Middle NZ: Baby No 10 arrives safe and well

I have a feeling it could be quite some time before I can pack my bags and fly to Australia. Photo / File

OPINION

I have been looking forward to March 29 for a long time. I had been hoping for a miracle before the date.

A miracle that would see the borders open or at least some kind of travel bubble with Australia.

Sadly that didn't happen, however, I was still excited on Monday — it was the day my 10th grandchild was going to be born.

I won't go into all the details of why my daughter wasn't waiting for labour to begin. As it turned out she had to have a C-Section.

This is one time I can honestly say thank goodness for social media. There were messages and phone calls going back and forward all day.

I have two daughters in Australia so between the two of them my phone was pinging all day.

Linda Hall is Assistant Editor at Hawke's Bay Today.

My the time I got home from work just after 5pm I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. As far as I knew she had gone into surgery at around 4pm. I saw a picture of her and hubby all gowned and masked up.

Someone at work said to me it only takes about 15 minutes. Okay, I thought, then she will be in recovery and they will have some time with the baby but by 6pm when I still hadn't heard anything, I was stressed out. Pacing up and down.

Then my other daughter rang to say she hadn't even gone in to surgery. Relief. I said I didn't want to know when she went in. Just let me know when the baby is here.

At 9.20pm I got a message " are you awake".

Of course I am. And then three photos arrived of mum and dad with the most beautiful baby in the world (i know — we all say that).

Not ashamed to say I bawled like a baby then.

We ended up having a quick video chat which made me feel so much better. All was well.

She is not my first grandchild to be born in Australia without me there. The difference is I had tickets booked to arrive a few weeks after.

This time i have no idea when I will get to cuddle her.

With Brisbane going into a three day snap lockdown again it's not looking promising at the moment.

Meanwhile, here in New Zealand, on Tuesday we were told that 10 people from one flight had tested positive for Covid and then yesterday two more tested positive from the same flight.

I just don't get it. I wrote about this a few weeks ago. How can that happen when people from hot spots, such as India where they all flew from, are meant to have proof of a negative Covid test.

The system is clearly not working. There has been talk about fraudulent tests but our PM said yesterday she hadn't seen any evidence of this.

Have they looked?

The government has done a fantastic job of keeping our country safe from Covid. But I think they are rolling the dice now. There must be a more foolproof way of testing before boarding.

I imagine I won't be getting on a plane until I have been vaccinated — that's fine by me — and maybe that's a requirement everyone should have to adhere to.

In the meantime i will have to make do with videos. Facetime and photos. But that's okay — there are plenty of people all around the world who have sacrificed far more than me.

* Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today