Covid in New Zealand | My Experience On A Working Holiday

It was surreal to think that just four months ago in Dec 2019, I entered Queenstown to embark on a half-year journey in New Zealand on the Working Holiday Visa. I had wanted to meet new people, work in new jobs, and explore the country. Fast-forward to April 2020, and here we were, still stuck with a covid pandemic that had wreaked havoc around the world.

Plans Thrown Aside

My initial plan for a South Island road trip was set aside as flights were cancelled and roads closed.

Even a short grocery trip to the neighbouring city of Nelson was not possible.

We have entered Level 4 alert. No more day hikes!

The Day It Happened

I recall the day New Zealand announced its first victim – an elderly woman who had returned from Iran, a hot spot then, to Auckland.

I was on my third job, packing pears when the radio above my head boomed.

What were we thinking? Of course, the virus would eventually land in NZ.

It was about time.

Singapore was already grappling with the rise of infected victims. The country’s police force was in full force doing contact tracing, and putting people into quarantine as the numbers soared.

When the authorities moved the alert system to Dorscon Orange (Level 3), Singaporeans went crazy. Hoarding necessities like rice, canned food and Maggi mee, and bulk buying sanitary items such as toilet rolls, sanitisers and hand soap. Healthcare items for a specific group of patients, like alcohol swabs for insulin jabs, went out of stock. Even the sale of condoms went up! But they could have been used for other purposes like pressing the lift buttons.

Wuhan, the epicentre, closed its gates as China began an iron-fisted approach to control the viral spread.

But the malicious virus thrived beyond Asia.

It hitchhiked over to Europe and beyond, taking away lives and shutting down businesses. The USA is the most affected country then, with a million over infected cases.
This nightmare we are in now reminded me of Inferno, a thriller written by my favourite author Dan Brown.

My Experience in New Zealand

I was packing Packham Pears when the radio announced New Zealand’s first case. I turned and looked at a friend standing nearby. It is here, I exclaimed. He was not aware of the news. No one in the packhouse seemed to care.

I was half-expecting someone in our sharehouse to mention the news when we returned after work. But no one except our host responded. You must buy necessities now, children, she warned.

We did as told the next day. Obedient children we are. Buying a few more packets of rice and pasta and canned food but in moderate quantities. Not in the obscene amount you would find on the news page of Singapore when it moved to Dorscon Orange.

Nothing much has changed since then, for some time. Life continued as usual. We were still able to do an overnight tramp in the Nelson Lake National Park and grocery shopping in Nelson for one last time…until New Zealand announced a month-long Level 4 Lockdown. No more mountains. No more travel. No more cheap grocery shopping in Richmond.

I had moved on to another packhouse doing apples instead of pears by the time the lockdown happened.
Luckily for us, apple packing is an essential job. We were able to work, unlike friends in the hospitality sector. Work as usual we did except with stricter regulations. Such as having plastic wraps between us as we pack and being no less than 2 m from each other all the time. This includes washing our hands in the toilet and walking down the stairs. Failure to do so would close our packhouse, the manager shrieked.

Grocery Shopping – The Weekly Fun Excursion

Visiting the supermarket during the weekends was a hassle. We had to queue 2 m apart from each other to enter. One out, one in. But this was also the only fun outdoorsy activity we looked forward to during the lockdown. Life had simplified to the packhouse, our sharehouse and the supermarket.

Sanitised trolleys and baskets lined the entrance as we entered. You cannot pick your tomatoes or kiwis or beans from the box with your bare hands. We saw people wearing masks and plastic gloves. The cashiers worked behind plastic screens. Even the dog model sitting at the exit asking for donations wore a mask.

Perfect Roads for Driving

Practising my driving during this period was a lot less stressful. There were fewer cars on the road and petrol prices were at an all-time low (NZD 1.5/ L).

Evidently, the lockdown was effective in staunching the spread of COVID in New Zealand. It has also helped us save lots of money!

Massive Visa Extensions

There is another silver lining to this chaos – an extension for all those holding on to a Working Holiday Visa that expires between May and July 2020. It is now possible for a Singaporean or Malaysian to work for a year in New Zealand! Meaning: 6 months + 3 months extension due to COVID + 3 months normal extension

2020 Extensions

October 2020: NZ Govt granted another extension visa to the current Working Holiday Visa holders whose visa expires between 1 October 2020 and 31 March 2021. Unlike the previous free extension, this is a new visa called the Supplementary Seasonal Employer Work Visa (SSE). This visa allows the person to work in the horti- or viticulture sectors only, and they can stay in NZ till June 2021.

21 December 2020: Days before our visa was due to convert to SSE on Christmas Day, the government retracted the policy and extended all Working Holiday visas by another six months. We could now work in any sectors we choose and stay in NZ until 25 June 2021.

2021 Extensions

June 2021: Unsurprising to find our visas extended once more at the very last moment. Several nervous backpackers in the same predicament had posted questions in various Facebook groups. A few even sent emails to the immigration agency and shared screenshots of the replies on the groups. We were grading kiwis in Te Puke when the news arrived and could stay in NZ until Christmas Day.

November 2021: By the time the possibly last extension rolled out, I had plans to return to Singapore in January 2022. The extension covers my stay in NZ until 25 June 2022.

Total Extensions: 18 Dec 2019 >>> first extension >>> 25 Sep 2020 >>> 3 months horticulture extension >>> 25 Dec 2020 >>> second extension >>> 25 Jun 2021 >>> third extension >>> 25 Dec 2021 >>> fourth extension >>> 25 Jun 2022

2022 Extensions

March 2022: NZ Immigration Agency finally announced the reopening of the Working Holiday Scheme. NZ is no longer the impenetrable fortress and is slowly inching towards the endemic state. Borders are reopening in stages starting from February 2022.

2020 Level 4 Lockdown

The lockdown is still here, extended by another week to 27 April. It could take another fortnight before the country goes to Level 2, and we could get out of the region for recreation (read: the mountains).

At the same time, we have lost our job in the packhouse. Contract apple pickers from Samoa who cannot return home due to COVID displaced us, the one-time seasonal workers. It’s back to searching for employment.

May 2020: NZ Govt granted wage subsidies to our employer. Previous Samoa pickers were allowed to remain in NZ. They would be receiving a weekly rate from the government to cover their expenses while we continued to work in the packhouse till the end of the season.

Ending

COVID is the biggest event of the year, no doubt. It has affected everyone in all aspects. Yet, despite its oppressive presence, it has led to more genuine bonding between friends and family, more introspection and more creativity.

Edit: The North Island, in particular Auckland state, experienced several lockdowns in 2021. After the nationwide Level 4 lockdown in 2020, Auckland reverted to another round of lockdown later in the year. 2021 saw the emergence of a new virulent variant, and several states in the North Island went into lockdown from around August to October. We were lucky to have escaped a week-long lockdown in Auckland in March 2021 and another Cambridge/ Hamilton lockdown in October 2021, right after the lambing season. You can read more about the covid timeline in NZ here.