Month: April 2020

I’ve flown into Auckland airport more times than I can count. But I’ve never experienced anything like I did flying in today.

The date is April 25th. The year, 2020. The year everyone’s already written off. The last year with any “B.C.” dates – before corona. After this, after corona (if anyone can imagine such a thing), things will be different. How? Nobody knows yet.

But here we are, all of us, stuck in the middle of it. A time after the before times but before the after times. And here I am. In a hotel at the Auckland airport, placed here in “managed isolation” by the government.

I flew in this evening, on Air New Zealand flight 104, from Sydney. My journey home started before today though. I was originally scheduled to fly home on the 28th of March, on Air New Zealand flight 938 departing from the Gold Coast. I was visiting an old friend in Northern NSW for a few days and the Gold Coast airport was the closest one to her.

Those “few days” extended to a full month when my flight was cancelled, followed by the QLD/NSW border closing, making a departure from the Gold Coast impossible. My friend and her husband (and two little ones) generously told me I could stay as long as I needed. They made me feel right at home and we established a living routine that worked well for all of us. Part of that routine, for me, was checking to see if the border had been opened again yet.

Or, at least, making Google check to see if the border had been opened again yet.

As you might’ve guessed, that border is still closed. Eventually, I started looking for other solutions and purchased a ticket on an overnight bus service that travels from Casino, a rural town in Northern NSW, all the way to Sydney Central.

It was a nice, new, full-sized coach and the driver was friendly and good-natured, even bringing along individually-packaged Arnott’s biscuits for us to enjoy with tea and coffee on the six or so stops we had along the way. We started with just four passengers and picked up another four along the way, leaving plenty of room for social distancing.

Upon arrival at Sydney Central, I took a taxi the rest of the way to the airport and found… a scene unlike one I’d ever encountered before. Sydney’s international terminal normally sees almost 17 million passengers each year. That’s an average of almost 42,000 per day. Today, the terminal was all but empty.

I arrived early, thanks to the complete lack of traffic on the roads. Air New Zealand’s check-in counters were still closed. They only had the one flight going out today and it wasn’t due to leave for over four hours. Three hours before the flight though, the counters opened up, staffed by attendants displaying the same cheerful and steady demeanour I’ve grown used to over a lifetime of flying with the airline.

Their smiles shone through their masks as their gloved hands skilfully attached the tags to our bags for us. They used sanitiser in between each passenger. Our part as passengers was to stand back from the check in counters and to place our own tagged bags on a large trolley for the baggage handlers.

Going through security was the same as usual, except that we had to stay spaced apart and one of the security officers was disinfecting every plastic tray after we used them. Boarding the plane was also pretty much business as usual apart from the spacing.

As our flight was the only one leaving at that time, I was struck with a powerful sense of gratitude for all of the work the airport and airline staff were doing. For this hour on this day, they were serving us and only us. My attention was drawn to the expert way each staff member performed his or her role. One officer directed us into even queues, another helped people figure out if their bottle of sanitiser was too big to take on the plane, and the officer cleaning the trays did it with care and thoroughness.

If I were a better writer this would probably be a good spot to write something profound about how touching it is when humanity unites. Maybe something about how we’re all so dependent on each other that humanity only works when we all pull together. You’ll just have to imagine I’m a brilliant writer and I just made a very poignant point something along those lines.

Anyway. We boarded the flight in small groups, lining up with 2 metres between each “bubble”. Some of us, myself included, were informed that our seats had been reassigned to maximise social distancing. Economy had a 3-3-3 configuration, so they arranged us such that each “bubble” had a trio of seats. Most “bubbles” were couples or singles like me, fellow stragglers in the race to get home.

The flight passed smoothly and without incident. There were some extra announcements relating to the virus and the arrival cards we were given were newly designed to include a section assessing our risk of carrying Covid-19.

Upon landing, we were told the plane would disembark in groups of 15. We were to stay seated until we were told we could move. I was near the back of the plane so I was in the last group. The crew waited to say goodbye to all of us and then we were in the hands of Auckland airport staff. Someone was at every corner, helping guide us in the right direction.

