Issue #836

Ever had that Groundhog Day feeling? It seems we get it quite often with COVID-19

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So here we are in the ‘Red Light’. Cancelling events and making alternative plans is soul destroying. Alas, one we’ve sadly become far too good at. Operators have taken yet another hit with the cancellation of the next round of major events including Warbirds Over Wānaka, the Highlanders pre-season game and Challenge Wānaka. While it’s beyond frustrating I for one am grateful that for our district the spring and summer months were relatively unaffected by COVID giving folks the opportunity to relax and recharge. In other parts of the country, except for four days in Orange for Northland prior to the latest settings change, Red has been the norm for a long time.

We’re learning as we go in this current arrangement and the updates on the various requirements - such as how many people can be in certain spaces, mask wearing and what to do if you think you may have COVID - seem to be very much “watch this space”.

I’ve resolved to have a positive mindset, however. A couple of things caused me to dig deep and hold onto hope. The first is that a friend from Sydney called the other day, his family have had Omicron. I know severity depends very much on an individual’s health but the effects for many seem to be quite moderate – far less so than seems to have been the case with earlier strains.

The second reason for remaining positive again relates to the experience in New South Wales. If you track the instances of Omicron in that (rather large) community, cases went through the roof for a period of some weeks before peaking and then very quickly dropping again. If we assume that the same happens here, there’s a pretty good chance that within a couple of months we will be starting to see the effects of Omicron taper off.

Finally, I’m delighted to see some great events are able to carry on having recently learned that in February QLDC will be hosting six international women’s cricket fixtures at the John Davies Oval in Queenstown. The White Ferns will be taking on India in a short-form series featuring on T20 and five one-day international fixtures. It’s great reminder that life does carry on and will return to some sort of new normal – hopefully very soon.

With a very brave hope that we don’t see yet another variant come along, we might just find ourselves with a way out of the mess we’ve been in for the past two years. We desperately need it.

Hold onto hope, and the resilience war chest we’ve built up in the past two years. Prepare yourselves and your families and neighbours intelligently for another stay at home and make sure you’ve had your booster and the kids have been vaccinated. Remain calm and who knows?! We might even see our Australian cousins back here for ski season 2022.

Mayor Jim Boult