Levels... 1, 2, 3

So- we last left off; Auckland went into level 3 February 15, 2021, 6am. I left Waiwera at something like 9pm February 14th, within a half an hour of hearing that we would be increasing levels.

The rest of the country was at level 2. The rest of the country went back to level 1 after 3 days. And maybe Auckland went to level 2 at that point. I don't even remember when it changed to level 1, but the requirements at level 2 are to keep gatherings to less than 100 people and to wear masks on public transportation. I had reserved an airbnb in Hastings for the Art Deco Festival. The festival got canceled because we were still at level 2 days before. It did happen to move to level 1 for part of the festival, but as far as I know the whole thing was cancelled.

Jacqueline reads that there is someone conducting flying lessons in town for only $130. In fact that is where I walk to when I take walks. She asks if I want to do it and I said no. She got a lesson for her boyfriend. Afterwards he talks about becoming a pilot. She asks if I knew that would happen and I said I did.

Things settle down and Jacqueline wanted to get out of town. There's a family home in Waipu and she had been talking about going. We had been talking about going north or going to Hastings/Napier. We decide to go to North. We talk a lot about whether to go Friday night or Saturday morning, discover we have very different ways of thinking about the ways we would do things.

I injure myself by pulling a shoulder muscle in lyra. BUT I did a move that I couldn't do before. Each time before I'd just bang against the bar. The move is to stand up, holding the bottom of the ring then throw yourself backwards and get your knees on the bar and hang by your knees. I suppose I felt the injury coming on but I just kept trying. On the drive home it was hurting quite a bit. BUT- with my luck: I had Physical Therapy finally scheduled for all the problems that I've had with my leg of recent. With the physical therapy session Friday afternoon and my being unable to pack because everything was painful (moving, breathing, sneezing, coughing, picking up stuff, lying down; all painful) we decide to leave for our trip on Saturday morning at 6am.

We drive up, stop by a Dutch cheese shop we like and the funky next door cafe.

We then head to the Matakana markets then up to Waipu.

As we are driving in the hills of Waipu we see tons and tons of development. We see construction equipment on different properties and nicely paved driveways connected to the dirt road. We're guessing many multi-million dollar homes are going in.

We get up to the cabin, we unload our stuff and take a few minutes to appreciate the view. We then order pizza and go pick it up. We have a lovely dinner and wine on the deck with Jacqueline's aunt.

Jacqueline's aunt gets a text from her boss. Jacqueline's aunt works for the government. Jacqueline knows that the presence of that text means that something is up. At 9 pm there is an announcement Auckland will be in lockdown at level 3 starting at 6am. We are tired and decide to get up at 6 am and drive back.

Sunrise on Sunday morning.

We stop by Taco Bell on the drive up. New Zealand takes "would you like fries with that" very seriously.

Apparently there are Taco Bells in New Zealand that serve beer and margaritas, but not this one.

I always drive with Google Maps or Waze going. So- it diverts us from what turned out to be 7 hour lines to get out of Auckland. As far as I can tell lockdowns here are very very different than at least in the United States. We lock down a region and you aren't allowed to enter or leave said region unless you can prove something like you need to pass the border to get home. When I got stopped I needed to provide proof of where I lived or I wouldn't be able to leave. Well- we had to enter the Auckland area and then leave it so we got stopped twice and had to provide proof twice.

So- one day vacation! And I had taken time off. Well- I went into work instead of taking the days off.

After ruining my body, I try and fix it. I try and take daily walks again.

I try to get back into the good habits that I had a few months back and finally got up at 7 am for the Sofi Tukker dance party. I see myself instantly smiling and feeling happier so I decide to take a selfie.

And right when I do it my "freak fam" crush is highlighted.

This lockdown is lasting 7 days as people can then get paid in special circumstances if it is a full week, but that wasn't the case for the 3 days.

This latest lockdown is due to someone going for a walk with another person who was supposed to be in isolation during the last lockdown. Kinda funny to look at my friends lives back in the US and the news here and how the whole country knows that a person breached the rules of lockdown (one of them had known positive cases in their households). New Zealand traces each community transmission and finds out exactly how it happened or the country is locked down until it does. A lot of my friends think taking a walk outside with someone is perfectly safe, some of my friends won't risk it. At least for these two people in New Zealand they were able to transmit between each other, but they probably weren't wearing masks.

