Life lessons from lockdown

What did you learn in lockdown? Here are your stories.

At 11.59pm on March 26, New Zealand went into a nationwide lockdown to fight Covid-19. We stayed home to save lives. Tomorrow morning, we wake up at Level 3. Our lives are still severely restricted, but we are looking to the future - and reflecting on the phenomenal effort this whanau of five million made. Last week, we asked our readers and listeners to what they’d learned about themselves and their world at level 4. Many thousands of words poured in. It is clear the past five weeks have not been easy. We’ve been scared, tired and stressed. But we’ve also loved the silence, the time we’ve spent with our kids and partners, the opportunity to slow down and take stock. Here are some of your reflections from life in lockdown.

Home schooling is frightening. I am NEVER attempting school again.

I really like fishing.

Brian

I really don't miss junk food like I thought I would.

Charmaine

My passion for beer and junk food is a real lifesaver!!

Aaron

Chrisjan

I hate cooking more than I hate being stuck in peak hour traffic.

Kristin, 36

Talking to a baby via Zoom will make your heart light up.

Kirsty

I met this lady at the start of lockdown, that’s now permanently at my house. I’ve learnt that she is my wife and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice she is!

Heinrich

I have rediscovered the power of music to lift mood . . . I didn’t sleep at all well in the first couple of weeks and listening to music in the evenings completely turned that around. Gosh 70’s pop is wonderful!

Theresa

My four-year- old really does have feelings like adults. She'd tell me how

I've been doing a small painting every two-three days picturing only what I can see in my neighbourhood and around my home. My main aim was to bring the familiar into a new light and show the beauty around us if we look for it.

Roseanne Croucher, Hamilton

much she misses her grandparents. She'd ask me why no one wanted to see us any more. I told her the world is feeling a bit unwell and we have to all stay home until it gets better. Now, when she eats her vegetables she tells me she will get really tall and strong so she can make everyone better. And then we can go outside again and see the whole wide world.

Afifa

Not all things in this world can be bought by money, sometimes it needs our patience and kindness to save lives.

Michael

When it's a matter of life or death for some, life wins every time & it doesn't matter how young or old they are, you cannot swap a life for $. @Suzyjam

I learnt how to play Falling by Harry Styles on the piano

Rui-Yi Ong, 13

Running is awful, berry cider is good, setting yourself up to work comfortably from home is expensive, and homemade burgers just aren’t the same. @Nightwyrm

How much the disability community needs to shout to be heard. @grabyourwheels

Most of what I normally buy, I don't really need, and what I really need I can't buy anyway - Kevin, 56

The social awkwardness that will come when you tell people you’re pregnant after the lockdown, with everyone calling your baby a Corona baby behind your back.

Anon

We finally got a very much needed rest and were able to really enjoy our family time without interferences or being guilt-tripped into feeling the obligation to meet up with our extended families and friends.

We will never again have this “stayhomecation”.

Anon

Bring on electric cars and ask yourself whether you really need to board a plane to attend that business meeting?

Kris, 53

Second week into lockdown and my brother and I had run out of small talk. It was time to face and talk about some hard truths that often we as Kiwi blokes don’t want to acknowledge or we sweep under the carpet thinking that ‘ feelings’ or emotions’ might make us look weak. I found in this mess we’ve come to know as Lockdown, you’ve got a lot of time. Time to reflect. Time to think. Time to talk. I won’t lie, there were a lot of tears that came out that second week of lockdown as my brother and I sought to deal with the past that I was so desperately trying to suppress . . . It was as if we had slayed this Goliath that had stood in front of the future with the simple weapon of talking.

Dylan

Appreciate more, complain less. We are safe in our homes. What about people who don't have a home?

Some don't have a fridge or r a pantry to say "what can I eat?" This thought should be with us all times even if we aren't in lockdown.

Nasreen

It took all the skill in the world to maintain the extramarital affair.

Anon

A huge shout out to all the volunteers monitoring Waitangi during lockdown. It has been reassuring to know these people have been totally committed to keeping our area safe and Covid-19 free.

