Jami's Project - Day 13

This is my daily entry in Jami's Project whereby she wants to create a collection of journal entries from people of different ages, from different countries and different parts of this country, during this 30 day Coronavirus period. She wants to highlight how "in this together" we all are, regardless of government policies, and the influence it will have on our wellbeing and to evaluate what individuals do to cope.  She has participants from Alaska, Canary Island, France, Canada and Norway.

Another gloomy, overcast day.  We hear there has been rain over on the east coast.  I sure as hell wish it would come this way.  

I think my main frustration with being in isolation is not being able to go for a drive to see how the surrounding areas are looking.  When it's really dry here I usually take a drive over to the west coast where, because of their sandy soil, they dry out a lot more than we do here.  I can then give thanks and appreciate that we are lucky to live where we do beside the mountains that attract the rain (most of the time).  I miss taking a drive to a beach somewhere.  Just because I love the ocean, no other reason.  Will I appreciate even more being able to do that when all this is over?  How quickly will we all just slip back into how we were, taking things for granted?  If I promise myself now that I won't allow that to happen, will I remember in a month or so?

I confess that I did take a drive just over a km down the road then into the forest to check that everything was in order at the lodge, everything securely locked, all electrical appliances like the refrigerator and chiller were turned off, no leaking taps, etc.  I think this is allowed under our Essential Services guidelines but I did feel so guilty and was extra careful thinking how awful it would be if something bad happened and I was the one busted needing the assistance of the emergency services.    A small tree had fallen across part of the access road and I was so conscious of not getting into any strife that I didn't attempt to remove it, just crept the car past it being extra careful not to let the car get too far off the road where I might get into difficulty.  

I maintain the boot cleaning station at the entrance to the Tangihua Forest where visitors disinfect their footwear to protect against Kauri Dieback.  We are the only forest in NZ to not have Kauri dieback and we want it to stay that way because it destroys Kauri trees of all sizes and ages - and the ecology that relies on them.  Hunting and tramping (bushwalking or hiking) is on the Covid No-No list so the boot cleaning station should not have any use right now but, really, I don't think it's worth the risk to our beautiful kauri trees to stop the maintenance on the boot cleaning station.  I'm not becoming a rebel.  Honestly.

The Daily Count
1106 total cases, 17 in Northland
67 new cases
13 in hospital
176 recovered
1 death