30/03/2022
How strange it was waking up on Monday, March 26, 2020, the first full day of Aotearoa New Zealand’s very first nationwide lockdown. We’d never experienced anything like it. There was fear, apprehension, maybe a little excitement but a great deal of uncertainty as we faced the unknown - all bubbled up, but together. We were kind to each other, our team of five million. We watched what was happening across the world in horror but knew if we stuck together - our islands in the sun - we’d be ok.
Thousands of us tuned in daily to hear the PM and Dr Ashley’s updates. We also heard from Grant Robertson and Peeni Henare about economic, business, and social supports. The large-scale activation of kai distribution from Iwi, hauora providers and social agencies was something to behold, and thousands of volunteers stepped forward to help ensure our most vulnerable Kiwis had kai, water, clothing, and hygiene essentials to see them through this unprecedented time.
The world marvelled and looked on in admiration, noting NZ’s stance of not pussyfooting around our response to Covid-19 and locking down before a single death was registered. There weren’t too many complaints back then, from us – the collective – on Day One of that strange new world.
This Monday 28 March 2022 we woke up, two years on, to a scar-crossed country. We’ve seen the toll Covid-19 has taken on the rest of the world, but we’ve been awestruck at the global scientific community’s collaboration to develop a vaccine. We’ve seen the United States-led conspiracy theories take hold in Aotearoa, and pro vs anti-vaccination beliefs tear families, friendships, workplaces and communities apart. We’ve witnessed an occupation by protesters of the parliament lawn and watched horrified at scenes of violence and destruction reminiscent of the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January 2021.
While government support for businesses was overall immense, it wasn’t quite enough to keep every player in the game, and we’ve seen many business owners have no choice but to close their doors and walk away. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of us haven’t seen our loved ones overseas for at least two years, border restrictions and MIQ coming between us.
We’ve seen the government stay the course, putting faith in the advice from public health, and we’ve seen the opposition parties do what they’re supposed to do – attempt to find holes in every government decision, solution, and strategy, and pull the faith apart.
Now Omicron has taken hold. The least dangerous variant of the lot but the most contagious, and as we always knew would be the case if we couldn’t stamp this one out, we are seeing cases in the six figures and deaths into the hundreds.
Thankfully, the jabs and boosters are doing their job – while our case numbers are high, our hospitalisations and deaths are comparatively low. This is no comfort to people whose loved ones are hospitalised or have died, but if there is a small mercy to cling to – without the vaccinations, the lockdowns, the measures and the mandates, the numbers would have been so much higher. Most of us accept that.
We’ve all had our own journey, cried our own tears, fought our own battles. Do you remember Day One? How you felt? The kindness in your heart and the one-ness? Two years have gone by, and here we are. Not the same anymore. It seems so strange.
