We’ve started working on this post in early March when life was almost as usual. And now we are counting our days in lockdown, promising we are never going to take what we like for granted. Because now when we are not allowed to leave our houses, lots of us have finally understood how we love freedom and our traditions.
We mean all of us have traditions. It can be routine like having a cuppa coffee in favourite cafe or play with kids at the beach. For us, it’s spending time outdoors exploring New Zealand and sharing our experience with you. Just in several hours all of this became unavailable and we all now have to find other ways to entertain, learn, communicate etc.
Quick disclaimer: all photos for this post were shot in February and early March before New Zealand went into lockdown. Since then we have been staying at home and encourage others to do the same
LOCKDOWN
This post is more like a diary, we’re trying to get our thoughts together and share what we feel. We’re not going to write about facts or news of what is happening in the country as it’s available everywhere else. We want you to know that if you feel a little bit lost, unproductive or lazy – you’re not alone. We all are in this together and even people who are used to working from home still have to adjust to new reality for this lockdown.
But it’s not all that bad. Earlier this month we spoke to our friends – fellow New Zealand business-owners about how this lockdown and self-isolation affect their companies. And we were pleased to know that most of them can see some good things in this situation. Staying positive and trying to continue safely working on your business is a key in this scenario.
Even though we had to cancel many of our projects in March including big trip to Wellington, we still managed to get some things done. We visited Sea Life Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium and went for the Penguin Passport Experience tour which was absolutely amazing. It was one of the most fun things we’ve ever done and it made to our list of TOP 18 AUCKLAND ATTRACTIONS.
MARCH TRAVEL VIDEOS
Since the beginning of 2020, we were focusing on producing more content including videos for our YouTube channel and, of course, blog posts. In last 2 years, we filmed so much footage that we weren’t able to publish all of it. We have already posted a series of Christchurch Travel Videos, Hawke’s Bay Travel Guide, Top Auckland attractions and a number of vlogs, but we still have much more in the works. You can expect to see more New Zealand travel videos about Northland, Christchurch and Auckland as well as updates about Russia. Make sure to hit the subscribe button and turn on notifications to stay up to date with our new uploads.
MARCH BLOG POSTS
In terms of blog posts, we are feeling super inspired to write more. We have more time and energy, and we work on some new topics as well as some content that was waiting on our hard drives for some time. Of course, self-isolation gave us many ideas and that’s why we decided to share our favourite travel movies and also put together 12 ways you can travel the world without leaving your home. We want to provide you with more content to be entertained during lockdown and take this opportunity to work on something we usually don’t really have time for. Who knows, maybe we are starting our new tradition here with more regular updates? ?
TRAVEL PLANS
We also want to talk a little about our travel plans. We know lots of people are so confused and have no idea what to do with their purchased plane tickets or tours. As we mentioned, we already had to cancel our Wellington trip and we got full refund from Airbnb for the booked accomodation. Nobody knows how long this pandemic will stay around and how soon we will be able to travel again. So our advice is if in doubt – cancel your trips and ask for a refund. This is probably the safest way to deal with this situation as most companies offer refunds or vouchers, so you don’t have to worry about your future travels. Once it’s safe, you can book your new adventure (we’re sure there will be lots of sales and promotions as tourism will be massively affected by boarder closures).
We were planning a big trip to Russia, Europe and Uzbekistan later this year but by the look of it, we will have to reschedule and reorganise this adventure. We have airplane tickets for July but as I’m writing this, I’m almost sure we are not going to use them. Even if we go somewhere when it’s safe, it’s definitely not going to be the same scale of adventure, maybe something short just to see our families back in Russia. So we’ll have to come up with other plan for next year.
STAY POSITIVE
And one final thing. Try to stay positive. This is something humanity has never experienced before, so we all have to work on this together to deal with it. Stay home as much as possible and remember that you help saving lives by doing so. Try to stay physically active, do yoga or short workouts (there are heaps new videos on YouTube), get some fresh air at your backyard or deck or balcony. And try to come up with a routine, wake up early, don’t stay up until late, have your tea and food at certain time, – it’s important to create your own schedule as there is no-one else to tell you what you need to do. Take this time to learn new things, watch some TV shows, chat with your friends online and maybe start a new hobby you always wanted to have.
STAY SAFE!
LISTEN TO OUR MARCH PLAYLIST: LADY GAGA, BILLIE EILISH, ELLIE GOULDING AND MORE
