November 2019, the annual “no matter what” Bridesmaid weekend was to Byron Bay Australia.  What an awesome long weekend that was in the perfectly laid back, beach lifestyle of the rich and famous, that is Byron Bay Australia.  The shopping, the coffee, the cocktails and the wonderful food that Byron is famous for.  Didn’t realise that would be it for two years at the time.  Didn’t realise that a 20 year history of going offshore every year was coming to a grinding halt, didn’t realise that a cough that could kill you was going to close the borders and certainly didn’t realise that there was any option that we would ever not be able to travel.  You see that’s what Jen and Nigel do!  We travel!

Flash forward to March 2020, our next big adventure for the year was to be to Warbirds over Wanaka and then a loose plan to head off to Eastern Europe and start ticking of Stan’s (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan… you get the drift).  People were starting to get antsy about Covid mid March and by 25 March 2020 we were staying home to save lives.  Weeks turned into months and the daily grind of 1pm updates became the norm.  Level’s were introduced and we did our very best to adhere to them.  Then slowly the levels’ started to drop.  Wow takeaways! Then the restaurants opened and finally two shots for Summer!  In amongst all this our passports were set to expire.  So hopeful were we that this couldn’t last forever that we got them renewed.  We had them back within 24 hours of submitting (they obviously had nothing else to do at the time in the passport office).  Then the New Year 2021 arrive with all the hope in the world!  This will be our year!  It’s my 50^th birthday later in the year and so will definitely be doing something epic for that.

Delta!  It’s a terrible American airline to avoid at all costs and certainly if you have no other choice then don’t expect to get on the plane you are booked on or to take off on time or to get a packet of peanuts and a can of bloody mary mix like the lady next to you when they run out of everything mid flight.  Oh yes, it’s also a very virulent strain of Covid that turned 2021 into a constant cry of “what level are we at today?” “does that mean that we can get takeaways?” “when will the internal borders open?” and my personal favourite from everyone outside of Auckland “Oh, I keep forgetting you guys are still in lockdown”.  The borders opened briefly and then closed again while people were off in Australia catching up with their new grandchild.  It was an absolute cluster.

We started 2021 in the hope of spending my 50^th somewhere really special.  My first thought was that Australia has to be open so we can go to Ayers Rock, that’s a once in a lifetime type of thing.  But Australia remained closed and even when it opened you couldn’t get back to New Zealand without playing the MIQ lottery.  That’s OK I thought Rarotonga is open and so I contacted my Travel Broker based there to ask about Aitutaki as I’ve never been there.  The day after I emailed her they shut down the borders to Rarotonga as well.  Nevermind there’s always Queenstown and a private Onsen Hotpool, that is unless there is a boundary border for Auckland that means we can’t leave and go anywhere.  So, as it turned out, we used Nigel’s essential worker status to go and stay for three nights at the beautiful Park Hyatt in Auckland as one of three guests in the entire hotel.  Better Uber Eats and a fun birthday evening with Stefan.

Needless to say 2022 started off with a great deal of trepidation of trying to go anywhere but we were entirely determined and so booked to go back to Byron Bay to stay with our dear friends and go to the Byron Bay Blues Festival at Easter weekend.  We booked the tickets and held our breath that the border wouldn’t close again.  We booked our Festival tickets and held our breath that it wouldn’t be cancelled.  We attended two different party weekend’s with friends in the weeks leading up to leaving and hoped like hell we wouldn’t get Covid.  We paid $85 each for our predeparture Covid test and held our breath that it would come back negative.  We filed our Australian entry declaration along with our Covid vaccination certificates and negative results and embarked to the airport.

One of my absolute favourite feelings in the world is the escalator ride to international Koru lounge at Auckland airport.  I am privileged to have been able to do this many times in my life and I frickin love it.  It means you are safely at the airport, successfully through checkin and through customs and you are on your way somewhere.  There is no time zone once you are airside at any airport and so any time is a good time for bubbles.  It was so lovely seeing the Koru lounge buzzing with people who, like us had been absent for so long.  It gave us a real buzz and so much hope for a world of semi normal.

But it wasn’t ‘normal’.  As you left the lounge the mask went on (Covid isn’t contagious in the Koru lounge apparently).  The mask stays on until they serve you a meal and drink on the plane (Covid isn’t contagious when you are eating or drinking apparently).  The mask stays on until you depart the aircraft and go through the doors to the arrivals hall.  As soon as that happened in Australia there were no more masks (Covid is also not contagious in Australia apparently).  For seven lovely days in Byron Bay we shopped, drank coffee, drank cocktails and had amazing food once again.  Completely maskless.  We also attended the Blues Festival with 40 000 other maskless people breathing all over us.  So, we held our breath as we waited for our RAT result to get back to New Zealand.  We filled out our entry requirements to New Zealand and got back on the plane.  We then held our breath for our day one and day five results.  Still nothing, we had certainly dodged the bullet again.

In amongst all this I had firstly been watching my brother living his best life throughout the pandemic in an empty Bali. (Not envious once John) and had been watching the Instagram and TikTok influencers start to travel again.  Turkey, Egypt and Jordan! Vietnam and Cambodia! Nepal! Italy! Paris!  Seemed like everything and everyone was going back to a new normal.  So dang it! Covid be damned!  We are off.  First stop Singapore!  South East Asia in rainy season!  Pack an umbrella and bring it on.