This blog is written by a good friend who has recently entered MIQ due to having two positive Covid-19 cases in her bubble. She wishes to remain anonymous but has several tips and tricks for anyone in the same position...
So, it’s back. The horrid virus that entered our lives in March 2020, threw us into disarray and forced
us to change the way we do things.
Fast forward to August 2021 and suddenly we are entering a snap lockdown at Level 4 – the whole country. This must be serious. Her name is Delta and she is new this year. Not sure why I call it ‘she’ but to me, Delta is nice, sweet & feminine. Being an Aucklander, it is pretty much a given that the City of Sails is going to be the first point of entry.
What do you know, this time it was. Alas, this time it’s pretty close to home as ‘Case A’ resides in Devonport. We live on the North Shore and Devonport is on the North Shore. Case A has been referred to as a hero as he decided to go to the Dr as he wasn’t feeling well. I’m pretty sure he couldn’t have even imagined what the outcome of that visit would bring.
Here we are 11 days later and the number of positive cases has sky rocketed to 429 community cases split between Auckland & Wellington. The “location of interest” list has just gone ballistic, pretty much the entire population of Auckland would have at some point been a close contact and isolating, surely! There’s actually really interesting information on the health.govt.nz website which breaks all those numbers down. I never really showed much interest in that – but now I do.
Turns out, Delta is EXTREMELY close to home for us. She chose to enter our home like a bee to a honey pot and bless her presence with not one, but two of us. Thoughtful! Well, so be it: let’s deal with it. Here we find ourselves having a little vacay in MIQ. I had a friend who travelled to NZ from Australia back before the Trans Tasman bubble opened so he had to spend two weeks in MIQ. He very kindly shared a few things that I should bring with me which you wouldn’t even think of had you not done it before. Now that we’re here, there are a few more things I wish I’d brought.
Logic dictates that there are going to be a fair few more people heading into MIQ. So I put together a list of things – not everyone will want everything, but I hope it’s a useful guideline – I’d hate you to miss out!
The premises we are at do not allow any ‘home’ deliveries so once you’ve left, you ain’t getting that Play Station you forgot to pack.
A good rule of thumb: imagine you’re going camping, in the middle of nowhere with no facilities, so you need to pack EVERYTHING:
- Obvious toiletry products (don’t forget feminine bits and pieces)
- Crockery if you don’t want to eat all your meals out of cardboard boxes
- Cutlery if you don’t want to use plastic knives and forks
- Dishwashing liquid and brush so you can wash said cutlery/crockery
- Dishcloth
- Teatowels x2 (unless you’re happy to use the same one for two weeks)
- Sharp knife for cutting / peeling fruit
- Bottle / wine opener: you’re allowed to order beer/wine but just in case they’re not twist top
- Snacks (three meals a day provided but there’s nothing like a bikky with your tea)
- Fruit
- Coffee plunger and good coffee, tea bags
- Your favourite china mug
- Nice smelling room spray
- Medicine – panadol, throat lozenges, cough medicine
- Sanitiser
- Hand cream (to soften your consistently washed hands)
- Games, games and more games (clearly there is more than one of us here but even a pack of cards to play solitaire if you’re on your own). My Scrabble skills are improving daily
- Books / magazines: REAL ones, you can ony look at a screen for some of the day
- Yoga mat if you feel like any sort of exercise. Prepare for not being allowed outside
- Phone / laptop charger! I can’t imagine you’ll be able to get one if you forget
- Plenty of underwear: yes there is washing, but it takes a few days to come back
You can order from the local supermarket but we all know what online shopping is like at present: it doesn’t happen overnight …. but it will happen…..
Life in the inside is not too bad (yet: it’s early days) and fortunately our level of health is pretty good so we haven’t had to rely on nursing / health staff. You only read about the really nasty cases, and (touch wood) we’re not at that point and fingers crossed that won’t happen. In any event, we are here for at least ten days so we want to be pretty comfortable and as much at home as possible. It’s not a holiday, it’s isolation. They are quite different things.
Stay in touch with your family and friends, you need them. It’s not taboo having the virus so don’t be afraid to reach out.
Good luck to anyone that may need to refer to this list.