Tekapo residents get slice of lockdown history
A discussion over a socially distanced coffee has spawned a photo-book of the Tekapo community’s lockdown experiences.
Tekapo residents Chris Green and Caroll Simcox were moved into action as they talked about the Front Door Project, the national project showing people in their lockdown bubbles.
‘‘I looked at Chris, and she looked at me and said we could do something like that,’’ Craig Simcox said.
‘‘She said ‘OK, when do you want to start, how about lunchtime?’.’’
An hour and a half later, Simcox had borrowed her former photographer husband’s camera and set off around the township.
‘‘We did 40 pictures on that first day and over 21⁄2 days we did 80 photos,’’ Simcox said.
‘‘We door-stepped everybody and had 10 minutes at each place.’’
Each picture was taken in people’s gardens or near their home where they have been exercising or completing projects, she said.
‘‘There’s one with a new hen house in the background, there’s one couple I photographed in front of their playhouse because they had looked after grandchildren the whole time.
‘‘In every picture there is a wee bit of a story. It was just lovely, a joyful thing to do.’’
Simcox said the end of level 3 was the perfect time to carry out the ‘‘uplifting’’ project because everyone felt as though a burden had lifted a little, but there had also been respite in the lockdown experience.
‘‘Getting almost to the end of [lockdown] and realising how precious it had been,’’ she said.
‘‘Everybody is under the stress of businesses with income absolutely crashing through the floor but the atmosphere here was still one of ‘this is actually how we would quite like to live’.’’
The project was also an opportunity to connect with the community after weeks of distancing.
‘‘There was one older couple who said how lovely it was, they felt like they’d been remembered because Tekapo is a frenetic place most of the time and when it’s busy they feel invisible. That made us realise that it was quite a social thing to do as well,’’ Simcox said.
‘‘When we got to the end of it we just realised what a strong sense of community there was.’’
Simcox said it was only when she got home at the end of the second day that her husband pointed out she’d had the camera on manual focus the whole time.
A former graphic designer, Simcox is now half-way through compiling them for a picture book which she plans to donate to the local independent bookshop, Petronella’s Gallery and Bookstore, for people to go and look at.
The title will probably be simply Tekapo Lockdown, and it will include a short introduction to what this moment in history meant for the world and the community, she said.
‘‘It was a very simple idea, and it was carried out very simply. There was nothing complicated about it but it has been very rewarding.’’