Tourists’ lucky lockdown in NZ
More than 50,000 tourists are hunkering down in New Zealand — only 3000 left the country after lockdown ended.
Immigration New Zealand figures released to the Herald on Sunday show, as of May 27, 53,244 temporary visitors were in the country, excluding Australians.
These were people in New Zealand on a visitor visa, which allows them to stay for up to nine months but does not allow them to work. The figure also includes people travelling to New Zealand on a visa waiver agreement. The number is about 20,000 fewer than the same time last year.
United States couple Brooke and Buddy, who did not want their surnames used, are two of the 50,000 who stayed in New Zealand to weather the coronavirus storm.
A major factor in their decision to stay was their fears America could not adequately handle the pandemic — fears that have proven true as the US became the world’s epicentre for the virus. Numbers of confirmed cases in the States are nearing 2 million, and the country recently reached a sobering milestone of 100,000 deaths related to the disease.
Brooke and Buddy, who sheltered near Dunedin during level 4, said they were “lucky” to be in New Zealand when the shutdowns began.
“We’ve been travelling full-time for three years,” said Brooke, who explained their trip to New Zealand was supposed to finish at the end of April.
As lockdown approached and Covid-19 spread across the globe, the couple made the decision to stay put.
“We knew the healthcare system [in America] wasn’t prepared for that.”
They did not feel “stuck” in New Zealand, but did struggle knowing it could be a long time before they returned home.
“You kind of have that in the back of your head that if something big happens and someone needs you, you might not make it back in time, and that’s just a sacrifice you make.”
But even during the height of the lockdown here, strangers on the street would wave and smile.
“We’ve realised how lucky we are to be in New Zealand during all of this, which the whole world has looked at as probably the best place you could be.”
The number of tourists in the country has dropped by 30,000 since the beginning of the lockdown.
On March 27, two days after level 4 began, Immigration NZ recorded 82,281 temporary visitors as being in the country. This was compared to 134,824 on the same day last year.
By April 27, the number had fallen to 56,224, half as many people as the same time in 2019.
Brooke and Buddy are unsure what the future holds for them when their visas expire this year, but they have tentative plans to head to Hawaii so they can at least be on US soil.
We’ve realised how lucky we are to be in New Zealand during all of this.