Well, after over a year in the planning, our family has finally relocated from Hawea Flat in rural New Zealand to Hong Kong. Here's a brief summary of our experience of making an international move in the time of COVID.
Julian was first offered a role in Hong Kong in October 2019. Then there were the protests, then COVID hit, and for a long time it looked as though the move would never happen. But then at long last, Julian's employer booked us a flight to Hong Kong last December. The airline cancelled the flight, so we were rebooked onto a different one, and finally we were on our way.
We left home in Hawea Flat around 7am on 3 January, arriving at Queenstown Airport in plenty of time before our flight to Auckland at 10.30am. Which was lucky, as getting checked in was far from simple.
The person on the airline desk was working off a document that stated that Hong Kong's borders were closed and the only people allowed in were returning residents. After about 30 minutes of phone calls in a back room, she discovered that we would be allowed in after all and checked our bags through to Hong Kong.
When we arrived at Auckland International Airport for our international flight, we were completely unprepared for what we found - the airport was like a ghost town. Only one cafe and one duty free shop were open - everything else had the lights off and the door barriers down.
Going through security was also a bit different than usual, given we were the only people doing it. Over and done with in a matter of minutes.
On board our flight to Hong Kong, there were just 22 passengers. We arrived at 8.30pm Hong Kong time and entered the labyrinth that Hong Kong airport has become in order to process arrivals during COVID.
If you're familiar with Hong Kong airport, you'll remember the long concourses with many aircraft gates on each side. Now imagine these with no people, and full of roped off corridors and arrows directing you to the next step in the process.
We'd had to complete an online health declaration form before we boarded our flight, and now we had to show the QR codes to prove we'd done so. Not just once, but about seven times to seven different security staff members. I had both the kids' QR codes on my phone as well as my own, so there was a lot of flipping from screen to screen.
The COVID test was not bad. They do a throat swab and a nasal swab but these are nowhere near as invasive as the ones they do in New Zealand.
We were also issued with our electronic wristbands and cheerily told that the penalty for leaving your hotel room was $25000 or imprisonment and lately the government was going for imprisonment!
Finally, we were directed to an area full of desks and told to sit there until our test results returned. It was around midnight by then and I had visions of waiting there until the next morning, but in fact it was only a couple of hours later when someone arrived to tell us we were good to go.
After clearing immigration, we arrived in a deserted baggage claim hall, to find our bags neatly stacked in a pile all by themselves.
Then after a little more delay, we boarded the hotel shuttle and were driven to our hotel. We arrived at 2.45am, making the whole experience a little more than 24 hours.
Now we're on day 3 of our 21-day quarantine. The thing it reminds me of most is being on a long haul flight. You're trapped, you're bored and you find yourself counting down till the next meal, and then being disappointed when the meal finally arrives.
We also have to take everyone's temperature twice a day and record it in a little log book. So far, we're all robustly healthy.
Wonder how we'll be doing after another 19 days?
