time.

I remember, again becoming anxious when Colin was away from me because I couldn’t hear the nurse. She was however very nice but this time the test was more painful than the first time around in the UK. After that experience we went to bed almost straight away.

Time does not exist when you are in quarantine. Especially when you are jet-lagged. For the first week I was waking up in the middle of the night needing the toilet. Other days we were waking up as early as 4.30am on some days.

We were not allowed out of our room and there was no natural air coming in. We had aircon on 24/7 and to me, the sound is very confusing as I am convinced a tea kettle is boiling at all hours of the day. However, the fun was yet to come.

Credit to the photograph on this page goes to Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash

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