New Zealand the "Golden Cage"

I have been living in NZ for just over 6 months now. I miraculously managed to get a visa and booked a space at MIQ ( managed isolation quarantine). For those who do not know, if you come to NZ you are required to stay in a hotel for 2 weeks. You don’t get to choose the hotel or the city. You are inside the room with access to a small outside area for walking (supervised), and the cost for that was NZ$5k.

There is a lot to say about that experience, but that would be another story.

I like to categorize things, and perhaps, because I have a passion for psychology I always have a deep need to understand events and extract the positive from them.

I also have a habit of organizing my life in chapters, and ?it would not be different here in New Zealand. Today, 1st of July, I complete 6 months living in Auckland with my Kiwi partner and his kids.

We left quarantine facilities on the 26th of December 2020, which means we spent Christmas together inside the room. It was not so bad, we got to choose the Xmas lunch menu and dinner and even had desert! Knowing that we would be out and free the next day was our best gift. We worked ?consciously on our mindset everyday , reminding ourselves the reasons for that choice.

We spent new year with friends who received us with open arms.

?The thought of walking around without masks and living a normal life certainly made us feel very content and optimistic about the months to come. Summer was good, even though we only had a chance to swim in the sea one day, as I never felt it was warm enough to go to the beach.

We got a 2 bedroom apartment in the heart of Auckland . Coming from a farm house and living in the countryside in Italy, being in the city was certainly a big clash. Auckland city is very noisy and harsh. ?I was surprised and sad to see so many people begging and living on the streets. In a country where social matters are given so much importance, I still struggle to understand certain things…but hey, that’s not for me to judge.

The image we all have of NZ from outside is of a green luscious beautiful country, and that now, is totally safe of Covid. That is true, however the social problems New Zealanders face on a daily basis are not that rosy.

Cost of living and high prices of properties is bringing more and more people to live on the streets. The mortgages and high taxes imposed on its people make them slaves to the system, having to work to pay for bigger and bigger houses. The dream to own their own home is still very much embedded in the culture. ?Going overseas is a very expensive dream, and especially now, New Zealanders have been indoctrinated by the media and politicians that this is the best place to be on earth right now, that they don’t seem bothered to spend more and more on a lifestyle that will add more and more to their credit cards.

Being here and having access to the media in New Zealand, has been very interesting. We have travelled from Dubai, to USA, through Thailand and Singapore, to Italy and finally New Zealand. We have some understanding of how these countries were dealing with Covid, what restrictions were in place and mainly, people’s views on the matter.

Most countries had to reinvent themselves and start growing again after making very difficult decisions related to Covid, restrictions, vaccines.

New Zealand on the other hand, decided to close its doors to the rest of the world to keep its population ‘safe’. I wonder how long they will be able to maintain these rules for. How long they will manage to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. And when they realize this might not be the best decision, how will their ‘Covid wave’ will be?

Seen as a paradise and the best place in the world to be, New Zealand has also isolated families for over a year, making it impossible for most people to return. At times of financial difficulties and uncertainty, who can afford 5 k per person for quarantine and on top of that, the horrifically high cost of living in New Zealand.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no intention to judge. My intention is to share my experience and views.

I call New Zealand a golden cage for obvious reasons. You are safe here, inside and it is beautiful, but if your freedom is important to you, as it is for me, then it does not matter how nice the cage is; you just want to fly away and make your own choices for your life.

In summary, these 6 months have given me friends who embraced us and made us feel welcome, it gave us a fresh start and a ‘ bubble’ to live in while the world is facing the pandemic, it gave me a new understanding about my role in a family context and a different understanding of the world. It made me think and shift my paradigms.

I am leaving New Zealand to the unknown, and to the “unsafe’, but to be honest ?I am more than ?happy to be able to do this and come and go and have my freedom of choice.

I am very grateful for having the opportunity for this time in NZ but it is time to fly away.