Sensible Kiwi
Sensible Kiwi is a retired Automation Engineer / Geek living on the West Coast of the North Island. He has been told he doesn’t suffer fools lightly which I guess leads to the annoyance he has with 50%+ of the human race!
This article was intended to be written mid-February 2023 but was delayed by the inability of the author to get home from the South Island due to the unreliability of the Interislander. After THREE attempts and twenty extra days of accommodation, meals and the associated costs we finally made it back! Getting accommodation itself was a major, plus the price gouging – wow, maybe a future article.
Every year – for the past three years anyway – we have done a bit of a ritual in our family. The first year is understandable – your daughter is starting her studies at Otago University. You have to take her down, see that she is settled and has what she needs, then you come back home. Not so quick! Miss SK has lots of stuff. We aren’t going to fly – we are going to drive down – and take some photos for “View From Your (Car) Window”. Get her settled then SK and Mrs SK will wander home. About two weeks or so later we will cross the strait and head home – to a quiet house!
That was until last year! When Ardern introduced the mandates I thought it doesn’t affect me directly. I am retired and not working but I did feel for a couple of friends who lost their employment. Then the pox pass! Fine, I do not want to fly and I’m not going to any fancy restaurants that are more likely to request pox pass sign-in. I thought our local restaurants would stick together, limit their numbers and accept what were quickly becoming TWO classes of people. How wrong I was. It appeared the “deep state” via their implanted bureaucrats in councils around New Zealand used food licensing regulations to force the “privileged class” dining scene!
Early on in the vaccine ‘news’ I heard that it wasn’t 100% effective at stopping the virus. And that you can still get the virus even when you are vaccinated. And you may not even know you have it for a few days – vaxxed or unvaxxed! And logic told me that if you only stop 80% of the virus the remaining 20% is going to mutate into a new variant. And now they were saying you had to present a pox pass to enter restaurants, gyms, some churches and many public venues. Best of all Air New Zealand said you could fly with them if a) you had the pox pass or b) you had returned a negative RAT test within 48 hours of your flight. I could see where this was going to end!
The vaxxed were going to ‘think’ they are bulletproof – at no time did the “single source of truth” tell the truth – namely the vaccine DIDN’T stop you from getting the virus and that you could be a carrier! I started watching the MOH “Locations of Interest”. At first, I would match up businesses stating ‘vax pass required’ with them becoming “Locations of Interest” and post on social media just like below – and got a few stints in ‘jail’!
Then it dawned on me – just like Air New Zealand, the Interislander was going to require either a) the pox pass or b) a negative RAT test. It was announced the unvaccinated could get free RATs until 31 January 2022. But we weren’t travelling until mid-February. And were coming back in early March! What did it cost? Was it going to be extended? My pharmacy didn’t know. An email to MOH drew the same response! The psychological pressure to conform, just to take the jab, to “get out and enjoy summer” was tremendous! I even mentioned it once to Mrs SK who brought me back to my senses!
In the meantime, Air New Zealand was having a wonderful time flying CCP flu around New Zealand.
It was blatantly obvious to me that the vaccinated were spreading it around! Surely they could see this stupidity – the pox pass wasn’t working? Apparently not – it just got worse – I was now posting images with sixty “Locations of Interest” details every couple of days!
Without telling us they extended the free RAT test so two days before we sailed we got our NEGATIVE tests. It was a good feeling that at that moment I KNEW I was guaranteed NOT to have CCP flu but hold on – what about the other passengers on the ferry? I keep a wide berth even though many people (vaccinated I bet) would deliberately wander into my space!
The rest of the trip – we couldn’t go into cafés or restaurants. We had to eat from drive-throughs or from petrol stations or from Night and Day operations. We didn’t go into the café/information centre at Pancake Rocks and guess where the toilets were! We couldn’t do the Pic’s Peanut Butter tour! We didn’t want to spend time in big crowds or at the mall – what would happen if we got the virus? Finally, it was time to take the RAT test for the journey home. When the NEGATIVE came back all I wanted to do was go to the mall, pick up the CCP flu and give it to all the vaccinated passengers on board the ferry!
I said I wanted to do it. I didn’t do it. I have forgiven those businesses that were pressured to comply but if you had all stuck together… But then you probably thought it was a good thing, getting vaxxed and the pox pass and maybe that’s why I avoid you where I can. And we will certainly NOT FORGET what you were part of!
PS
In July 2022 Mrs SK and I went up Northland for a holiday. We picked up what we thought was a cold. We went everywhere: Cape Reinga, Waitangi Treaty House, Quarry Gardens, Claphams Museum and Chartwell Mall. Got home and Miss SK made us take a RAT test – both POSITIVE! We did NOT know! This year we got to go on the Pic’s factory tour! It is FREE and we didn’t buy anything.
