When I arrived in New Zealand way back in mid-March I had two weeks of travels planned before moving on to South America. I remember stocking up on food in the supermarket, and wondering if I would get through an entire jar of peanut butter during my stay. Turns out I did, and yesterday I bought another jar. That’s about five so far.

I still have no idea when I will leave New Zealand. I could return to Australia, go into quarantine for a couple of weeks, and then…well…unpack my gear I guess and then…I could…well… I could also fly to several countries in Europe, but with the Australian Government stating that overseas travel should be avoided I would not be covered by my travel insurance.

There has been talk for months of establishing a travel bubble between NZ and one of the Pacific Island nations, with the Corona-free Cook Islands being the most likely first option. In mid-June the NZ Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that a trans-Pacific bubble is a ‘matter of weeks away’. Evidently it wasn’t. Today one of the news outlets reported that it was hoped travel between the two countries could begin ‘before the end of the year’.

It appears that my current jar of peanut butter will not be my last in Aotearoa.

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