Jaydee

Level 4 for me was about seeing families already overwhelmed with health, housing and financial issues explode in the amount of distress they are under.

Andrew

Now my two daughters, aged 5 and 8, never hesitate to say ‘ I love you Dad’. Since the lockdown I have spent so much time with them alone at home (while their mother went to work at the local medical centre). Getting to know them, talking to them, having lunch with them, inventing and playing games, watching birds, running in the backyard, having sleepovers with them (my favourite, having ice cream with them in bed) . . . so easy to find joy in your life.

Aarif

I need more winter leisure wear clothes. I’m really, really glad I bought a proper little barista machine with grinder before the lock down. I miss my Mum and Dad.

Petra

Alone, not lonely. We are not the first generation to endure a lockdown but our circumstances make it a great deal easier to endure than in earlier times. We live in a time of easy communication, when we can correspond instantly with family and friends wherever they are to share our experiences and opinions. I am giving myself permission to take the time to read, go on virtual sunrise and sunset safari rides, notice dewdrops on fallen autumn leaves and watch the lemons on my tree slowly ripen . . . There is a calmness and acceptance of the situation, and confidence that our resilience and determination will prevail as experts collaborate across the globe to make a vaccine available to us all.

Helen

I took this photo driving home on the first weekend of Level 4 lockdown, after working a night shift in the Emergency Department at Auckland City Hospital . . . the dawning of a new day, with its beautiful far reaching rays, signified hope for our future.

Patricia

I decided to really enjoy spending time with my daughters. So we have had a fashion show, a beauty spa, have camped in the yard, played hide and seek, made a lot of crafts, and I taught my little girl (aged five) how to ride a bike without training wheels too! My 15-year-old and I decided to write a novel together, a post apocalyptic dystopian novel loosely based on recent events . . . what a great opportunity to bond with my girls .

Kimberly Harpur

For the first time in 45 years of marriage, we had time to spend together without the social interaction of others. We walked, read and cycled. We had perhaps a little more wine than we should have but at our age, who cares!

Trish

Golf courses are beautiful places to go for a walk. How could they be opened up to the public more for walking after lockdown?

Anon

I see my supermarket trips very differently now. It’s ok to wait a little longer in the line — we are all in this

together! The world is going through this together and I don’t want to be the reason another human feels sad. It’s hard to admit, but before the Coronavirus, I only really cared about the feelings of my immediate bubble and less about strangers.

Cheryl

I learned that I really hate my job now. After 34 years of flogging my body in the construction industry chasing the almighty dollar for me and developers I’ve had enough. I’ve taken this time to focus on me and my children, applied for jobs out of the industry and my body feels great and my mind is uncluttered. I'm so looking forward to a better, slower future.

Anon

I sobbed my guts out when it became obvious we were going into lockdown! I felt so sad, so sad for the world. But on reflection, life in our bubble has been glorious. Time has been the thing, time to pickle gherkins and chillies, time to play chess with my husband, time for exercise. Just time to be - Judith Bucket lists are for the greedy and entitled. Live in the present - it is a gift and all we can be sure we will have.

April, 57

Silence, what an unexpected gift from this lockdown. But it is not silence, as the songs of the birds become important and beautiful, the happy chatter of children playing in their garden nearby, an awareness of what is happening, even if it is hearing the rubbish truck in the next street means getting the bins out in time . . . I am at peace with the world but I am lucky, I no longer work so losing my job is not a worry, I live in my own home, so losing my home is not a worry. I do feel concern for the young and the world they are inheriting.

Tricia, 70

I learned that God put people in our life for a reason and some people are there for a season and we have to know when people’s season is over and we must let them go.

Anon

I’ve been going to church in my home office! Lovely to see 30 – 35 of my friends and join in stimulating discussion with them on a Sunday morning without the one hour return trip drive.

Sylvia

How much money we can save by not going outside.

