MIQ

 One of the things we had been praying and hoping for was that New Zealand would change their quarantine requirements so that those who have a covid vaccine wouldn't have to spend 2 weeks in a quarantine hotel upon arrival to NZ. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and so we have to go through the 2-week mandatory isolation and quarantine (MIQ) period to make sure we don't bring covid into NZ. In some ways, it's a nice time to rest after the last stressful weeks of preparation for moving and traveling here. We don't have to worry about making our own meals or doing our own laundry or about where we'll stay. They bring us all of our meals, delivered to our door, and they take our dirty laundry (10 items/person twice during our stay) and bring back clean laundry. They provide everything we need to clean our room and provide clean linens and towels when we need them. They do health check-ups every day and provide a little newsletter every morning with puzzles and fun facts to keep us occupied.

We get to go outside in the courtyard area they have fenced off during set periods of time; we usually go in the afternoon after Ralph's nap for an hour or so. We haven't wanted to spend much longer than that outside, as it is winter here after all...highs are usually 10 - 12 C (~low 50's F) and it's been raining off an on most days. We are VERY thankful that they put us into a two-room suite, as this means we can be up and doing things in our room while Ralph is sleeping in the living room.

Ralph has been doing pretty well so far, he's pretty easily entertained with just a tennis ball and room to crawl around. One of his favorite activities is crawling up the couch cushions we've placed around the couch so he can get to his "observation deck" and look outside (see pictures below). He also loves just crawling back and forth over the couch cushions and "reading" his books. He's also been enjoying playing with the new toys that were loaned to us from Matthew, the co-head of the project I'm working on who lives in Christchurch. Matthew and his family also assembled and delivered a care package with some delicious Kiwi food essentials that we have been enjoying a lot! We had some excitement on our first day here with the farmer's protest that went past our hotel, complete with big tractors, utes (pickup trucks), and dogs (you can read about it here). Across the street is the Christchurch Cathedral that is currently renovating, so we've also had free entertainment during working hours, watching the crew at work. We've also been writing notes in our window using sticky notes to bring some joy to people who pass by!

However, Ralph has come down with a runny nose, probably a cold picked up from crawling around on airport floors; it feels like I'm getting it too, as I have a sore throat as well. Because we're both symptomatic, we had to get an extra covid test today (in addition to the 3 tests that we have spaced out over the 14 days already). Thankfully it came back negative, but since we both have symptoms, Ralph and I have purple bands now (instead of the blue bands we had before). So we have separate, shorter time blocks during which we can go outside; hopefully our symptoms will go away soon and we can go back to the blue bands!

Ralph at his observation deck

The farmer's protest on our first morning

Our sticky-note message, as seen from the courtyard below

Ralph enjoying one of our outdoor recreation times