The lockdown in objects

What will you remember about that historic time New Zealanders quarantined themselves to keep out a frightening pandemic? Nikki Macdonald asks Kiwis to choose one object that symbolises their lockdown experience.

WAVE-WRECKED CAMERA

Wellington artist Kedron Parker’s lockdown took a dramatic turn when monster waves smashed her coastal community.

The morning of the 15th was the first day of school. I spotted the early sun down on the crest of a wave and it looked really beautiful.

So I said to my son Lorenzo (he’s 11), please come for a quick walk before school starts at 9. But he was engrossed in a Lego project and didn’t want to come.

I’m studying photography part-time at Massey, so I grabbed my camera bag and headed out.

Down at the boat ramp there were people walking on the rocks, but I was much further back, using my long lens, to get shots of the waves. I sat on the fence behind the parking area

I was looking down at my camera and before I knew it I was surrounded by water. It took me down with a force and speed that is really hard to describe.

Thank goodness for that fence. I hung on as best I could and spent about a minute as wave and water and gravel and all manner of sticks and rocks swirled over and around me with incredible power. I became quite bruised from the force of it. How does water create bruises? It’s still hard for me to really understand. But it was really humbling and it was awesome, in every sense of the word.

As I walked out on to the road, people were going about their day as normal. It was so surreal, because nobody knew. I could barely walk. I was shaking and I was pretty freaked out.

I could not look at the water for some days – I was terrified. And we were in lockdown, so I couldn’t escape it. Now I’m making peace with my fear.

While I miss my camera, really the thing that defines my lockdown isn’t my camera – it’s replaceable. I would say it’s my son, who thank goodness didn’t come with me that morning. During lockdown I’ve had the most amazing special one-on-one time with him. We’ve been cooking and playing puzzles and watching and counting the birds and playing ball down at the boat ramp, which is our family place.

IPAD

Rest-home worker and former New Zealander of the Year Kristine Bartlett, above, discovered her trouble with technology increased her lockdown isolation.

When the lockdown came around I was told I can’t go back to work, because I’m 70. So I’ve been off for about six weeks now. It’s been a long time.

I’m just hopeless with technology. I do a lot of painting inside and I need some paintbrushes. I’ve just been talking to my girlfriend and she said go and click and collect. I wouldn’t have a clue how to do it. There’s a lot of people in my age group that don’t know.

I’ve been doing groceries myself. I’ve only been out about three times. I wear gloves and a mask. I go straight in, and straight out. I’ve got my hand sanitiser in the car. I know how to take off gloves and things, with infection control at work. I get home, I put everything on newspaper, wash everything down. I sanitise everything. It takes me quite a while.

I go on Google and can type in what I need to know, but anything else I don’t really know how to do it. My son keeps saying ‘‘I’ll show you’’. Initially I hadn’t the patience, I’d get so frustrated. But now I know how important it is to learn, being on your own.

When this lockdown is over, I’m really going to get my son to come and show me. That will be great. Then I can do all my shopping online if I want to.

INSTAGRAM MOTIVATION ACCOUNT

Northern Stars and Silver Fern netballer Maia Wilson, right, set up an Instagram account to help her find training motivation.

I set up a new Instagram account for the lockdown. Coming from a team sport, you don’t normally train alone, so this was something really new for me and in all honesty was actually quite scary.

So I decided setting up this page could be a strategy to not only keep myself accountable and motivated, but hopefully whoever wants to know what I’m getting up to, wants to join along, or needs some ideas of how to stay fit and healthy during this period, I felt like it was a really cool thing to do to make them feel like they can come along on this journey with me and know that there’s always going to be ups and downs of being an athlete. And there will be days where you don’t want to train, but by me posting up what I’m doing, it just sets that accountability.

I’m in a bubble of two, with one of my team-mates from the Northern Stars, so we’ve set up a makeshift gym in our garage. We’re fortunate we have the massive Bruce Pulman Park across the road, so a lot of the running sessions have been out there.

It is a bit of a nightmare and that is the mental battle. I’ve been really proud of being able to push myself to train by myself.

When the prime minister announced what level 2 would look like, I was absolutely ecstatic. There are two massive priorities in my life, netball obviously being one. To get the all clear that we can get back on court to start training to potentially come

back has been one of the best things ever. I can’t wait to get back with my team-mates.

Two is the potential of domestic travel. It has been nine weeks since I saw my partner in Wellington. Normally I would see him if not every week, every fortnight. The longest we had spent apart had been a month, so to make it already over two months has been very hard on the heart and the soul.

So the potential to see my family in Wellington in level 2 – I will be one happy girl.

SOCCER BALL

Al Noor mosque imam Gamal Fouda found lockdown gave him time to play with his children – a rarity since the mosque attacks of March 15, 2019.

