Singer up for fifth round of isolation
Singer Lauren Marshall is technically allowed to go outside to return to the streets of Napier.
But after four rounds of 14-day quarantine in four countries, her Hawke’s Bay-based parents have asked her to do another for good luck.
Marshall was working as a cruise ship performer when the pandemic began to sweep through her ship and around the globe. She flew into Hawke’s Bay last week and has decided to stay at Quest Napier, at least for the time being.
“It might seem a little crazy, but it’s at my family’s request,” she said.
“My parents live around a lot of elderly people and my mother is actively looking after my elderly grandparents.
“They don’t keep in good health, so it seemed right to have this extra time away and to give myself time to ease back into my freedom.
“I’ve also been in highly sanitised environments for months, so I don’t know what my immune system is like.”
The sanitised life is an understatement.
Marshall, 28, was aboard the Covid-positive Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship that was stranded for months off the coast of San Diego, unable to dock except for supplies.
She was then sent by her employers on a roundabout trip, via Barbados, to the UK. Her 14-day isolation extended to almost a month aboard the Empress of the Seas before finding flights home to Auckland, with stops in Doha and Melbourne.
Quarantine in England was the hardest: “I’d already been moved across the world twice and been promised a flight home — only to be put into a room that wasn’t as nice as the previous ones and I wasn’t even allowed out to walk . . . the only time I considered making a run for it.”
Marshall attended the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art after dabbling in everything from church singing to barbershop quartets.
“The industry is one of those where you don’t always know where you’re going, don’t always have a job, don’t always have something stable but you do it anyway.”
After auditioning for theme parks and cruise ships while living in Melbourne, Marshall got the bug for life on the sea: “And because the cruise ship lifestyle is so much fun, you end up just keeping on doing it.”
She hopes for a big break soon. “The goal is to take music and performing to the next level, but who knows how long that will take.”