2020 Brave New World. Lockdown Eve.

I haven't written in this blog yet this year, but if ever there was a time to start, it's now, on the eve of an unprecedented event in the history of New Zealand.

At midnight tonight, the 25 March 2020, NZ goes into a complete lockdown due to the COVID-19 epidemic. We've declared a national state of emergency. No one is to leave their house except for essential trips.  As a midwife I'm considered an essential service so I will still be going to work, as will other healthcare providers, pharmacists, grocery store workers, petrol stations, vets, police, emergency service workers and a few others.

So, I'm going to blog every day during lockdown. Why the heck not? It'll give me something to do and to look forward to, and it will be interesting to look back on in years to come.

Today I got up early and got two new tyres for my car. Why so early? The tyre man opened at 7am and I wanted to make sure I got in and out before any other people turned up. I'm a healthcare worker, I know what we could be in for, so I'm practicing distancing as much as possible already. But I'll still need to drive to work for the next month and those tyres were essential.

Then I went for a sunrise walk on the beach and admired the view. Not a bad place to isolate yourself, out on your boat, miles from anyone else.

After the Storm

And as suddenly as Wilma arrived, she has gone.  This morning is bright and clear and still.  The water is reduced from torrents to trickles.  I plugged in the freezer and she beeped cheerily at me and started up.  Phew.

I would have been really upset to lose a freezer full of food.  On top it has six homegrown roosters that we harvested the other day.  It has our rabbits, chicken stock, homegrown beef, wild pork, duck, homegrown veges......it's our frozen store cupboard that we could live out of for weeks. 

When we bought a big chest freezer we made the decision to spend a little extra and get a Vestfrost and we've never regretted it.  You can see how thick the insulation on it is, it makes it very economical to run.  It has a viewable thermostat and usually it runs at -18 degrees Celsius, this morning when I plugged it back in, it was sitting at -12.  Still absolutely solid frozen even after at least 15 hours with no power. 

I was contemplating a morning of squeezing, rearranging and giving away.  Now I'm breathing a sigh of relief and am grateful that I don't have to.  Instead, we will be working out a plan to clear behind our house.  With having our sewerage system installed there, using it as a storage area for miscellaneous junk and letting it get overgrown, we almost lost a valuable appliance and the food stored within.  It's time to get prepared for next time.