I'm slowly back getting into good habits. I'm waiting for my shoulder to heal, going to physical therapy with someone who does acupuncture so I'm doing that for the first time. She teaches me how to walk and stand properly. Why doesn't everyone learn this? How many body injuries could we prevent as people get older if we did this?

Next up, trip to get my drivers license which was *painless*! I go to a nearby cafe afterwards to have a latte (which I don't get very often), and it is the place that has cakes. I have some good excuses to get a cake: one year anniversary of coming here is coming up and it is my Super Bestie Kevin's birthday.

Note the NZ messaging around corona virus: "Be Kind".

Kevin loves gin and I sent him a very nice New Zealand gin that I had tried and we have gin together and we eat our cake as he eats his princess cake.

And my one year anniversary cake: spice cake! Cake and more cake!

Next up, another festival: Earth Beat. This one is to be heavy on workshops and I'm looking forward to that. Life doesn't go the way that you think, though, because at the one festival where I just want to go inwards and learn I end up dancing into the night with new friends.

I don't go to any life altering workshops. I go to a few and one that wasn't what I showed up for. It was a breathing and meditation one. I talked to a woman who was lying on the ground next to me afterwards. I end up running into her again in line for pizza then we went and watched comedians together afterwards and hung out all night. I gave her her first ever fortune cookie and it said something about her having an unexpected life long friend. So- there you go- we have to stay in touch. She owns a coffee shop in Raglan and I'll have to go there some time. The big event for me at this festival was visiting an emotional support tent. I just happened upon it while trying to attend a talk and then I ended up going in there. I just started crying and she held me. She knew how to comfort and listen and prepared a place for me to take a nap and left me to it. If you haven't ever released emotion with someone who knows how to handle the situation- I highly recommend it.

Straight after the festival I go back to an AirBnB where I've stayed before and I do a working vacation.

Unfortunately I really mess up and I think I have the airbnb one day more than I do and I have to skeddadle out of there. Luckily I got along well with the owner and we talk about meeting up for coffee again sometime. I had just been working and didn't really just sit back and enjoy the place!!!

On my way out I have to figure out what to do. I decide sculpture trail wineries and book another airbnb for the night. And I mess up again and book the wrong one! I had picked one, went into bad internet, then picked up my phone again later and booked it but it was taking forever to load so I didn't see it and I guess I had changed the one I was looking at. Well- maybe it is serendipity. I may end up friends with the owner as I know where to find her. Her husband has a white bait fritter stand at the Matakana markets.

So- sculpture trails...

I start out going to the Sculptureum. I see some art that reminds me of my burning man adventure buddy: camel tea pots. It reminds of these teapots we hung out in the first night we hung out in burning man(pictured right.)

There's a giant bunny that I think belongs in burning man. And meerkats that remind me of an article I read about how happy the meerkats in the zoos are to have humans back as the zoos reopen after the pandemic. I see the scuplture of the meerkats and to me they are looking towards the future.

The Scupltureum seems to be famous for the snails.

There's a garden there filled with Steve Jobs quotes (and some other quotes) that are pretty inspiring.

After the Sculptureum I went on to Brick Bay Wineries which has what I think is an even nicer Sculpture garden. I get myself a glass of wine, I take out my journal, I call my parents. I talk to them for a while and then get started on the trail. I don't make it past the first art installation.

I walk up to this giant head lying on its side. I see you can walk up to it so I do. There's a door. So I open it. And what do I find inside? Here's a video so you can get the full experience. I don't know why I didn't get a photo of the art from the outside.

So- I crawl in and I guess I'm in there for hours. I journal, I call my burning man bud that I spent all night in a tea cup with. I'm just overjoyed to find something like this outside of burning man and it was completely unexpected. And super comfortable. The main difference of the art here, at the winery, is that at burning man it would be inevitable to make friends sitting in such a thing but no one comes by. Eventually have to use the restroom and I walk past the staff who are having a meal. They inform me the whole place closed an hour ago. They asked me how the trail was and I said fantastic but that I didn't make it past the first art piece. They think that is terrible so they give me a voucher to come again. I bet I'll make friends next time.