Isolation: What To Expect
Gabby is nearing the end of her 14-day managed isolation period on returning to NZ with her husband and two children, she's shared her experience to help New Zealanders prepare if they have to return:
"On arrival at Auckland, once you’ve cleared MPI and customs, you’re walked through the terminal to a waiting bus which goes straight to the hotel. Police and Aviation Security have a very visible presence. Everyone is very friendly. It’s pretty quick and painless.
One hotel was allocated per flight, with an overflow hotel in case there were too many people. We ended up at the overflow.
On arrival at the hotel we were met by Ministry of Health staff who walked us through a health questionnaire and gave us a couple of information booklets. Then we checked in.
The room and all food is paid for by the Government, but we could leave our credit card at the front desk to pay for extras. We were very grateful that we got two adjoining rooms - I’m not sure how pleasant this would be if we were all crammed into one room. From what we can tell, they try to accommodate families in this way as much as possible.
We have to get a health check every third day, and every day a nurse rings our room to check-in. We’re not really allowed to wander around the hotel and we have to stay two metres away from other guests and staff. It's probably different at each hotel; here they have a small fenced-in area outside at the front where we can go for 10 minutes to run around. This is closed when big groups are checking in or out.
You can also book in for a “big” walk to Aotea Square, where they have three enclosed areas on the grass for people in managed isolation to use. These outings are about an hour long and you’ve got to get in quick - they are usually booked up. They also cancel these when they have big groups arriving or departing, due to limited staff numbers. We’ve been here a week and only managed it twice.
For food, we get all our meals delivered three times a day in brown paper bags. That’s all I’ll say about the food.
Laundry is my favourite bit - you pop it outside your door in a little bag and a couple of hours later it appears all clean and folded. It’s amazing.
We can receive deliveries, and the local supermarkets here in Auckland CBD have increased the number of delivery windows they have, so some days I've got things the same day. All deliveries go to the concierge (and I assume are checked by aviation security) before hotel staff bring it up to your room. No alcohol! But you can order really expensive beer and wine from the hotel if you want. The rooms don’t have anything other than a kettle so we can’t prepare food.
Aviation Security, Customs and NZDF provide the staffing for the security and logistics stuff but the hotel staff still provide the hotel-type services. We have to clean our own rooms and change our own sheets - the hotel provides cleaning equipment and piles of beautiful white fluffy sheets and towels.
Internet is free via the hotel network. All of the hotel facilities like the gym are closed. There is a coffee cart available where we can get coffee and fluffies and charge them to our rooms.
We have to provide them with all our onward travel details to Wellington (I’m not sure if this will still be required once we move to level 2). I just booked everything once we got here - there was no need to have this sorted before our arrival in NZ.
We packed in a real rush and brought very little with us. The hardest bit is not being able to run around - either inside or outside - as much as we need to. The best bit is all the fun we are managing to have."