Right now, I should be meeting my partner at Christchurch Airport to celebrate the end of my year abroad and 6 months apart to begin a ‘mega trip’ across New Zealand, the east coast of Australia and Fiji.
Instead, the height of my lockdown has been sitting in a slightly broken, panic-bought hot tub that has only just managed to reach about 35 degrees. The plan was to spend six weeks in a campervan exploring these destinations; island hopping, hiking up mountains and kayaking. But then COVID-19 hit and ruined all of our plans. In March of 2020 the majority of us on exchange had to return to the UK with less than a moment’s notice.
There would have been bungee jumping, parasailing and kayaking but instead it’s Netflix, Netflix and maybe some Disney+ to spice things up
The first four weeks of our trip would have been exploring New Zealand, driving from Christchurch, across the South Island and to the tip of the North. Stopping to peer into Hobbit holes, dipping into thermal pools and spotting whales off the coast of Kaikoura. The South Island loop was definitely what I was most looking forward to, particularly revisiting Queenstown – the adventure capital of the world – as the first time I went I broke my wrist skiing on the bunny slope, how embarrassing! There would have been bungee jumping, parasailing, and kayaking but instead it’s Netflix, Netflix and maybe some Disney+ to spice things up!
Fiji was next on the agenda, a week on golden beaches and snorkelling. A relaxing little break before a continuation of the campervan trip, this time in the land of Oz. Driving from Sydney to Cairns in a 30-degree winter. Whilst lots of the walks across New South Wales were decimated by bushfires earlier on this year, there were so many still on my to-do list. There will be a next time I’m sure!
It’s not quite Sydney, Australia, but it’s Brighton Pier
Major FOMO is occurring right now, especially when all of my targeted ads are about the most amazing pictures of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. From a selfish point of view, because everybody else is in the same situation I feel a little less bummed out about not being able to go. It’s better to put it on hold until things return to normal rather than trying to go now and miss out on most of the fun because things are closed due to COVID-19.
Instead of adventuring this summer, I’m spending it working down at the local pub and I’m glad to be getting back to a bit of normality. It’s not quite Sydney, Australia but it’s Brighton Pier and if you squint really hard, you may mistake them for the same thing.
Robyn Walford
Featured image courtesy of John via Flickr. Image licence found here. No changes were made to the image.
In-article images courtesy of Robyn Walford. No changes were made to the images.
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