One

May 29,  2020

Day 69

Four nights ago I started another entry in Diary of a Pandemic but had to stop when I realised I needed to find my passport so that I could trade in my Hawaii driving license for a New Zealand one in Auckland. The trip there was going to take all day and would be very hard on our heroes. There was also an element of stress as the swap had to happen and time was running out on the window of opportunity to do so. The passport search was a comedy of errors that mirrored my search for safety glasses earlier in the week, but I ended up finding it right where I’d stashed it. Since I was up I decided to wash the the windshield inside and out again and checked that everything was shipshape in the car. When I was done with I had four hours left before we had to get up and start driving so I gave up on the half finished post and went to sleep.

The alarm went off three seconds later and we dressed, ate breakfast, packed a lunch and took off on the two-and-a-half hour drive to Auckland. The universe smiled on us not for the first time and we sailed through the convoluted social distancing requirements at the licensing agency and were given priority treatment because we had come so far. I had all the proper documents and was helped by two perfect staff members and walked out of there with a temporary license after only an hour-and-a-half of standing in line. Valerie and I celebrated by going to a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet for a late lunch. We signed the contact tracing form that all businesses have to have at their entrances, ordered a large bucket and got the hell out of Dodge.

All the way home we watched as the way narrowed and the traffic diminished until at last we turned onto the 309 Road for the last leg of the journey. Through the gates and home in the gloaming. More chicken for dinner and a load off our backs, we slept the sleep of the righteous. The next two days we celebrated by doing nothing except listening to the rain fall and watching grey curtains of mist roll down the valley from the west.

 

 

When I finally came back to earth today and checked the Ministry of Health figures I could not believe my eyes. Four days has made a huge difference in the numbers…

Zero New cases. 7 Recovered cases. Ratio of recovered cases to confirmed and probable cases (plus factoring in the 22 deaths thus far which are part of the overall ratio but have not been a part of my percentages until now) is 99.93%. One active case left and we are homing in on nine out of nine possible zeroes on the board.

 

 

It has been a long journey and while it’s nowhere close to being over, there is a certain sense of accomplishment in where we find ourselves right now. It’s going to take a while to sink in.

 

 

May you all stay safe and well. Thank you for your patience and for coming along for the ride.

 

 

Goodnight.

 

(P.S. Got the possum last night with the crossbow. He’d been having his way in the garden for a month, but no more. Rest in peace to him and a lease on life for the roses. Valerie is happy (and sad). Amazing woman. I get to take the trap out of the forecourt and pack it away until next time. Life (and death) in the forest…)