OVERHEARD IN QUEENSTOWN

HOWLING????
The countdown for the nationwide lockdown was on. Wednesday the 25th of March, 6.30pm everybody received an alert emergency message to stay inside but for the residents of Sunshine Bay and Fernhill this prompted a different reaction.

At 7 pm, people from all round the area got out on their balcony and howled ‘Aroooooooooooooooooooooo’

“It’s always been a thing” said Habebe’s owner Amanda Mulqueen, who initiated the Sunshine Bay Community Howl.

“Blackouts in winter, we’d get out there and howl... It’s normally a one-off.”

Once Amanda got the alert text she thought this emergency situation was in need of an uplifting group howl. “The kids always love it.”

She was aware that everybody would be cooped up in their home ready to undergo isolation so made sure the howl was at a respectable time of 7pm.

“It was quite a good turn out.” said Amanda.

Her Queenstown Trading post gathered 450 reactions. Videos started emerging online of different households doing their howling session.

In Amanda’s video (posted on Queenstown Trading) you could see that this wasn’t her first howl. She up the front howling away, her son had a horn and blew it as loud as he could, other howls from neighbouring houses chimed in and joined her.

“People did it again at midnight” added Amanda. Since then, people have been requesting for regular howls throughout this isolation period.

Well, some skeptics queried the legitimacy of howling without a full moon, Amanda shunned those comments and says this “You don’t need a moon to howl”.