Ihimaera travelled to Auckland with her husband last week for a tangi, and the latest Covid outbreak was discovered while they were in the city. By then they had already been shopping in South Auckland, and had met and hugged a vulnerable 87-year-old.
The funeral was due to take place on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after Auckland's level 3 lockdown came into force.
With the service was suddenly limited to just 10 people, Ihimaera and her husband opted to head home and leave those 10 spaces to close relatives. They got up at 4.30am on Wednesday, planning to drive home without stopping before the lockdown started, then self-isolate. However, by the time they got to the Kerikeri turn-off she needed a toilet stop.
She parked outside the Kerikeri toilets, and, to protect anyone she might meet, given that she had come straight from the outbreak's epicentre, donned a mask and gloves left over from the first lockdown.
As she stepped out of her truck she saw a tall man, older than herself, walking towards her and laughing.
''I said, 'Why are you laughing?' He laughed again, really loud, in a mocking way, then made a gesture as if to say I was cuckoo," she said.
Ihimaera said she was tired from the drive, upset about the sudden death she'd travelled to Auckland for, worried about the 87-year-old she might have exposed to the virus, and concerned about her and her husband's own health issues.
''So I was stunned and pretty upset with his behaviour. The thing is, I had put the mask on to protect the likes of him.''
She later wrote a brief post on a Kerikeri Facebook page and discovered her experience was far from unique. One woman said she had a compromised immune system due to cancer treatment, yet was mocked for wearing a mask; another, who has lung problems, was laughed at twice in one Kerikeri supermarket visit.
Ihimaera said it was wrong to judge others without knowing their back-story or reasons for needing to wear a face mask.
She suspected the mocking reactions were based on preconceived notions of masks or Covid.
''We have a responsibility to not just take care of ourselves and our own needs, but to be kaitiaki to each other... We need to support anyone who wants to wear a mask for whatever reason," she added.
In level 3 face masks are not mandatory in New Zealand but they are ''strongly encouraged'' in all public places. In level 2 they are recommended in places where two-metre social distancing is not possible, for example on public transport and in supermarkets.
