Kerry folks knuckling down

We asked people from Kerry, here at home and abroad, to send us in pictures and a little information on how and where they are spending their lock-down. Here are just some of the stories you shared with us over the last few days.

KNOCKNAGOSHEL woman Sarah McDermott has been living in Queenstown in New Zealand for the past eight years – here she tells us what life is like over there currently with the country in lockdown.

ORIGINALLY from Knocknagoshel, I have been living in Queenstown, New Zealand for the last eight years with my husband, Stephen, and now two beautiful children Rayah (2) and Arlo (9 weeks).

It’s a medium-size town in a mountain region on the south island. The town has a resident population of 30,000 and about 2million visitors a year. Queenstown has been voted one of the best holiday destinations in the southern hemisphere due to having something for everyone; it has two commercial ski fields and beautiful scenery everywhere you look due to snow-capped mountains and a lake district.

It also has numerous hiking trails, bike trails, adventure tourism outlets, wineries, hotels, restaurants, cafés, hostels and plenty of pubs! You name it, you can do it here in the most visited town in New Zealand, so I think it’s fair to say that the majority of the residents living in Queenstown depend on tourism for their income and livelihoods.

Our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on March 24 that we would be going into a full lock own at 11.59pm on March 26 for a minimum of four weeks. At the time, it felt so shocking as New Zealand had very few cases and no deaths. However, on hearing stories from Italy, we were relieved that the government acted so quickly.

She said their goal was to go hard and go early, and it seems to be working. In a live announcement to the nation, she explained to us that the only services that would be open would be “essential services” such as hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, supermarkets and petrol stations. Anybody that could physically work from home were the lucky ones that got to keep their jobs. My husband, (Stephen from Birr, Offaly) is a Arborist, which meant he could not work from home, so he was granted a government subsidy. I myself am still off on maternity leave, so nothing changed for me luckily enough.

But being in the hospitality industry in a very tourist-dependant town, it is hard to know what the future holds for me in these unprecedented times. At the time of writing this, New Zealand has over 1000 cases, one death, 13 people in hospital and three in ICU.

Quarantine itself has been a bit of a surreal experience, having no cars on the roads, no planes in the sky, no tourists in town, no sounds echoing from the town and from the late night bars. In a strange way it’s kind of nice to wander around the town and not worry about having to manoeuvre around the crowds or be stuck in traffic.

We are allowed to leave our house for exercise so we take advantage of this by taking the kids for a big walk everyday and I usually get a walk in by myself and my husband a run.

Obviously there has been a lot of negativity with this pandemic, but for us there are some positives; we have never spent so much family time together, as we are now both stay-at-home parents. My husband gets to spend so much time with the kids, and I can finally get a decent night sleep as we take turns doing the night shift with our nine-week-old baby. We are in good a routine and the kids keep us super busy, so the days don’t drag. Being residents of two countries, we are always keeping a eye on both to see how they are coping. First thing in the morning we are checking The Kerryman Facebook page for daily case updates. It’s a constant worry especially being so far away from home hoping it won’t land on any of our own friends’ and families’ door steps.

We are due to come home in July for my husband’s brother’s wedding, and for our youngest child to meet his family for the first time. Tickets have been purchased, so it’s a waiting game to see how this plays out. We will have to wait and see what the future holds.

New Zealand has reacted to COVID-19 really early, and hopefully we get out of it safe and healthy sooner rather than later – and hopefully our beautiful home of Ireland will too.

Stay safe everyone and stay home, sláinte!