Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Editorial: Lockdown looms but reflection is Covid-positive

Hawkes Bay Today
18 Aug, 2021 02:37 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The allure of a Hawke's Bay spring may make it tougher to stay Covid-compliant, writes Mark Story. Photo / File

The allure of a Hawke's Bay spring may make it tougher to stay Covid-compliant, writes Mark Story. Photo / File

By Mark Story

Déjà vu?

Yep. But please don't use the term "new normal". That tag made me retch last lockdown, so let's not.

Come Friday, team Ashley & Ardern will advise whether we're to endure another lengthy stay at home.

The victims and collateral victims of the mutated Delta strain are a broad church, so the reaction will be mixed. That is, a hard lockdown is relative.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For me the home office is a breeze.

No daily commute from Ahuriri to Heretaunga and back. No boring packed lunches, no search for clean socks, no wondering if anyone in the office will notice I've worn the same shirt for three days, no looking for car keys, no saying goodbye to my wife and kids, no holding my breath past Awatoto's industrial stink.

Some have it lucky.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For others, for whom lockdown means a wage cut or no work at all, this crafty microbe is a stinger.

To boot, this time around it's struck a different season. Lockdown 2020 was an autumn-winter gig. In 2021 it's hit during the Bay's daffodil and blossom season; the spring-summer window will make it less easy to hunker down and hide, and may hit businesses and hospitality even harder.

And spare a thought for our returning Olympians - two weeks in MIQ, only to now face further time in a different bubble.

Hearing the news on Tuesday evening I decided a bottle of chardonnay was in order. I opted to dodge the supermarket mayhem and instead head to Big Barrel boozer.

Surprisingly, but perhaps not, there was a queue 12-customers deep from the beer fridge to the counter. Many were holding as many bottles as they could handle, others had full trolleys.

For some it's a rush on toilet paper and cat food, for others it's alcohol.

Our lockdown behaviours are a neat delineation of our condition, a reflection of what we wouldn't normally see.

Notwithstanding everything else, that can only be a Covid positive.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
Opinion

John Jenkins: Brazilian jockey helps Hastings mare return to form

06 Jun 07:00 PM
Premium
Opinion

‘Model’ Pakowhai dairy plant produced 500 bottles of milk an hour: Gail Pope

06 Jun 07:00 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay architecture shines at Te Kāhui Whaihanga awards

06 Jun 06:00 PM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Premium
John Jenkins: Brazilian jockey helps Hastings mare return to form

John Jenkins: Brazilian jockey helps Hastings mare return to form

06 Jun 07:00 PM

OPINION: Queiroz got the mare to settle perfectly with some reserve on the home turn.

Premium
‘Model’ Pakowhai dairy plant produced 500 bottles of milk an hour: Gail Pope

‘Model’ Pakowhai dairy plant produced 500 bottles of milk an hour: Gail Pope

06 Jun 07:00 PM
Hawke's Bay architecture shines at Te Kāhui Whaihanga awards

Hawke's Bay architecture shines at Te Kāhui Whaihanga awards

06 Jun 06:00 PM
Premium
Why 'reverse sensitivity' could put a golf club housing proposal into the rough

Why 'reverse sensitivity' could put a golf club housing proposal into the rough

06 Jun 06:00 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP