Next-level SKILLS

Kerre takes stock of the things she’s achieved in lockdown and plots what’s she’s up to next

After the Prime Minister announced last week that Auckland would move – in principle – to level 3 this week, I dared to hope. The news that a case of Covid had appeared in the northern Waikato, just days before Jacinda Ardern announced her decision, filled me – and the rest of Auckland – with dread. Surely, we wouldn’t be stuck here until Christmas because of a wandering prisoner with the galloping Covids?!

As it transpired, the Prime Minister did go ahead and take those of us north of the Bombays and south of the Brynderwyns out of the strictest lockdown and into something less strict.

From the outside, it may not look much different. We all have to stay in our bubbles and we can’t travel out of our regions, so I’m still a wee way away from giving my mum a big hug. And until such time as the childcare centres are back open in Auckland, the kids are quite sensibly putting off coming north and staying in Wellington, where their childcare centre is operating.

But the end is in sight.