Andy

I lost my mother, not to Covid-19, but to natural causes during the first week of lockdown. Not being able to say goodbye or to hold her tormented me. Organising a funeral with certain criteria to be met, I totally felt alone. I needed my extended family, I needed counselling, I needed to fulfil my mother’s last rites. Normally, it would be a three day tangi at a Marae, then burial. Instead it was a very small service held in the chapel, with just a bubble of five and a live video feed . . . What have I learnt about this Covid-19 whilst in lockdown? That it is what it is, and we do what it is necessary to do in these strict times. And we reflect on those that are less fortunate, and share what is common ground, with a nation, with the world, and hope that we all live to live another day.

In the beginning of lock down I found myself scared of the unknown but now I feel like I am breathing and taking time to enjoy life. And yip, I have made bread too!

Louise

I’m no Kiwi, just an Indian international student here at the Waikato University busy enjoying her international student life. But I too am proud to be one among the five million who stood inside and saved lives.

Being a parent is much more important than working.

Maria

Anj, 30

Doesn’t matter what job you do or how much money you have. We are all mortal. And if you have a good soul? You’ll be sweet . . . We are all are feeling the same, here and across the world. We all are flying by the seat of our pants. And we all need to get back to the basics of life.

We have to keep on being kind.

Sarah

Leon

We all travel overseas too much and a simple life is better.

Leanne

I have listened to fantastic podcasts from many different churches. I have learned to use Zoom. One of the best parts of each day has been foraging autumn’s bounty — mushrooms, chestnuts, walnuts, apples, feijoas and guavas.

Judy

Chrissy

Not being able to hug my grandies!! Facetime is a joy to be treasured. To hear the phone beep each night is the highlight of our days.

Raewyn, 73

I really dislike my MIL and that we needed to move out ASAP. Anon

No one is more powerful than nature.

Japneet

I learned the value of the simple life, being with my family, enjoying exercising together, walking and riding bikes in our beautiful country.

Laura, 43

Individually, and as a nation, “we” became more important than “me”.

Andrew Herbert

Now is not the time to explore the winding track in the bush along the very edge of the stream in the gully behind your house, especially late in the afternoon. It is possible to clamber up a steep bank, climb a fence, run through someone’s property to make an escape to the road, and then hope you don’t appear on the local Facebook page as “who knows this person seen running through my property at dusk?”

Cherie

It’s killing me not being able to hug my friends. The first thing I’m doing when we can come away from social distancing, is give my friends lots of long hugs. Yes, it could possibly be awkward but I don’t care because I love them and miss them so much.

Julie, 49

I learned the advantage of buying a monster urban section that is now a private island among the tiny plots. No end to the chores and still apples to pick and fuyu [persimmon] the size of pears.

Neil

A guy walking his kids said he’s finally getting to really live in the house he’s slogging to pay the mortgage on. They use every square inch for picnic spots, huts, wigwams, family dinners, dance, and outdoor movie screenings . . . I’ve eaten everything that’s been hanging around the pantry. Cleared out my drawers and used every bit of soap and moisturiser in my bathroom. I really don’t want to hoard anything ever again . . . I love New Zealand and will be happy to holiday in my own country forever if need be. It will be good to get a break from my husband and his endless YouTube music though.

Jill

Our son, Benji, received a life saving liver transplant from my husband six months ago . . . so many people have no idea how good they have it. People complaining about not having access to takeaways, or the park, or the beach, or the mall or shopping. Complaining about the lines, or the rules, the checkpoints and the testing. I spent the last month in our home away from home, surrounded by other families who have critically ill children. Where the ‘outside’ world ceases to exist, you live in a new bubble. One where you just want your child to be okay. I know it ’s hard and scary at the moment. And it is SO hard being away from our loved ones. But when you are with children who are fighting for life every day, everything becomes a bit clearer. Our nurses, doctors and hospital staff are incredible . . . I’m very proud of our healthcare system.

Ashleigh

That I’m not the only one feeling some or all of these things. I am grateful for their contact, kind words, banter, and compassion. So what have I learnt? The true meaning of: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. The most important thing in the world is people.

Sheryl

Homemade masks don't look like bought ones. The neighbour's cat is a regular visitor and is good for long conversations. Our son and daughter-in-law have made us feel very loved and have done all our shopping. Husbands are sad when there is no sport on TV.

Sheryl and Brian Farmiloe