MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) Diary 2021

It’s now been nearly 6 weeks since 12 November when Lillian and I entered Managed Isolation and Quarantine upon flying to New Zealand from the UK. Our timing was fortunate as the MIQ period had just been reduced from 2 weeks to 7 days. As of now, following the spread of the Omicron variant, it’s been increased up to 10 days. I wondered whether adding the year to title of this post was superfluous as our MIQ experience felt like a once in a lifetime thing. However I’m not sure it will be… though I certainly hope that it was.

Below are Lillian’s daily posts from our week of MIQ.

Day 1

Feeling lucky to have been allocated the Naumi Hotel near Auckland Airport (you only find out where you are being sent once you get onto the bus after being escorted through all the checks at the airport with some arrivals being flown onto another city). Nice big room, lots of light and even a little balcony which we are not allowed to go out on until our tests come back negative. Day 1 was mainly spent trying to stay awake (we lasted until 8pm) and watching Netflix for the first time ever (Squid Game).

Day 2

We got the coveted Blue Band in the afternoon 🥳! A bit like the ones in an all inclusive holiday resort (which I guess this is 😂). The Blue Band (which shows that the wearer tested negative on day 1) opens up a whole new world in quarantine – the ability to sit outside on our balcony (with masks on), twice daily access to the “fresh air space” and the laundry service!

Day 3

Welcome to the “Fresh Air Space”! Thanks to The Blue Band, we now have access to the exercise area – a fenced in carpark where we can walk/run, twice a day in allocated slots for up to 40mins at a time. According to my Garmin, each lap is a grand total of 120 metres as long as we hug the perimeter . The Rules include: 1. Walking in an anti-clockwise direction only – luckily we are used to turning left from many years of London Dynamo Saturday park ride laps 😂 2. No stopping (in case bubbles merge) 3. No eating, drinking or use of mobile phones 4. Masks 😷 to be worn at ALL times even when running.

See that white hut in the picture? There’s an army guy in it watching us and making sure we comply with The Rules. There’s also other security guard out of shot plus CCTV.

Still – I’ve never been so happy to be able to run outside! Might even be the “local legend” on Strava by the end of the week 😂.

Day 4

Psyched for our 6am exercise slot we were ready to do our run and sprints only to find a message outside our door to say that the exercise area would be closed all morning due to people arriving/leaving/having covid tests 😢. Things got better from there however! We were rewarded at our 2pm slot when our guard removed the barrier to the grassy area! This added another 80metres to each lap of Fresh Air Space 🥳 to make a grand total of 200 metres per lap 😁.

And….on return to our room there was a big bag of goodies outside our door 🤔. We left them there a while, then called reception who said the bag was for us 🤷🏻‍♀️. I’m still convinced that they delivered to the wrong room, I’m sure there’s someone in the Naumi wondering where their TimTams and apples are. We’ll try not to eat it all at once 😂.

Day 5

Five days in and our ears are now completely attuned to the sounds of an impending food delivery as meals can be delivered at any time during a 2 hour time window. There were a few false alarms in the beginning but now we have it down to a tee.

First there’s the quiet rustle of paper bags from somewhere down the corridor, followed by muffled sounds of doors opening and closing. Faint cries can be heard in the distance.

That’s the signal for us to start getting ready – the windows and balcony door are shut (to reduce the spread of covid apparently) and time to put the mask on!

The rustling and the banging gradually get louder and louder until there’s a knock on our door and a shout of breakfast/lunch/dinner. Picture 1 shows the best sight in you’ll see in quarantine 3 times a day – a humble paper bag laden with whatever we have chosen from the menu.

After filling in the questionnaire this morning there was a phone call from the hotel manager himself in the afternoon to say thank you for the lovely feedback and that there would be a special treat with our dinner.

Thinking of yesterday’s random goodie bag our hopes were high. Could it be a nice box of chocolates perhaps? Extra dessert? Maybe a couple of beers to go with our lamb kleftiko? Nope. It was a small bag of jelly beans (although somehow we ended up with double as there was another knock on the door an hour later and we found yet another small bag of jelly beans outside) 🤷🏻‍♀️

Day 6

It’s been a dry quarantine…until this evening! Thanks to the jet lag, although we’ve managed to stay awake all day we’ve been too tired in the evening to drink…until today. On the first day we went to bed at 8pm, sleeping solidly until about 4am. We’ve managed to shift that back by about half an hour each day.

Plus Mark reliably informs me that is the 20th anniversary of our engagement (I don’t think he really remembers the date…but his iPhone does 🤣).

Day 7

Final day! The last 7 days have gone by quickly. We (mainly me 🙄) were so stressed in the weeks leading up to the move that it’s been nice spending a week in a nice hotel, being able to sleep properly again, watching Netflix, doing online yoga/Pilates and going for a walk in the Fresh Air Space twice a day. We’ve also spent some time trying to sort out our new life with bank accounts, tax numbers, joining a cycling club!

We’ve been lucky that we were allocated a really good hotel and that quarantine was reduced from 14 days to 7 days starting from last weekend. Most of all we will miss the 3 times a day room service and choosing our meals from the daily menu 😂.

Next step: 3 days of home isolation.