One Year Ago

One year ago, my family landed in Hawaii. The 48 hours leading up to our arrival is a period of time I will never forget. We were on the South Island of New Zealand staying in a picturesque beach town called Golden Bay when the entire world started to shut down. We had been planning on staying another week and then making our way to the North Island to spend another month but our plans had to change. Fast.

I remember going on a run the morning of the 16th and speaking to my mom and brother on the phone afterwards. I was standing fifty feet offshore in the bay having some tense conversations. It was decided that it'd probably be best for us to fly back to the US immediately since I wasn't a New Zealand citizen and would overstay my visa. The country was set to shut down any day. My husband and daughters could have stayed (Aussie citizens) but I ruined the party. Looking back on it, it's ironic we left New Zealand since that country has handled COVID better than any other.

Long story short, we ended up booking a flight the next night out of Auckland on Air New Zealand. That meant we had to figure out how to pack up all of our belongings, get to the North Island, and find a hotel. Somehow we did it. We packed up, drove three hours to the airport, flew to Auckland, checked into our hotel, and caught our flight the next day to Hawaii. I have such vivid memories of the hotel and being so scared of COVID. At that point, nobody was wearing masks and we were all constantly sanitizing everything. I didn't sleep that night because I was so nervous to go through an airport and get on an international flight.

The flight on Air New Zealand ended up being smooth sailing. Everything at the Auckland airport went according to plan and we were well spaced out on our flight. We sanitized our seats and didn't sleep a wink. Once we landed in Honolulu, the vibe quickly changed. We were crammed onto a bus with a ton of other passengers and people on the bus were screaming. The airport was packed, our flight was delayed, we had to switch planes, and then somehow we finally took off. The girls were so exhausted and I felt like I was losing it mentally. For a few hours, we thought we were going to need to check into a hotel in Honolulu.

It all ended well and we eventually landed in Kona. We quarantined for two weeks and miraculously, nobody caught COVID. Looking back on photos from a year ago makes me emotional. I have photos at the hotel, in the airport, and on the plane. I know my family will look back on these years from now and thank our lucky stars that we all managed to stay healthy during that trip and during the pandemic. I received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Saturday and I can't even begin to describe the relief I felt. What a year it has been.