Grandson funeral ordeal
Coast woman desperate for release from NZ isolation to attend service
A GRIEF-stricken Gold Coast grandmother stuck in hotel quarantine in New Zealand is anxiously waiting to hear if she can attend the Friday funeral of her only grandchild who died tragically on January 1.
Va Tuala, of Pacific Pines, learned on New Year’s Day that her beloved grandson Myka Tuala died in a head-on car crash on New Zealand’s North Island, just a month short of his seventh birthday.
“When my son told me to go home from a barbecue
because he had some bad news I ran through every scenario in my head but not for one second did I think something would happen to my darling Myka,” the 53-year-old said.
“Not my grandson, my only grandchild. It’s so devastating and so sad. He was so little and had so much life and potential head of him.
“Always with a smile on his face, he was such a lovely boy, so clever and full of laughter.
“He would laugh and the way he laughed would make you start laughing too. He also loved science, dinosaurs and constellations.”
Myka, who was born on the Gold Coast, lived with this parents in Wellington but was on holiday in Northland, where he usually went for the school holidays, when he was killed.
The last time Mrs Tuala saw her grandson in person was in 2019 before COVID restrictions shut down borders.
She said she applied for an exemption from NZ’s managed isolation on compassionate grounds but was refused.
She applied for a voucher through the managed isolation allocation system, an online portal for everyone travelling to NZ, to secure a spot in hotel isolation but found there were no entry vouchers available until March.
“But then a friend helped me get one by constantly refreshing the website until a spot became available because often those who have vouchers can’t travel for whatever reason,” Mrs Tuala said.
Despite only being in quarantine since January 8, Mrs Tuala, her daughter and Myka’s grandfather have applied for an early discharge to attend Myka’s funeral in Wellington on Friday.
“We hope that because there’s no community transmission on the Gold Coast, we have returned negative COVID tests and we took every precaution not to leave our house since we found out about Myka, except to get a medical certificate for my work, that we’ll be allowed out,” she said.
A friend has set up a Go Fund Me account named RIP Mokopuna Myka Tuala.
Janice Aldridge said Mrs Tuala would likely be out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars once she paid for the cost of emergency flights, quarantine, travel expenses and the possibility she may have to quarantine in Queensland upon her return if the COVID situation changes.