All is not OK

I do not like crowds, really; crowds, queues, dentists, you know, people in my personal space. Last week we were in Queenstown, I did not mind the one-meter rule at the airport, nor having to wear the mask on the plane, I enjoyed the space. But as we flew into Queenstown the sky was blue and the Remarks had a slight dusting of snow. I looked down to see that the carpark was full, a field of parked cars

(it was not until later did I realise that it was rental cars and campervans parked up for storage due to a lack of use). As we exited the airport it was half empty, we went to the rental car office, same again, and when we drove to our hotel in the centre of Queenstown we got a carpark directly outside. I don’t know Queenstown well, I don’t know the names of all the streets, but at one stage I stood in the middle of the road looking both ways and the only person I saw was my own reflection in a closed store window. (Admittedly it was a Monday but you get my point.) Most of the restaurants are still open but many have nobody in them. A town that survives on huge numbers of tourists is struggling. New Zealand has done amazingly well with Covid, regardless if you feel it has all been a bit draconian, we are safe, and people are happy with that. The economy seems ok, people generally seem ok. But it is not OK. New Zealand's tourism industry directly and indirectly employs almost 400,000 people, or just over 14 per cent of the workforce and it has all but gone. The loss in income due to a lack of inbound tourism is around 13 billion per year! Now this is not a rant about opening boarders and Covid being a con, far from it. Personally, I think we should stay safe; boarders should remain secure till we are sure it is safe. But I think it is important that we accept that all is not OK for everyone. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs or are now only working part time. There are thousands upon thousands of businesses that are not making any income and in fact are losing money just trying to stay open. It is so important for us to realise that some in our community are not OK, because it is easy to forget. If you have ever driven into Milford Sound then you will know the usual chaos as tourist buses and cars all head for a glimpse of this unique part of our country. Last week we flew into a completely empty carpark; there weren’t just a few buses, there were none! It was like a ghost town. I overheard someone say, ‘this is great with no crowds’, and I get how you could feel like that. But no crowds means no jobs, no income, no food on the table, and it is not like in Milford you can stop being a kayak guide and go and work in Bunnings. It will be like that throughout New Zealand; any tourist town, any tour operator, any corner dairy where people will stop to buy a pie or a fluffy kiwi. It is important for us to be so aware it’s not OK for everyone. Then what can we do about it? It is as simple as buying local; buy from your local store, stay off Ali Express, Wish and Amazon. It might cost you ten dollars more but that ten dollars might help keep a fellow Kiwi in business. Visit local this summer, don’t buy your kids another T-shirt from some overseas website for Christmas, get them an experience that will be the highlight of their summer, a memory that will last and will help sustain a business till we are back to normal. It is OK to admit that not everyone is OK, and we may not be able to fix it, but we can help. Steve Dickinson - Editor