This trip was to have taken place in September 2021 but Covid intervened. Kate had been chosen for the New South Wales over 45 Women’s Hockey team to compete in the National Finals and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to be on the sideline. Hockey has always been a great love of mine and I felt that I absolutely had to be on the sideline to watch all her matches. I told myself that neither of us is getting any younger and this opportunity might not happen again.

However, in September 2021, Australia was experiencing high numbers of Covid and New Zealand wasn’t allowing anyone into the country unless they went into quarantine for two weeks. The demand for places far exceeded supply and there were heaps of people who needed to come to New Zealand for very important reasons so I was rather grateful when the event was postponed.

And postponed it was, to March 2022. I managed to change my flights and Kate and I managed to cancel and re-book our accommodation in Newcastle. Then it was a question of researching all the information I could find about how to get into Australia and, just as importantly, back into New Zealand! I was fully vaccinated and boosted but one of my biggest fears was that I might catch Covid in the lead-up to D-day and be turned away at the airport. Perish the thought. 

Accommodation in Newcastle was booked and Kate and I were both triple vaxxed, I realised that I didn’t have any control over who I might bump into as I went about my normal life. In fact, I almost entirely self-isolated the week before I travelled. I’d heard of people who were asymptomatic. What would happen if I had no symptoms but tested positive on the day? I was uncharacteristically very, very apprehensive. Almost to the point of losing sleep over it! Not like me at all!

I read through the Qantas information to find out what test I needed to do before I left and what test I needed to do before I would be allowed to return. It all sounded very scary. I even went to a travel agent in Porirua to see if they could throw any light on the matter. He really didn’t know much but told me to allow 4 hours to cross from domestic to international because of all the paperwork, especially as I was changing airlines in Auckland. Flights were scarce and Qantas had unfortunately cancelled direct flights from Wellington to Sydney so I had to go by Air New Zealand to Auckland first. 

On the Qantas site, I read that there were alternative ways to get tested for the outward journey. I could go to a Pharmacist who would do a RAT test and give me a certificate to confirm that I was negative. That sounded easy. So I went to my own Pharmacist who told me they hadn’t been authenticated to do that. Neither had my doctor. I tried another Pharmacist with the same result. It seemed that the only thing I could do was to make an appointment with SCL in Newtown (Southern Community Laboratories) to have a PCR test for the princely sum of $175. The test had to be done within 72 hours of the flight and they undertook to get the results out within 48 hours. But what would happen if they didn’t? 

I was flying out of Auckland on Monday 7 March at 4.00 pm so 72 hours before that was 4.00 pm on Friday. But, thanks to the travel agent’s advice I was leaving home at 9.00 am on Monday to fly out of Wellington at 10.45 am to allow the 4 hours to cross and change airlines.

By the time I’d tried all the other options, there were no appointments free at SCL on Friday after 4.00 pm so I got an 8.40 am appointment on Saturday morning with my heart in my mouth. That was cutting it fine if the result didn’t arrive until 8.40 on Monday morning and I only had 20 minutes to print it out to take with me. The waiting was excruciating even though I felt perfectly well and reason told me that it was a piece of cake!

As it happened, the result came within 24 hours so all was well and I found that I didn’t have to print it – the airlines would just look at it on my phone. 

So I set off, knowing that the Wellington/Auckland leg with Air New Zealand would be easy.

I collected my case in Auckland and walked across to the International Terminal. I had my passport, of course, my PCR result, and both my New Zealand and International Vaccine Passes. As it turned out, it was easy but I had stupidly allowed myself to worry myself silly in the lead-up and that wasn’t fun.

Having checked in and ‘lost’ my case, I went upstairs thinking I would go through immigration early and have breakfast in the Qantas Lounge. I bought a life membership about 20 years ago because I was doing long hauls frequently and it was lovely to have a shower and a nap when planes didn’t quite coincide. 

To my complete astonishment, the International Terminal was completely deserted. And I do mean deserted. I harboured some nasty thoughts about that Travel Agent and sat on a hard bench waiting for Immigration to open up so that I could go through. For nearly 2 hours!

Finally, Immigration opened and we were allowed through but I was then told that the Qantas Club was not open. So, having relied on being able to get breakfast at the airport – by this time it was about 2.00 pm – I cast around for somewhere to get a coffee and something to eat. There was only one café open in the entire terminal and the officious guy behind the counter asked to see my NZ Vaccine Pass. For some reason, this had disappeared off the screen on my Smartphone. I offered my International Pass but he refused it and said I couldn’t sit in the café – I had to sit somewhere else (seats were hard to find). I found a seat without a table of course, retrieved my NZ Vaccine Pass from my deleted emails, and took a screenshot so that I didn’t lose it again. I showed it to him and he said I could now sit inside the barrier. I couldn’t quite understand his logic and he was very condescending! A few other people were turned away too!

Finally, we were called up and the check-in and the journey itself were easy.

And of course the two weeks I spent with Kate and Bret and family and on various sidelines was wonderful, as was the weather.

Before Kate and I drove to Newcastle, we had a few days to enjoy each other’s company in the four-storey heritage house they’re renovating (what else would they be doing) in the Barangaroo area of Sydney? I’d arrived on a Monday and we weren’t leaving until Saturday so there was plenty of time to go for very short walks between showers, meet up with Rotary friends who drove down for lunch and generally try to help with a few odd jobs like reconciling visa statements and catching up with the ironing. Kate is so busy with the builders every day that normal day-to-day tasks have been put on the back burner. And Bret was working full time from home.

