Great expectations

And then there were ....0.

The wonderful tour ended and we all had to isolate ourselves, preferably back home, as soon as possible. Before that we experienced rainy Dunedin, shiningly glorious Oamaru and our last destination memorable Christchurch. The journey was absolutely fantastic in many ways. Bear with me, there will be photos once I get some time to load them

Now comes the interesting part where everything can go wrong. I had to rebook my flight once again, as things were looking worse. Finally got a booking for 25th March, Auckland-Sydney-Doha-Helsinki. First I had to move myself to Auckland from Christchurch, which I finally managed to do with the help of our tour manager Gina. The seats were just sold out in front of our eyes, prices went up and my credit card started to show signs of fatigue.

Off I went with a start at 5.00 in the morning to the airport. When finally in the plane, I understood why the seats were so rapidly gone - every other seat was empty. It was all about safety distance, something we Finns understand so well. The whole situation in the airport and in the city of Auckland is like The Finnish Nightmares (http://finnishnightmares.blogspot.com/?m=1). The resemblance is overwhelmingly accurate. Although Finns have lately learnt the how to hug and perhaps that's the reason why we haven't been able to keep all the viruses away. I so do hope that we could keep the same yearn for distances while driving in the highways, but I guess that is wishfull thinking. 

Auckland was today rainy, which I guess for many people is a blessing. Some parts of the countryside was screaming for rain. Auckland is a very hilly city with steepy landscape and lovely houses. Great for exercise, but not so good with a heavy suitcase, I soon came to understand. So I had my lunch at one of the benches when the wind took my almost empty bento and threw a small piece of wasabi on the ground. Within seconds there were sparrows and pigeons around it. You can guess who won. Well, the pigeon who never ever will pick up anything resembling a wasabi piece again. Sorry, this is just a reminder that one should think before one acts.

Which reminds me of what the hell am I doing if the flights are cancelled? One Finnish resident who I contacted here said that I could always go to the farms and do some kiwi-picking, since all the pickers who usually come from abroad, are not able to do it this year. Trying to picture myself in a picture picking kiwis was hard. And now I mean the fruits, not the other kiwis. The feelings I am going through right now are mildly put almost more loke the heavy rain and wind out there in the city now. I am so lucky to have friends who want to help, thank you for all the support! You are so valuable for me at the moment!

I am not looking for special sympathy. Some say you should have seen this coming. Well, honestly how many of us really saw this coming with this magnitude and speed? In New Zealand the media and television has reacted fast. There are commercials for videogames, food ordered to your home and educational clips from the government. All to help people in these extraordinary times. My reasons to travel were simple and naive: I didn't want to loose a substantial amount of money and besides this was my dream from so many years way back. I actually started to talk about this trip in 2013 seriously. That's why it was hard to accept that anything like would happen. We've had these viruses before, but never so aggressive and violent in movements and attacking Europe and the world as this.

As Bill Maher puts it: "What if this virus - and others to come - is somehow connected to how much we've ratfucked the environment? When we upset one thing in nature, it tends to have repercussions down the line. One long fire season then became the new normal. Is anything worth..."

And here we are, facing the fact that we will have to learn new ways to live, with our friends, helping each other. Just imagine the social distance hitting so hard in many businesses, like restaurants and cafés. Do we need fancy clothes anymore, or is there any use in putting a make up in the morning? What will happen to all those markets? There are so many who will be affected of this. They all need our help. Please, remember this.

There is a finnish saying "Kokki sopassa" -sometimes even one cook can spoil the broth! The saying in finnish means slighly different but I do hope that we all think about this. And keep distance.