Bloomberg posted a terribly inaccurate article about how New Zealand is handling lockdown. It is such crap that I won’t deign to link to it; you can search it on your own. Here’s the real story. (Tell your friends so they don’t believe the Bloomberg bullshit in the screenshots.)
UPDATE: After being dragged by millions of Kiwis up and down the Internet, Bloomberg has updated the article to more accurately reflect what’s going on. But I HAVE THE RECEIPTS BELOW. Back to the original post…
New Zealanders can be out of the house as long as they want. New Zealanders are also allowed to drive. Carry home all those groceries by hand? With this bad back? That’s why God made car trunks. (Or boots, as they are called here.)
I waited five minutes to get into the neighborhood New World. I was gloveless; the only people wearing gloves were the workers. I was one of two people with a mask. A worker dispensed hand sanitizer at the door. They also had sneeze guards to protect the cashiers. The shops have plenty of toilet paper. Plenty of everything, really. There was some weirdness the week lockdown started but that all settled out.
Yeast is a bit hit-or-miss, because just like everywhere else, people are baking on overdrive here. (I made a kick-ass sourdough this morning. Yes, like everyone I have a sourdough starter, but MINE is made with leftover yeast from BEER BREWING!)
Ecommerce: still happening. Things we have gotten: my weird vegetarian food (vital wheat gluten FTW!), clothes, gardening seeds. I considered an $800 Breville espresso maker. (Briefly. I can dream.) Online shops were limiting to essentials through yesterday (note that “essentials” includes “$800 Breville coffee maker,” which may just be a sign of how strongly Kiwis feel about their coffee). Now we can order anything. Restaurants were closed for the past month, but as of today they were allowed to open for takeaways. Like nearly everyone else here, we got some. (Indian. Nom!) The lines for KFC were around the block.
The theme for this experience is “Unite to Defeat COVID-19.” Kiwis seem very united (esp compared to the US).
When the leader of the opposition complained about the restrictions on Facebook, he was trashed, even by his supporters. While reading the 27,000 angry comments, I learned that Kiwis seem to lean toward produce-themed insults (a personal favorite of mine was “you wet carrot”).
The NZ government quickly took measures to stabilize the economy. But based on what I’ve seen and heard, most people would rather take the economic hit than open up too soon. Over and over again, I’ve seen people say, “What use is money if you don’t have your life?”In conclusion: Bloomberg is trash, New Zealand is great.