Day 53 * Wednesday 13 May 2020

Last day of lockdown, for 53 days we have been restricted in a way we never have seen before!! As of midnight tonight we are officially in Level 2 which means we can visit friends (go into their houses), have a haircut (Sophie rang today and booked me in for Friday, yay!), go into cafe and have a coffee/food, visit the Plaza and shop (I need a new whisk as managed to break mine 50 days ago), hug Zane, and travel out of our region - we may pop up to Taupo this weekend. Still some restrictions though. Initially the govt. had a 10 person restriction on weddings. tangi and funerals. Within hours today it was changed (under pressure) to up to 50 people. It is all about contact tracing. Hygiene and contact tracing in place in school, we start back on Monday. Children left at the gate, manned by Matt, Louise and I in the morning. There will be a pick up plan each afternoon too so parents don't need to enter school grounds. It's going to be interesting. New Zealand has got off lightly with 21 deaths, but for each of them there are family and friends grieving. We are also down to 0-2 cases a day over the past week. Here's hoping it stays that way. Just had to finish off with a photo taken when the kids joined our bubble and Lucy got into coloured pencils (Nanny's fault!) and they were the watercolour ones - next minute faces were drawn all over! There will be many memories we will treasure during this bonus time in our bubbles. "Stay safe and take care"