August in the Town Basin 35:43.43S, 174:19.56E

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Fri 3 Sep 2021 01:38

Well its just into September and officially its spring, just as cold and wet as winter but the days are getting longer.

We spent the first two weeks of August finishing off jobs on Serenity and planning more, we looked at buying more vinyl to complete replacing the headlinings but unfortunately there was no more in the country, we got the normal answer “its on a ship somewhere, no idea when we will get some”. We could have bought a different vinyl at double the cost but preferred not to.

On Saturday 14th The All Blacks were playing at Eden Park in Auckland and there was an Orienteering event near Auckland on Sunday so we planned a weekend down there with an AirBnB for Saturday night. Great idea here is that your match tickets allow free travel on local transport so we could just walk up the road from the AirBnB and catch a bus. The match was against Australia so fairly important but with travel ban from Australia the support was a bit one sided, the All Blacks won 57-22. Orienteering on Sunday was in the dunes and forest on the west coast, lots of climb involved but we both did ok.

Ready for the match

Having spent the weekend around Auckland we were a bit worried on Tuesday when a case of Delta variant of Covid was announced, in the evening we were given 6hrs notice of level 4 lockdown so no chance to rush out and do any shopping. Level 4 means stay at home, leaving only to exercise locally and for essential purposes. We were already stocked up with food and supermarkets are open with limited numbers in store, masks and signing in mandatory. The lockdown seems to have worked restricting spread to Auckland and Wellington. The government were right to lockdown as this outbreak could have spread like wildfire with  only 20% of the population having been vaccinated. The vaccination rate has shot up with over 50% of eligible population, 12yrs upward now having had at least one shot.

We are now at level 3, so click and collect is possible for most goods and take-aways are open. Apparently last night one lane of State Highway 1 was coned off for the queue at McDonalds.  Auckland remains at level 4 and there are roadblocks to restrict movement between areas.

First signs of spring

 

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