Here we go again! After a number of requests, more managed isolation adventures are incoming! I'll let the secret out - this whole moving back to New Zealand was really just to make sure we got in another 14 days or so in at the finest government selected hotel random assignment can provide.
Today's story really started about 36 hours ago when we said adios to Dubai for the final time. One way tickets only. My ex-pat retrospective needs a bit more time to brew as it won't sink in for some time that it is over. I will leave my thoughts on leaving Dubai for that. We had a pretty clean exit from Dubai, although 4.30 am alarms are always rough let alone with the best part of a day and a half of travel ahead of you. It was super awesome one of our very best friends Alicja dropped us off. Big props for doing this at the ungodly hour it was.
The only real obstacle we had was the amount of luggage we had to drag around. Our checked-in luggage was maxed out and I'm not sure how we got on the plane with the amount of carry-on we had. I am sure most private jet charters would have raised an eyebrow or two at the amount of stuff we had strapped all over ourselves. Dubai Airport is not a small airport and there is a departure gate lottery. We lost. A good 20-minute walk required a few stops to stretch the old arms out. It was bad enough before we loaded up on some duty -free too :)
That was by far the toughest part though. Gate lottery lost. Nearly empty plane lottery won! Both Anki and I managed to snag a full 4 seats each and we had the lie-down business class experience for the economy price! Once half the plane hoped off at KL we had the cabin we were in basically to ourselves and one other guy. Unfortunately, the guy spend most of the 18-20 hours on the plane cough his lungs out and I think he cleaned out a couple of large boxes of tissues. I am fully expecting we get notified someone close to us fails his Day 1 PCR test and we have some special extra inside time ahead. Let's see. Maybe it's just something less scary to NZ than Covid like Ebola or Smallpox.
20 hours of mainly sleeping down the long white cloud appeared and before we knew it the plane was taxing toward the terminal at Auckland Airport. The BIG question we were waiting for was answered sooner rather than later. A very jovial kiwi from the MIQ team came on board to give us a nice pleasant advanced warning to use the toilets as we would be travelling, by bus, after 20 hours on the plane, to ROTOVEGAS aka Rotorua. The groans from most of the plane we very audible. I basically jumped out of my seat in joy!
1) Auckland and Hamilton where there are other MIQ hotels are both under Level 3 and would prevent drop off of supplies from the parents.
2) Rotorua is a short 45 min drive from where we are going after.
3) No farts needed, just need to open the window to test your smell (aka the anti-covid test)
A "short" 4.5 hours on the bus to go. This included waiting for the luggage to be loaded for about 45 mins and a pit stop at the very fancy halfway toilet stop (think human cattle-pen... fences with the room just enough for the bus and four portaloos). We knew the hotel and some brief low-speed bus-provided wifi detective work seemed to indicate we might have also lucked out on the MIQ hotel lottery. And we did. It's not quite a Middle East hotel suite but the room is large, has two queen beds, a 40-something inch tv and a spa bath!!! I'll do a full room rundown and tour tomorrow once we set up.
For now, I do need to sleep after a very long day. I wanted to blog the MIQ experience again though and get something out to start the ball rolling. Day 0 done. 14 or so to go! We get twice the number of PCR tests for our money this time - number 1 tomorrow. I do need my sleep to look my best while they stick a long cotton bud up my nose and check if my brain is still there.
Cool😀