Table of Contents
Donald Digby
As part of our return to New Zealand and after serving the required time interned as a guest of the government, we then needed to complete 3 days in “self-isolation”. To be honest I hadn’t given “self-isolation” much thought at first. When you’re coming home from overseas, just getting to New Zealand is a much bigger problem than what happens once you land. So when the time came to have a look and see what was required in “self-isolation “ it quickly became apparent it wasn’t just a joke, it was full retard.
Here’s how it works. Once passing your 4th negative test in 9 calendar days, one pre-flight and 3 during internment, you are released to your isolation location where you need to take another test, what’s called a day 9 test, your 9th day in New Zealand.
If possible, you have to complete “self-isolation” only with people in your “travel bubble”, but if you can’t do that, it’s OK to have other people at your isolation location. During the time you are isolating you are not allowed to leave the location and neither is anyone else living at the premises. You are not required to isolate inside the premises as long as everyone at the location keeps 2 metres apart, wears masks inside and agrees not to use common areas at the same time. Basically during the three days the person(s) living at the premises but not isolating are the biggest threat to you of catching the virus. Makes sense right?
Other “rules” include returning a government survey/questionnaire each day updating them on your health. Answering questions like ‘do you feel sick?’ We actually missed the first survey due to sleeping in but nothing happened. You’re not officially allowed to leave your self-isolation location until your day 9 test comes back negative, so 3 days could actually be 4 or 5 or whatever.
Now my wife and I try to be good citizens, even if we are not residents, so we dutifully rocked up to the local swab station at the correct time for our 5th test in 12 days. After a lengthy explanation to staff as to why we were actually there, tests were in and boxes were ticked. The staff at the swab station were a bit confused as to why we were there in the first place. I suspect we were the first day 9-ers they had come across. 24 hours later we got an email from the government saying that our day 9 test had not been completed and we must report for testing immediately, or else. Knowing this was wrong and being able to demonstrate it, we did nothing and sure enough next day we got a text saying we were virus negative and “free” to join the general population.
And that’s the thing that cracks me up. You see we had already been out in the general population after leaving the Internment Facility –legally of course. Once you check out of the Internment Facility it’s up to you to make your own way to your self-isolation location, which for us and around 60 other people being released that day was a commercial flight. So we hopped in the bus leaving the facility and got dropped off outside the main gates of the airport, where we walked inside and proceeded to check in along with everyone else flying that day to places like Tauranga and Rotorua.
Coming off an international flight we were way over the baggage allowance for a domestic flight but, not to worry, the helpful staff told us, the government would foot for the excess charge. We then grabbed a bit for lunch at the café and wandered round the airport before our flight, which I reckon was about 70/30 regular punters and Internment releases.
The government had booked our seating, and those coming out of internment and headed to isolation were scattered throughout the plane, not at one end or in a block group.
Once landed, if it was not possible to get a private car to your isolation location, then you could take a bus, taxi or train.
It’s a dog’s breakfast and the long and short is that for anyone “self-isolating” it’s impossible not to come into contact with the general population. But don’t worry, the government has no idea what you’re up to while isolating, no clear mechanism to deal with it if you’re not and after taking several tests the chances are you don’t have the virus. Which then leads to the question, what’s the point?
