Last night NZ decided to close all ports for cruise ships effective tonight (Sunday) at midnight. Not too long thereafter, we received an email from Silversea that our cruise, scheduled to depart Auckland on March 17 (two days from now) was cancelled. Major bummer!
This morning, on our ferry ride from the south island to the north island, I booked a flight to Melbourne, Australia on March 17, since we have 6 weeks of planned activities in Australia starting on March 31. Today, Australia announced that anybody flying into the country after midnight tonight would have to spend 14 days in self isolation. What exactly does that mean??? Do we need a hotel room in the middle of nowhere for 14 days that supplies food, water and toilet paper? Nobody is making it clear what they mean by “self islolation”, particuarly for tourists. How can we travel there with so many unknowns?
I have booked many places in Australia that don’t allow for cancellation. We will see how far they push that with the recent Corona virus bullshit, but we are ready to come home. Australia is stating they may make things more restrictive in the near future, and we can’t take that chance.
I just finished being on hold with United for 2 hours to try to change our return flight on May 13 from Sydney to something in the next week from Auckland, and they couldn’t hear me on the phone, and then hung up. Now I’m on hold for at least another hour and a half, hoping I don’t get hung up on again!
All of this because China didn’t want to lose face about letting a virus get loose in their country and kept it under wraps for a month! I will never visit China! F&%* those lying assholes!
Did you two get back home safely? Such a bummer to cut short this trip of a lifetime. I was vicariously enjoying every post.
New Zealand is definitely on our bucket list after seeing its immense beauty. Thanks for sharing.
We are still in NZ. We decided to come home on March 24th. I’ll post an update tonight. Thanks Mark!