Domestic travels in New Zealand while on level 1

Auckland City waterfront, vinneve

I am happy to announce that we are covid free now here in New Zealand!! This is also in response to WOTD: Victory We are now on level 1 and it may stay like this for awhile, restrictions still in place. Personally, I prefer it this way to protect our safety so I am not keen of opening the border, although there are some citizens and residents (repatriation) coming home from overseas and they may bring the virus with them so they are required for a 14 day quarantine. It took 5 million people, a big team effort to do this as when we were on lockdown we cooperated and only going out to buy essentials like food. Though of course anywhere in the world there may be some silly people (not a lot here) still goes out that time to do silly things but they are being apprehended by the police and given a penalty depends on their situation/alibis. FUN FACT. Normal police officers here in NZ doesn’t carry any firearms. They carry confidence, kindness and diplomacy.

Since we are now on level 1 the government is pushing domestic travels to help our economy and communities. Buy NZ Made. Buy local products which mostly people are doing right now including me. Both Jetstar and Air New Zealand are having their sale these past couple of weeks and it has been sold out faster! I use our voucher/coupon to redeem and bought tickets to Christchurch finally! Looking forward to it. So for now we are talking about domestic travels and here’s the following information thru personal experiences from other bloggers who went here in NZ before the pandemic. Please click their link, and they have some amazing photos to show you while traveling around New Zealand.

Before you travel to any country or even if you were stranded here in New Zealand it is a MUST for your own sake to have your own travel insurance. Though our healthcare system helped this young tourist as per this link >> “How NZ generous healthcare system saved my ass”

Birds eyeview Queenstown in gondola, vinneve

No pain no gain. So yes there was a time that New Zealand looks more like this. Here is the link for “When Paradise in New Zealand becomes a ghost town”.

Auckland Sky Tower, vinneve

Here above is the response for the June Photo of the Day: REFLECTIONS.

For sure people are now thinking of reuniting / partying with their friends and families more than a group of ten since it is now permitted. It may not be the same as before but this new normal surely will stay for quite awhile. So we better adapt to it and accept all the challenges in life. Stay safe peeps!

UPDATE: We suddenly not a covid free country anymore (just of today’s news June 16th) because of 2 female citizens/residents coming from the UK and testing positive for covid but for some reason was given a COMPASSIONATE GROUNDS to drive to Wellington (from Auckland) to attend a funeral of their parents. Shall we understand this or not?!! For goodness sake! we suffered in lockdowns and up to level 3 to becoming covid free for 3 weeks and the communities all over the country cooperated and because of this hindsight WE ARE AGAIN IN TROUBLE. Why? simple. Driving from Auckland to Wellington is 8 long hours Non Stop! I do not believe they didn’t even stop to pee, eat or put on gas that is simply lying. Those people who doesn’t know that they served these women are now at risk even their loved ones! So is this harmless? NO. I cannot understand why there is compassionate grounds at all since those people who died because of covid-19 didn’t even had the chance to see their loved ones. I am so annoyed with this news. It is unbelievable and I put the blame on the health department who didn’t think twice about this compassionate grounds. That is plain stupidity if I may say so! Sorry for the outburst but we will know within this week or so if there are people at risk now because of this. Our sacrifices (life, jobs, businesses, etc) and cooperations are now put in the drain.