A Day In The Life Of Quarantine In New Zealand

The unconventional lockdown

2020 is not a year that many people look back on fondly.

It was a crazy year to be honest, I remember hearing about countries closing their borders on the news and it was shocking. How on Earth could a country just shut down like that?

I didn’t realise it at the time, but this type of thing was about to become my new normal.

I was in New Zealand when lockdowns began to run rife across the globe. And before I knew it I was in lockdown myself.

Thankfully, my friend’s boyfriend’s parents allowed us to stay on their property. I am so grateful for that because my only other option would have been to head back to the UK.

I know during lockdown a lot of people were confined to their houses and apartments, but my lockdown looked very different.

For starters, we were not staying in the house itself, but as our hosts had a large piece of land, we stayed in caravans on the property.

We even had an outdoor kitchen which was where we did all of our cooking.

The land they owned was great though, it was huge. They had so many fruit and nut trees and even a vegetable patch. Everything we ate came from the garden.

I loved living like this, it felt so wholesome and fresh.

They had trees of fruit I had never even heard of before, like feijoa (which has officially become my favourite fruit) and strawberry guava.

It was so amazing to be able to just walk up to a tree and stand there and binge on its fruit without a care in the world.

I tried to have some sort of morning routine whilst in lockdown. So I would go for a run and workout by the kiwifruit orchard.

I have to say this view definitely beats being inside a gym!

There were also sheep nearby- I still to this day don’t know who they belonged to.

I would run past them every day when I was exercising and they were not impressed.

There was also a pond nearby. It was calming to have a body of water so close even if it was a small one. I would always walk around whilst listening to music.

I would spot some interesting flora too, like this mushroom that looked like something out of Mario Kart.

I did some research and apparently, these mushrooms are quite poisonous and can make a person extremely sick, as well as send them on a really bad trip.

We would always try to find ways to keep ourselves busy and arts and crafts seemed to be the best way to go about it.

I made this dreamcatcher from the pistil of a flower, shells from the nearby beach, and a pair of old earrings. I was actually really proud of this little creation.

It was an interesting 4 weeks of lockdown in New Zealand and it wasn’t the typical lockdown a lot of the world was experiencing, but it was still hard at times with the uncertainty and constant barrage of negativity on the news.

However, I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my lockdown in any other way.

Being surrounded by nature, eating what grew in the backyard, and having space to roam around made this period of time a lot more bearable.

I am grateful to have had this experience and it has inspired me to have my own huge garden one day and grow an abundance of fruits and veggies.

There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing something you have planted grow and flourish.

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