There have been good times and bad…

We have not long got home from a trip to Central Otago, unfortunately we brought back Covid with us and now in isolation until next week.

It has been rough, today is the first day I am seeing a slight turnaround in Rich and Luca, they got hit way harder than me . This is the first time any of us have had it, we consider ourselves fortunate to have got this far without succumbing, but it still sucks. Luca had such high fevers while we were away that he lost consciousness which was very scary ,(it’s the second time this has happened to him with a high temperature). It was 2am, we heard big bang in the bathroom and found Luca out cold, took us a while to bring him around, he proceeded to vomit and that continued for the next 24 hours. Rich does not have the vomiting but it has laid him flat with high fevers, a lot of pain everywhere and nausea. Luca lost his sense of taste and it still has not returned, it was that symptom that prompted me to test us all. I had been feeling unwell before we went to Central, had tested and was negative, but I was definitely positive by the time we got home!

However for the first couple of days in Central we had a good time 🙂 I had gone for work and so while I did that, the boys hit the water jet boating (Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ)…

By the the afternoon I was all done and we checked into our accommodation, it was a very basic hostel type place, but the views were gorgeous…

We found a lovely place to have dinner, Beech Tree Pub, local craft beer, great food, fireplace, couches and dogs everywhere, (clearly the place all the local bring their dogs). We relaxed and played trivia into the evening..

I lived in Queenstown many moons ago and worked as a chambermaid in the Rydges Hotel there, I hardly recognize the place now, it has grown so much and got so very busy. However I did find an old familiar that has not changed at all…The Cow, a Queenstown institution, oldest restaurant there, it was originally a stable for milking cows turned into a pizza place in the 70’s and been that way ever since.

The next day we were up early to hit the local bike trail, not before Luca had his time with Eugene (the mascot goat from the place we were staying ). Luca was pretty desperate to bring him home with us but alas they did not want to part with him, yes we did ask 🙂

We then hit the trail….

Luca and Bas, a local we met along the way… :). There are some lovely historic places dotted here and there, the settings of these really lovely.

Luca and Rich had found a Sal’s, (Luca’s favorite NZ pizza) ,that was the incentive for Luca, to make it there for a late lunch and so we did…

At this time of the year you never know what you are going to get weather wise, we were so very lucky it held, despite taking all our wet weather gear we did not need it!

The next day we were in Arrowtown for some hiking. First a breakfast, shared with the locals…

Last time we were here Luca could stand up in this!

We saw this little guy on the way, not a good sign for him to be out like this in daylight, I figured he must be ill or injured. Pretty sure it was the second. He would not have appreciated us trying to help and no local vet would intervene being the pest they are, but it was still hard to walk away,

Again the weather held for us and we had a great hike with spectacular views.

Arrowtown…

Love the colours at this time of year, hard to capture on my camera.

We had just taken this “short cut”, Tobins Drop, to get us back on the right trail to head back

That night COVID hit in full force and we knew we had to get home as soon as possible. Up before sunrise after Luca’s early morning incident, we packed the car and hit the road, Rich and Luca slept for most of the trip thankfully.

As anticipated on arrival home there were more large holes in the walls, which are now covered with plywood while we await supplies. There has been a supply issue again, so now instead of things being finished by the end of next week, we are looking at at least another 6 weeks. This is an industry issue not our builder. He is just as frustrated as we are, as had ordered ours months ago. I talked with our insurance company today and they said they have so many in the same boat. The industry standard has changed and so none of the current stock is to be used, it all has to change to the new standard, which is now all special order.

There is nothing we can do but wait, in the meantime we feel lucky to have our fire, we are truly in winter now and it keeps us warm despite the lack of insulation…

The ventilation and heat system is in and most of the electrical. The window looking into our current living area has now gone.

At least it has been blue and sunny since we got home, helps to lift the spirits. Come summer we will look back on all this and laugh, but for now we just push on through 🙂