When we reached the tomokanga, the carved gateway that tells me I’m home, I smiled and released a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding. I love that damn gateway. It’s welcomed me home so many times. According to the Auckland airport website, “the carving symbolises a spiritual portal from one realm to another, a journey from the dark (the outside world) into the light (world of the living).”

It’s never felt more like a portal into the light than it did today. I couldn’t be prouder of the job our team of 5 million has done. Our leadership has set an example that is the envy of the rest of the world. It feels so good to be back.

Oops, I’m getting dangerously close to being sentimental again. Moving on.

After passing through the tomokanga, we were organised into three lines, each of which led to a masked officer who asked us questions about our health, took our temperature, and, depending on our answers, explained what the next 14 days would look like for us. Some would be put in quarantine, some in managed isolation. To decide who goes where, they seemed to be mainly concerned about three things:

1. Did you have a temperature?
2. Do you have any symptoms consistent with Covid-19 or have you had any such symptoms in the past month?
3. Have you been around anybody who’s been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past month?

As far as I could tell, only those who were negative on all three counts were allowed into managed isolation. I was lucky enough to be one of them. I haven’t been sick since early November and haven’t been around a sick person since October.

Next, we went through immigration. eGates weren’t an option. Instead, we were carefully directed to one of three officers who stamped our arrival cards and let us through. Next, we picked up our luggage and took it through customs. The customs officers went through our forms carefully and then sent all of us to have our bags scanned.

I was briefly held up by a jar of Craig’s breakfast marmalade in my suitcase, purchased here in New Zealand before I left. It was a gift for a family member but I hadn’t managed to get it to them so it came back with me.

After that, we walked out through the same gates as usual, coming out into the greeting area. We were greeted by an empty airport. Everything was closed and nobody was there aside from masked officers directing us, yet again, into three lines. This time, the lines were for shuttles that were to take us to the hotel.

Of course, we couldn’t all bunch into one shuttle, so about 10 passengers were allowed per shuttle before they declared it full and called for a new one. The loading process took some time as each passenger entered, placed their suitcase/s in the bags area, then took their seat. It’s a difficult task to do next to someone while maintaining a distance so we each performed the task one at a time. I fumbled self-consciously with my (slightly) overweight suitcase when it was my turn and then almost tripped on my way to a seat. Seasoned traveler indeed.

For all of that effort, we were shuttled only about 300 metres down the road before we stopped. A member of hotel staff (I think?) popped on board and advised us that we’d arrived but that we’d have to wait on the shuttle while they finished checking in the last shuttle-load of people. As the minutes ticked by, my confusion at the effort of loading us into shuttles for such a short ride turned to gratitude for the comfy seat and heated air in which to wait. I pulled out my Kindle and read for about 10 minutes before we were allowed to disembark.

Getting off the shuttle was just as slow and laborious as getting on had been. Once we were out though, we were free to go to our rooms and sip a margherita in our bubble baths while we waited for dinner to be served.

Just kidding. Once we were off the shuttle, we were standing in another line.

They didn’t actually do any checking-in in the lobby. The line was just for the elevators. Only one “bubble” was allowed per elevator, all of which were taking us up to the 2nd floor where we were to be fully processed and checked in. Masked hotel staff used their gloved hands to call for the elevators and press the “2” for each of us, then left us to ride up alone.

The elevator line probably took about 20 minutes, but the impeccably groomed and well-dressed manager of the hotel stood in the lobby with us, welcoming each and every person with genuine warmth and giving them a detailed explanation of what to expect next. My sentimental feelings about everyone pulling together came back in full force. What a champ. I don’t imagine it was very comfortable, standing for hours in his fancy leather shoes on the fancy marble floor. He did it with a smile.

As for what happened on level 2, I’m afraid I’m going to have to be “that guy” and leave you hanging for the next episode. It’s late, I didn’t sleep on the bus or the plane, and I’m so ready for a solid sleep.

Stay tuned.