Unfortunately, the weather prior to my arrival had consisted of continuous rain for three weeks so the scaffolding that was erected at the back of their house had been unused. They were using a rather awful product to strip the paint off the back wall of the house, ready for repainting.

Despite their hard work, I’m glad to say they made time each morning to take their Bichon Frise, Bailey, and me for a walk around the waterfront to stretch all our legs and get out of the dust and mess in the house. The Rosellas were out in full force with their raucous calls but very beautiful plumage.

On Saturday, we left for Newcastle, by which time all the scaremongering I’d put myself through, began to fade. Our accommodation was very suitable and sported an indoor pool and spa which was good to relax in in the evenings.

I was immensely proud of my, now 50, eldest daughter. And when we arrived at the stadia and saw the beautiful pitches they were going to play on, I got very excited!

Distractions were frowned upon and the coach required the players to be ready for team talks and warm-ups a good hour before each game. I kept myself well out of the way and was delighted to meet Trish, Mardy’s mother, and we watched all the games together and got on famously. I know we’ll meet again in the future when I’m in Sydney.

The speed of the players was seriously fast, even without considering their age, and it wasn’t surprising that players were subbed in and out to have brief rests.

There was, of course, time to relax and watch some of the other matches and while Trish and I chatted, Kate and Mardy also had some time to enjoy each other’s company.

I enjoyed chats with various members of the team and the coach and learned a lot about how the game has changed since I was playing in the 1960s. 

We were very proud Mums as it was but when the New South Wales team won the tournament, well, that was definitely the icing on the cake.

And so it was time to go home on Friday after watching the final which NSW won by what was termed ‘wobbleoffs’ (replacing penalty flicks) after a 2-2 draw with ACT. It was sad to say goodbye to the team, particularly the three players that Kate had become especially close to, Amy, Jayne, and Mardy.

Although the weather for the week of hockey had been exemplary with plenty of sunshine but a little bit of cloud to keep the heat at bay, we returned home to a huge thunderstorm, enough to frighten Bailey and make him bark. 

Bret took time off from office work on Saturday so the morning walk was slightly longer because there’s a street market near their house and that’s an opportunity to catch up with friends and neighbours, who are also walking their dogs.

But there wasn’t any opportunity to take time off from the renovations and we had a very busy day carrying endless stuff up from the basement to the fourth floor so that the builders could start work on Monday to tear down some walls and install the lift up to the third floor. Everything in the kitchen in the basement also had to be moved and carried up to the ground floor so that the entire basement could be torn apart. I’d been camping on a sofa bed in the basement so they were glad that I was now on the move and they could retreat to their bedrooms on the third and fourth floors while the basement was under siege. Some of the kitchen units were too large and heavy to carry up a flight of stairs so Bret and Kate had to wheel them along the road from the back door to the front door!

On Saturday night, the three of us escaped the mess and went out to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant just below their house and enjoyed a delicious meal of shared platters. And on the way home, we passed a light show celebrating the 90-year anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Kate and the girls set off on Sunday to their various club hockey matches, all at different times and in different places (and some of the distances are quite long). Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to any of the games because I’d had to stay home to perform a RAT test in order to travel the next day.

When I had studied the Qantas site minutely to find out the best way to get tested to return, I’d found that I could make an appointment to do a RAT test via Zoom within 24 hours of my return flight. Much easier than the NZ adventure but it cost another $70 for the privilege. I’d made the requisite appointment and signed into Zoom a little early. This was a lovely process and very efficient, and I spent half an hour online with a very kind and helpful nurse who walked me through the process. She asked me to hold my passport up to the camera at the beginning and my RAT test similarly half an hour later. She pronounced me negative and sent the result through to my email which she said I could show at check-in.

Unfortunately, Bret was hard at work all day on the scaffolding, scraping off the paint in tricky places behind pipes and gutters so there wasn’t much I could do to help. It was, however, a good time to do still more reading and go for some short walks with Bailey.

And finally, it was time to leave on Monday morning and Kate very kindly drove me to the airport really early! Just as well really as another problem arose. Unfortunately, when I’d been doing my research, I hadn’t thought of going to the New Zealand Government site as well as the Australian Government site to see if there was anything else I had to do to be allowed back into the country. So I arrived at check-in, pretty pleased with myself that I had the result of the RAT test and my various vaccine passes. And then I was asked to show the email I’d received from the NZ Government attaching the form that would show that they had received the result of my RAT test in advance. 

I was speechless! I had no such email and had completed no such form. Fortunately, the check-in guy was very patient with me and helped me to fill in the form at the counter. But I wouldn’t recommend to anyone not being prepared as I felt very afraid that they would refuse to let me on the plane - and the queue was growing behind me. 

Bret travels a lot and had told me before I left that at least the Qantas lounge at Sydney Airport would be open because they were about 3 weeks ahead of New Zealand. It wasn’t, and the airport was just about as deserted as Auckland’s had been. So, no shopping, or window shopping – just sitting and waiting.

I really hate having to transit Auckland and there was another long wait at the domestic terminal before my plane left at 6.00 pm. I tried to transfer to the one before, but I’d just missed it. My wonderful friend Kay met me at the airport at 7.00 and after twelve hours of travelling from somewhere only three and a half hours away, I was heartily glad to be home.