“On a Mish” #293 Lockdown 2021. Te Anau. Southland. Aotearoa. 24.8.2021. One day in the future the sun will set on the ‘Covid Era’, and then we can all enjoy the sunrise of a new world post virus. On the night of the 17th of August I had my bag packed ready for a mish. I was planning on a camping trip up in the recent snowfall, and just as I was getting the food ready my phone burst into life with the news that nobody is going anywhere for at least a week. One week down, and as we wait to see whether our lockdown will continue, I am reminded about our last / first lockdown back in March 2020…
Living in a tourist town and working in tourism doesn’t seem to fit into Covid’s plans. However, I am stoked to be “enjoying” this lockdown from the comfort of my own home in Te Anau. Last lockdown was only a couple of months after my fridge accident, and a series of circumstances led to me spending not only the five weeks of lockdown up in Christchurch, but a total of around 13 months. I headed up to Christchurch for a CT Scan and a MRI Scan just before the start of lockdown, and I would have to wait an extra 2 months before I could even go see the doctor. This time is much different, as now my hip is a lot better, and as I said I am down in Te Anau. Last lockdown my house was full with Real Journeys refugees, as many of my workmates had literally nowhere to go for the five weeks of lockdown. This time around I am in a bubble of just me, myself and I, and I have done whatever I could do to fill in the time. Whether it be in the garden or sorting out a pile of forgotten items stuffed into a drawer, I have been kept busy with odd jobs. Strangely I find gardening much more taxing on my broken body than hiking. The bending down and twisting plays havoc on my buggered hip. But with the lockdown, I can have little goes at each section of my garden, and as the week has progressed I have managed to de-weed the whole thing!
I am hoping for a level change soon, as there is only so much gardening I can do before I will need a real adventure into the outdoors. Thankfully I have NzHikes.co.nz, and this has filled in the times when I have either been too sore to garden or the weather hasn’t been favourable. Reliving all of the adventures into the wilderness that I have enjoyed is a really good escape from the very difficult world we all find ourselves in at the moment. The most frustrating thing I believe for us living in Te Anau is having some of the most pristine back country on the planet and not being able to go see it. At least when I was in Christchurch the wilderness was very far away, here it is just across the lake. Fortunately, the stunning landscape isn’t going anywhere, and we will make sure it stays that way for when tourists can return. No matter what happens we WILL all get through this, and then the world can go back to ‘normal’. I am a big fan of the expression “Effort is met with reward”, and for all the effort the world is putting in to be rid of this crappy virus, the reward is going to be exceptional….
