Hello again and welcome back to New Zealand under the microscope. Today is a special episode and we are connecting with our friend Simon right now in New Zealand. Hi, Simon.

Hi, Lulu. How are you?

Yeah, I'm fine and dealing with the second surge in Beijing, hopefully not gonna be too bad. I've heard situation in New Zealand is really good right now, so you're no longer in lockdown, everything's back to normal.

Yes, I think officially we're in level one, lockdown level one. There's one or two restrictions. We can't go around kissing strangers, for example. But more or less of everything is back to normal.

Good. So I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to talk about your experience in New Zealand under lockdown.

Sure.

When did you announce the lockdown? When did it officially start? Was it in March?

February, I think it was the end of February or early March. So we first in New Zealand heard about the virus around late January. I think it was around the 20th, the 27th of January. It was reported that it was a group of New Zealanders that were living in Wuhan. And they’ve been, I think they’ve got into the quarantine in Wuhan. And the New Zealand government wanted to bring them home. And then I'm pretty sure it was early March that we went into lockdown.

You just mentioned lockdown levels. So the maximum level was that you experienced was level four. Right?

That's correct. So level four is you can't go out, unless you're a central worker other than for a short local walk. So people were allowed to go outside and do some exercise in their garden or on their street as long as they weren't coming into contact with anyone else.

What about going to supermarket, going grocery shopping?

So people over 70 years old were told to get young people to do the shopping for them. Supermarkets were open. There were some very heavy requirements, only certain supermarkets could stay open. But the ones that were allowed to, they had restrictions on how many people could enter the supermarket at one time. So they were long, very, very long queues. And everyone had to stand 2 meters apart in those queues.

That's exactly what we went through during the lockdown period. But what was the first reaction? How did you feel when the lockdown was announced?

Often, for me personally, I'm self employed. So I was quite happy to stay at home, not have to go to meetings. My work carried on as normal. But instead of driving around the country, meeting clients, I was using Zoom, Skype or other video meeting software.

So you were okay. Did other people freak out?

Yeah. So New Zealand people were pretty, we get excited quite easily. So I think that's a nice way to put it. We collectively, we went into panic stations. So when it was announced we're going to level four,everyone just went to the supermarket, descended to the supermarkets. People sort of came to the conclusion that it was the end of the world, it was an apocalypse. Yeah, we were not cool.

And they’re base stocking up on what? Food or toilet paper?

So there's a little bit stocking up of toilet paper. There was a lot of stocking up on hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes. There're quite a few supermarkets in the first week, or some of lockdown ran out of food. But the reality is, New Zealand produces food. We export huge amounts of food.

So people are not overly worried about food.

I don’t think so. I don't think it was legitimate worries. I think some people like the excuse to panic. They went to and bought as much as they possibly could.

I was gonna say toilet paper, what is the fascination with toilet paper? Because in China that's really not one of our concerns. But it seems like many countries around the world are stocking up on toilet paper.

I personally don't get it either. But you know, having gone and camped in the bush and having to use leaves when you go to the toilet is not pleasant. So certainly toilet paper isn’t important. But it's quite funny you mention it. I have a friend in New Zealand, he's a website developer. He's got a very twisted sense of humor. So he got bored under lockdown and decided to set up a website selling toilet paper by the roll.

You're joking.

So it was a joke. He wasn't doing it seriously. And so he put some stupid prices on it, like $3, $5, I can’t remember, for a roll of toilet paper, plus courier fees. And he had all these people from Australia. They're not even New Zealand, from another country buying toilet paper on his website by the roll and having been couriered to Australia. So let's just say one roll of toilet paper is about $3, which is, I don't know, maybe 15 rmb, but then they're paying another 150 RMB for the courier fee.

That just sounds like total panic there. But speaking of panic, apart from these daily necessities that or people were panic buying, were they struggling or facing any other challenges? For example, financial difficulties? Because businesses obviously had to close down many of them.

So during the lockdown, the government was quite generous. They provided funding to businesses to pay staff requirements. They've got a government loan system, which is a no interest loan that goes to businesses to show them over for the next 12 months. There's a whole lot of financial support for businesses that are struggling.

What about individuals?

Individuals? Sure. So in New Zealand, we've got a quite a generous unemployment benefit system. So if you don't have a job, you don't have an income. You can apply to the government. And the government will each week pay you money. And it's not a luxury lifestyle. You're not going to, it's not like you're suddenly rich, you're definitely not. But it's certainly a superior system to many other countries.

So it's enough to get by?

Well, one person considers getting by compared to what another person considers getting by is quite different. But you can pay your rent, you can buy your food, can pay your electricity bills, the basic stuff. But you're not gonna be able to go out to five star restaurants every night.

But don't people have savings during times like this? Didn't they dig into their savings for a rainy day?

Yeah. No. We are really bad in New Zealand for saving money. If we've got money, we will spend it. So there was a government report came out, it suggested that people only had enough savings to last them for two weeks. So without an income, They would run out of money within two weeks, which is quite scary, really.

