VIDEOS: What’s It Like to Live In New Zealand During COVID-19

The whole world has been severely impacted by COVID-19 … and that’s probably the understatement of the century. However, some countries have handled things better than others. The country that has arguably handled the pandemic the best is New Zealand.

Of course, New Zealand is a small island country in the South Pacific with just five million people but the way their Prime Minister dealt swiftly with the virus really paid off. Thanks to a hard lockdown, contact tracing and vigilance, residents have been able to live a fairly normal life with the exception of international travel.

To give you an example, just today, Auckland entered a snap three-day lockdown after discovery of three (3) new cases. (Source) In Los Angeles, where I live, we recorded 3,254 cases just yesterday! And that’s just what’s been confirmed. Experts say you can usually times that number by 10 for the actual count.

What’s It Like to Live In New Zealand During COVID-19 (Charlotte)
To see what it’s really like to live in New Zealand, I interviewed two of my friends. One was Charlotte McAulay,  a former neighbor of mine in L.A., who married a Kiwi and moved there several years ago. Here’s her bio:  Charlotte is originally from California in the United States. She serves as Account Manager, Marketing, Webmaster, business administration, and Domestic Engineer for McAulay Construction. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Charlotte has worked for Fortune 100 companies, Inter-governmental Organizations, and volunteered with Nonprofits doing everything from sales and marketing to logistics.

–Watch on YouTube
–Listen to the podcast

An American Living In New Zealand During COVID-19 (Jules)
The other person I interviewed is a travel writer named Jules Older, who lived in San Francisco with his wife but used to teach in New Zealand. When the pandemic hit and they saw how the New Zealand government was handling the crisis, they packed up their belongings and moved, all within three weeks. Here’s Jules’ website with his bio and you can watch our interview here on YouTube or listen to it on your favorite podcast platform.

Related:

–How You Can Escape To New Zealand During COVID-19
–My First Trip to New Zealand
–Air New Zealand’s All Blacks Safety Video
–Air New Zealand’s New 777-300ER