I’m originally from Egypt, and Egyptians love soccer.

Unfortunately I broke my right knee in Dunedin in the final in 2008 at Otago University. Recently I started to play again.

We have in front of our house a big piece of land, sometimes I go and play there alone. I’m also naughty – sometimes I play inside the house.

During the lockdown, because I have time, I have been practising at home with the kids. They are 15, 14, 10 and 3.

We just kick the ball to each other and have fun and just enjoy it together, because it’s very important to do something with the family. Before, I didn’t have much time to see my kids and sit down with them. But now, after the lockdown, we have more time together for the first time since 15th of March.

With the mosque, during lockdown, I do something every day live online. We have a longer prayer at night, like one and a half hour, and a 15-20 minute lesson. I do a lesson every day for kids.

Hopefully at level 2 we will be able to open the mosque. We must stick to the rules strictly, to keep everyone safe.

RESCUED PENGUIN

International Antarctic Centre penguin keeper Sue Best shared her lockdown with rescued penguin Toa, who was undergoing her own quarantine.

Toa has just come out of lockdown herself. We think she’s a she – we haven’t had a DNA test done yet but she’s a little bit bossy with the other penguins, so we’re thinking a girl.

I’ve got my mum, my two cats, my horse and 17 little blue penguins in my bubble. Having Toa in quarantine, it’s been really nice. Working with animals is soothing. So she’s my lockdown girl.

Toa’s a white-flippered penguin, found on Banks Peninsula. She came to us a week before lockdown, very starving, very skinny. She had about four times of being released, but wouldn’t go back out into the ocean.

I would say she’s had a fright out at sea and that’s why she wouldn’t return.

She’s nice and chubby now. Toa had 49 days in quarantine in a room by herself, because we can’t let her out with the other penguins in case she’s got any diseases.

We have a kids’ swimming pool in there that she can go for a wee swim. We’ve not had as many penguin keepers on so we haven’t been able to spend as much time with her, so the radio has been a great help. She’s become a good singer, actually.

My colleague Becky and I have been coming in every two days throughout the lockdown, because the penguins need feeding, caring, washing. We’ve had five loads of washing every day. In the quarantine room, you’ve got about 10 towels on the floor. I’ve had the auditorium with chairs out for drying all the washing, because the drier packed up and I couldn’t get anyone out.

Toa had her last blood test last week and that came back fine, so we slowly release her out with the other penguins. They like to be social.

Now she’s good to go. My girl’s leaving home.

FARM DOGS

In peak tourist season, five packed boats a day cross the lake from Queenstown to Real

Journeys’ Walter Peak show farm. Rural manager Peter Hamilton’s lockdown has included keeping the now jobless dogs entertained.

I’ve got three dogs, all border collies – Skye, Sprite and Spree. They’re a big part of what we do here, dealing with sheep and moving them around.

We’ve been pretty flat-out in lockdown. We’re doing a lot of fencing work, with two of the other guys in my bubble, Hamish and Al, so they’ve been a real big help.

When the tourists are here we start the day looking after all the infrastructure, getting stock ready for the sheep shearing demonstrations, feeding the animals.

We still do all of that, even during lockdown, it’s just there’s no longer a boat arriving with customers on it, unfortunately.

At our peak we do five or six farm shows a day, plus the morning set up. The dogs obviously are involved with all of that, and they get ludicrous amounts of pats throughout the day.

They’re still getting lots of attention and just following us around as we do our other work. Every second day or three days we take them to a big open paddock with a nice mob of sheep and give them all a bit of work to do, keep them all entertained.

I think we’ve got 21 staff here still. Pre-lockdown we did a food order through Bidfood. It would come on either the Earnslaw or the Explorer but neither of those boats are running.

So I’ve been very lucky – I’ve got my family’s boat. We brought that in just before we went into level 4.

We boat that over to town every Wednesday and pick up food for all the staff, and any parcels. So we’ve gone from maybe five sailings a day, to one a week.

Queenstown is really strange. Because we’re still working away over here – obviously still sticking to our bubbles – it’s easier to forget what the rest of the world is up to, until we do that weekly boat trip to town and see it’s just a ghost town. It’s a bit eerie.

I’m not sure what the future holds. Hopefully a strong domestic tourism market might come back if we’re lucky and that can keep us moving.

International Antarctic Centre penguin keeper Sue Best has shared her lockdown with rescued penguin Toa, who was also in quarantine.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Kedron Parker, with son Lorenzo, 11, at the spot where she was swamped by massive waves at O¯ whiro Bay during lockdown. Her camera was destroyed.

With no tourists arriving, Walter Peak High Country Farm rural manager Peter Hamilton has spent lockdown fencing and entertaining his dogs, including Skye, pictured.

Soccer fan Gamal Fouda admits to sometimes kicking the ball around inside his home.