Bay family happy to be home at last
Road blocks, border checks and police hold ups may sound like something off a movie set, but for Ana Wilkinson-Gee and her family this was real life lived in real time.
The Hawke’s Bay family came home from rural India last week, touching down in Auckland on Thursday evening after a fourday journey home.
“These next 14 days in the soft safe bubble of isolation in Auckland are giving us time to reflect and process the mammoth journey that we’ve just undertaken,” Ana says.
Ana, husband Daniel and their three children moved to India more than 10 years ago where they run a sewing school, teaching women to sew. This enterprise has lifted hundreds of families out of poverty over the years. Their clothing sells online and in New Zealand stores, with one of their collections shown at New Zealand Fashion Week last year.
The family’s planned trip home for the school holidays was cancelled due to Covid-19 and life in India left the family in a precarious position. They were initially denied repatriation flights but were eventually accepted on a flight organised by a New Zealand and Australian collaboration. The first leg of the journey from their rural village felt the longest and the riskiest.
“The a 15-hour car ride to Kolkata took over 16 hours. We got delayed by police for over an hour at one check point, as they refused to accept our government provided documents of evacuation and permission to drive to Kolkata during lockdown.”
Ana says their driver worked hard trying to convince police their travels were government authorised and initiated, but the police kept telling him they would not let them through.
“We were being told to go back the way we came. My husband got on the phone to the New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi and the Australian Consulate in Kolkata who had arranged our evacuation. They were extremely helpful and immediately pinpointed our location, checked our safety and got to work to get us through the road block.” Ana says after an hour of being blocked, the police received a phone call from their superior instructing them to allow the family to pass.
“There were big sighs of relief. We clapped and cheered for our driver and our heroes at the New Zealand High Commission and Australian Consulate General as we watched the road block and disgruntled police get smaller in our rear view mirror.”
The state border crossing and changing of vehicles at the West Bengal border went smoothly, under a light drizzle of rain and threatening thunderstorm clouds.
“When we reached the designated hotel in Kolkata, we were greeted by Daniel from the Australian Consulate, along with other people they were helping to get on the evacuation flight the next day. It was very comforting and very well organised. They fed us dinner and we had a great sleep in preparation for the next three days’ journey, which only included three hours’ sleep in Sydney during the next 57 hours.”
Ana says a particularly memorable moment of the ordeal was when they finally boarded the flight to depart Kolkata.
“After weeks of being ready and applying for repatriation flights, getting hopes high and heads ready and then being declined, then finding out the Australians could indeed navigate local terrain and extract us — after successfully passing health checks and a long nervous wait for boarding passes, we finally boarded the plane.”
Ana says as she found her seat and buckled up, it started to feel real.
“Then the Captain welcomed us aboard and concluded his announcement with, ‘We’re going to take you home’. Tears of relief and gratitude welled up in my eyes and I finally believed that I was indeed leaving my beloved India.”
After touch down in Auckland, Ana says passengers erupted into clapping, yet as the tyres hit the runway, the tears began to flow.
“I suddenly felt so far away from the ladies in the village, who I feel so close to and so protective of. At the same time I felt so incredibly relieved as if I’d been subconsciously holding my breath for months and overwhelmed with gratitude to everyone who has helped get us here to safety.”
The family is using these two weeks in quarantine to catch up on sleep, process their experience, “debrief and exhale”.
“The staff here at the hotel have been so kind to us. They have a holistic approach and acknowledge the need for good physical and mental health. We are finding them very supportive and think they are doing an amazing job.”
Coming from an Indian 40+ degree summer, Ana says they were unprepared for the temperature drop.
“They have kindly supplied me and the kids with sweatshirts from their lost property, all washed fresh and fluffy.”
She says there are very understandable restrictions around their movements and interactions.
“We can sign up on the roster to go for a walk outside with security/chaperones who monitor that we maintain 2m physical distancing. Some of these chaperones are usually security staff at the airport, but they are here doing this, helping to keep New Zealand safe and we respect that and are complying fully with all requirements, feeling grateful in our hearts to be here where we are safest at this crazy time.”
Ana says she has stopped jumping at the sound of a car door closing, which began after her husband was taken away by a police entourage late one night to be tested for Covid-19.