After spending two amazing weeks traveling around New Zealand's South Island in a campervan, we were hit hard by reality when we caught up with the news mid-march. Covid-19 had changed from a distant virus to global pandemic that was about to change all our plans.
I know it's been a while since I wrote, but I wanted to share how we ended our world trip. Like us, I know there are many travelers that were caught by surprise, got stuck on the other side of the world and had to find their way home. I hope you are all safe and healthy! Here is our story.
Blissfull ignorance
The two weeks in our campervan were supposed to be our last two weeks in New Zealand before making our way to Chili, South America. We were so in the moment and busy enjoying our Vanlife that we had not really made any plans for Chili, something we kept postponing. The Wifi in New Zealand is not great and with very limited electricity we were not very up to date about what was happening in the World. We knew about Covid-19 but we thought it was a fairly harmless and far away virus. Little did we know that it would change everything.
On the 15th of March we returned our campervan in Christchurch and were excited for our next steps. Back in a hostel, we caught up with the news and realised that Covid-19 turned into a serious pandemic, that Europe had become the new epicentre of the virus and consequently our homecountries were rapidly going into lockdown. Peru, one of our destinations, had just closed its borders and other countries were following. Still we felt like we were on the right side of the globe and that it would all be fine.
Big Decisions - South America no more
The next day it was as if everything suddenly changed at an exponential pace. More countries started to set up strict quarantaine and lockdown measures. Bolivia, where we wanted to go after Chili, had also closed its borders and our governments started giving out negative travel advices for many countries, but not yet for Chili. We were extremely conflicted at that point as we were supposed to fly on the 17th. Obviously we wanted to continue our trip, when else would we get the chance to travel for such a long time? but all signs were saying we should not go.
We reasoned that it was only a matter of time before Chili would also close down. New Zealand is a beautiful, wealthy and safe country that was hardly impacted by Covid-19 at that point. This seemed the place to be, an island state, far away from everything. We decided to stay and cancel our flight to Chili, at least we did not book anything ahead so financially, we only lost our flight. This choice however, meant that we would not go to South America at all. From this point on we knew that our trip was not going to end as we expected. Mixed feelings dominated those days, dissapointment, uncertainty, relief, happiness, fear and hope seemed to pop up interchangeably.
Covid-19 changing the city image
Initially we decided to just stay in New zealand, wait till the virus would slow down in Europe and then make our way home. We were happy and healthy and who wouldn't want to stay in this fantastic country? We enjoyed our time Christchurch, went to the beach, did some shopping and walked around the beautiful botanical gardens. In NZ however, we also started seeing more Covid cases and we saw the life in the city change. It was quiet on the streets and warning notices were all over the place. People were getting scared.
The world closing it's borders
On the 19th the travel advice from our governments became negative for the entire world, something that never happened before in a time of peace. Globally countries were urgently requesting their citizens to come home. That same day we also heard that many major airlines were cancelling all their flights after 30th of March and the NZ government now urged people to stay home and cancelled all events. These factors combined lead us to the big decision to go home as soon as possible. That night we called our travel agent Kilroy in Belgium (12 hours time difference were not very helpful) and asked if they could help us book a flight home. This proved challenging as Austalia and other tranist hubs started to close borders for transit flights. Due to the distance, it is impossible to get a direct flight from New Zealand to Europe and suddenly you realize how far away you really are. Luckily we managed to get a flight on the 28th of March via LA and London to Amsterdam. We directly booked a domestic flight to Auckland so we would be able to get on our flight.
Making choices is not easy, but it does give you peace of mind. We could relax and enjoy our last week here. Or so we thought. on the 21st of March the NZ prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced their Covid-19 alert levels system and that the entire country would go to level 2 out of 4 immidiately. Shops were closing, people had to go home and travel within the country was strongly discouraged. Again these mixed feelings. Would hostels stay open? Could we still go out? Would flights be canceled? The uncertainty is killing. Still, I can only give praise to the Kiwi's and their amazing prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, about how that handled the situation. Kindness was all we experienced from the Kiwi's and I admire the decisive, honest and empathic way that all measures were implemented.
Locked up abroad - Lockdown
On the 23rd the PM announced that NZ moved up to alert level 3 and that it would go into full lockdown (level 4) within 48 hours. I joined a whatsapp group with other Dutch people in NZ we were all getting desperate. Flights were being cancelled all around, domestic travel was limited and there was very little information available. Embassies were unreachable and the information from the NZ government was inconclusive about the faith of the thousands of foreign travelers that were stuck. Our flights were still ok, but we weren´t sure for how long. The people in our hostel, Around the Globe backpackers, were very friendly and supportive, they stayed open for travelers that got stuck. At some point we were wondering if we should just stay put in Christchurch. It seemed likely that our flights would also get cancelled. However, we decided to take our chances and hope for best. We took our domestic flight on the 24th to Auckland and went into lockdown in a hostel. All we could do now was accept the situation and hope for the best.
Around the globe in 48 hours
What was supposed to be a trip around the world in 6 months, ended with a trip around the globe in 2 days. We were going home! Miraculously our flights did not get cancelled (they did change, but luckily we got rebooked) and we made our way to the airport. Armed with our mouthmasks, desinfecting gel and our ESTA we took off to our first stop Los Angeles. We were allowed to enter the USA and even got to explore a bit of LA during our 14hour layover. The city was empty and we had the walk of fame to ourselves. Strange vibes. The only people we saw were the homeless, roaming the streets or hanging out in their tents that were seen everywhere. As LA was also in lockdown, we could not do much and soon went back to the airport.
In the evening we continued our journey to London. Another 12 hour flight, without proper food (service was understandably disrupted due to Covid-19), and without 1.5 metre distance. We were a bit scared to catch the virus on our trip, mostly to become carriers infecting others, but all went well. I have lots of respect and am very thankful to the staff of American Airlines and British Airways for bringing us home during these strange times! After another few hours waiting in London we got onto our final flight and made it to Amsterdam. My parents picked us up and took us home. Exhausted but safe!
What's Next?
We realise that we are one of the lucky ones, we made it back without too much trouble, we did not get sick and still had nearly five months of our amazing trip around the world. Things don't always go as planned and being flexible is the only way forward. Now we are staying in the Netherlands and are looking to start a new chapter in our life here. We are looking for a job and will see where life takes us next!
Stay safe
xxx Alex & Yvette
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