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Andrew Dickens: New Zealand snapped yesterday over virus restrictions

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Sun, 10 May 2020, 10:24AM
An image from One News yesterday highlighting the crowds. (Photo / TVNZ)

Andrew Dickens: New Zealand snapped yesterday over virus restrictions

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Sun, 10 May 2020, 10:24AM

Happy Mothers Day.  The most extraordinary Mothers Day.  If your Mum is in your bubble, then what a lucky Mum.

But you know, I get the feeling that bubbles will count for nothing today after the country’s performance yesterday.

I knew something was up from the first thing in the morning.  Popping out to the letterbox to get the paper around 8am, I stopped In my tracks.  Something was different.  I couldn’t see anything.  But then I twigged.  For the first time in 2 months, I heard the low rumble of distant traffic.

People were on the move.

Two hours later as we took the dog for a walk to the beach we saw where everyone had gone.  To our suburb.  The roads were lined with parked cars.  Cafes had queues of 10 or more.  The beach was packed and bubbles were being popped all over the place

I saw some friends talking to some fella.  They introduced me and the bloke stepped forward with his hand outstretched.  I stared at the hand and then back at him in shock and he twigged.

From that moment on as I walked the beach, I could see handshakes all over the place It was like little alarm bells firing all around me.  I started thinking that all these people might as well go up and spit in each other’s mouths and get it all over and done with.

Later in the day, other friends admitted that they had met a mate on the road who then came back to their place for some soup. Then the TV news confirmed that it had been happening all over the country wherever it was a nice day.

We snapped yesterday.  I think we saw the two New Zealand’s of the future.  One will continue social distancing and washing their hands.  The other can’t wait to hug, hongi and handshake.

Which goes to tomorrow’s decision. The expectation and enthusiasm built to such a degree yesterday that our leaders will almost certainly proclaim Level 2 tomorrow.  To not do so would be to incite mass civil disobedience. 

Ashley and Siouxsie will argue it’s a bad idea but the Prime Minister will use it to reassert her sway over the country and demonstrate her independence from the Director-General of Public Health. It’ll be her little Mother Day present to us all.  A day late.

And so we are coming to the end days of the most extraordinary battle of our generation.  And it was an extraordinary battle because the call to action was to enact inaction.  We have a big threat to fight so we want you to do nothing.  Nothing at all.  Which is what made it at times enjoyable.

There’s so much I will miss about the lockdown.  Particularly the early days when the weather was still warm and before the virus masters banned swimming. The slow mornings with a coffee and the paper in bed.  I mean, what’s the hurry?

The slow-cooked dinners because, again, what’s the hurry. Cheap slabs of meat slowly melting for hours in a warm oven. The house smelling of herbs and yumminess to come. 

The ghost buses. I never saw a single passenger in a single one.  There were two types of drivers.  The tourists slowly poodling along their route taking in the sights being out and about.  Then there were the Walter Mittys who drove the bus like Lewis Hamilton drives his Mercedes.  Who knows what race they were winning in their mind.

The bike rides and the random rambles around my home suburb discovering nooks and crannies I never knew were there.  The other day I discovered a little cove.  It’s name was, wait for it, Secret Cove.

For the first time in three years, my entire family lived together under one roof. Happily. With little intrapersonal tension.  We were angry at the world but not at each other.

Our upstairs neighbour took our photo yesterday as a memento of the crazy two months of 2020. She told us how amazed she was that she never heard one fight, one disagreement.  Unlike the family over the fence who have a barney every second day.

Lockdown with Helen, Jack, Ben and Saffi was lovely.  But I am glad to be seeing the end of it.

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