Yeah, I start to understand why people panicked, because without the ongoing income, they're gonna run out of money very, very quickly. So that part was funded by the government. That still doesn't help with the, obviously, the sudden change in lifestyle. I know around the world, certainly, in China that I have seen, people have been doing a lot of things to keep themselves busy and keep themselves saying during the lockdown. And what have people been doing in New Zealand during the lockdown period to keep themselves entertained so to speak.

A lot of dancing and filming themselves dancing. So we've been bombarded by videos of family dancers. (Terrible...) Another thing which is quite popular all over the country, people have put Teddy bear. Teddy bears in the windows of their houses. So kids, when they're walking around outside, going for their daily exercise, they can go and count where the bears are and put up on line where they saw bears. So that was quite cute.

Like a Teddy bear hunt.

Yes. I know that in certain supermarkets they have sold out of condoms. So read into that what you will.

Obviously, people have been keeping busy.

We can probably expect maybe a spike and in kids in the next nine months. Yeah.

Now if you use condoms...

No... yeah, touche.

All right. But what have you been doing personally? Have you been working?

Yeah, because I'm self employed, unable to work from wherever I've been working quite a lot. I've also been gardening. I know I sound like an old person. So I grow a range of vegetables and fruit. In fact, here we often eat what I grow, which is nice. It's quite satisfying.

You sound very self reliant. I think that's why you coped very well with the lockdown.

I personally, as I said before, I quite enjoyed the lockdown. I liked not having to see people.

You sound like a hermit. So apart from gardening, apart from working, did you also do exercise, a regular exercise? Did you, let's say, go for a walk every day doing things like that?

It's funny, during lockdown because we going out for a walk once a day. I actually did. That's probably I got more exercise during lockdown than I do when we're actually supposed to go outside. So prior to lockdown, I would always be driving around the country, going to meetings. And when you're living out of hotels or your car, in some cases, it's too easy to go to Mcdonalds or Burger King.

Fast food.

And so purely by eating food and vegetables everyday.

From your own garden.

Over six weeks, I lost 10 kg largely due to healthy eating.

So that is your lockdown diet. Very lucky because a lot of people get super down during the lockdown, and then they resorted to eating a lot of snacks on healthy food. And many people I know have gained weight during this period. But you sound like you have thoroughly enjoyed, if not enjoyed, at least made the most out of being under lockdown. Did you experience any low moment? Did you ever have the feeling of when will this be over? When will life back to normal?

Yes, the low points came about when watching the TV or looking online. Unfortunately, the New Zealand media often takes its news stories from Australia or from the US, there's been a lot of anti China reporting in those countries. We do also get that in New Zealand. Having moved in China for many years, I consider China and actually Beijing, like my second hometown. I felt it was just so unfair how the western media is really fixating attacking China. It just seems so hypocritical,seems so unnecessary. Their systems certainly not working, but they have to deflect and attack China. It just made me really annoyed. I gave up watching TV after a week of that.

I think especially during the lockdown, especially when the whole world is facing such an unprecedented,well unprecedented in our living memory, the pandemic, people could use some positive energy, could use some words of comfort and all that, instead of having to live through completely negative comments day in and day out, I think that would depress anyone. And I certainly went through some really depressive episodes. We're just seeing no hope. I would say a lot of people are facing stress during this very, very unusual times. And many are struggling with certain level of mental health issues.

Absolutely. We have seen that in New Zealand, unfortunately, there's been an increase in family violence. And there's been a small but noticeable spike in racism. New Zealand is pretty good at reporting these types of things these type of negative things so monitoring them and seeing the increase. So the government, our prime minister Jacinda Dern, every time she goes on TV, she's always pushing: be kind, respect others, be kind, support your family, your neighbors. And certainly the government has put a lot of effort into trying to support people with mental health issues.

It's nice to hear this kind of be kind this messages out. This is such a tough time for many people, for many families, for many businesses. I think what we need to do is really, really try to seek out the brighter side of things and then try to collaboratively to seek a way to get out of this.

And then some something else which I've noticed over the past few weeks. So we came out of lock down several weeks ago. And just walking around the streets, I've been really impressed in that occasion you have racist comments. It could be anti-China, it could be anti-Asia, it could be just racism. But I've noticed that people are less tolerant of it. So I was walking around the other day and someone made a passing comment, racist comment. The people around them turn to them and said, hey, why did you say that? Why are you being racist? Well, I think actually this covid thing, it's been absolutely terrible. But the message that the governments been sending out about support people, be kind. I actually think it's making a difference. I think people are actually standing up. And when they see someone that's being discriminated against, they're going in and supporting them and helping them. And I find that is very positive. I really like that.

Actually, you've answered my question. I was gonna ask, now things are getting back to normal, have you noticed any changes in people's lives and behaviors? And you certainly gave us a hopeful note to end today's discussion. To be honest, I mean, nobody could have really predicted this whole pandemic. But hopefully we're getting something out of this experience, not just having you look back and think that was a terrible few month, at least taking something positive out of it. Thank you very much, Simon, for connecting with us. And in the future we'll checking with you. And then we can talk about New Zealand and life in New Zealand a bit more.

Thank you. And I look forward to it. Cheers, Lulu.

And we'll see you next time. Bye.

Kia ora, Kakiteh. Bye bye.

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