Will he be able to get travel insurance Pete, bit risky if he cannot or does NZ and Aus have reciprocal health care arrangements?
Donāt think heāll get insurance and Iām not sure about the Aus/NZ health thing Iād have to look into it. It was much easier staying in Aus, thereās huge distance but I could if required drive him home from Adelaide to Brisbane in 2-3 days. If we went to NZ thereād be a day in driving just to an airport then the worry of trying to get a fight in Covid times. Something I hadnāt thought of what happened if we went in a snap lockdown. Brisbane went into a snap 3 day lockdown with 24 hours noticed.
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Youāll be happy to know that Glenda the spider has finally built her her where in wonāt get destroyed by me or the wind. Itās beside the door to our lower veranda luckily thereās another way through my studio. Sheās had her web disturbed for 3 nights and probably hasnāt eaten. Iāve put the light on thatās close to the web to tracked bugs, Diesel and I can sleep in peace tonight that no stranger coming through that door without screaming.
This is her today, sheāll sit there and wait till something lends in her web. Hopefully itās not me.
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After Iād given up commercial diving for a living I became a full time cabinet maker (it had been a lifelong hobby), and set up workshops here in north Wales where occasionally Iād import some tropical hardwoods from various places in the world.
In a cabinet shop there is a lot of dust generated, most of which is taken care of by dust extractors but there is some very fine dust that remains suspended in the air that settles overnight leaving a very fine coating on the floor. In this coating you could often see tracks of some insect or other trailing across the floor and I often noticed them being a little (read sā¦ scared of spiders). Over time I noticed some tracks getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger to the extent I thought there was a rat in the workshop although there was no other signs.
In the workshops we had a sharpening bench upon which we had a container filled with water where we kept the sharpening stones ready for use, in the water we added a good dose of bleach to keep the pond life down. Now the sharpening bench was a clean area so we also had our kettle there and a wood burning stove next to it so it was quite a nice place to be. Anyway back on story, one morning I opened the workshops up quite early before anyone else arrived, switched off the alarms and wondered over to the sharpening bench, lit the fire and started to make a cup of tea. While I was making the tea I noticed in the stone container a black thing floating in the corner of my eye, I didnāt pay any attention as weād been working with a very dark wood at the time, I think I just assumed it was a stray shaving from someoneās plane. For some reason I actually took a closer look ans saw it was a huge spider floating dead in the bleachy water, it had a body the size of a golf ball and other straggly bits which I assumed were legs. I got a bit of wood and fished it out and at arms length put it in the fire which was then witnessed by one of my employees who had also arrived early.
We were both horrified that such a thing could happen, we can only assume that either it or some eggs came over with some wood some moths earlier and it just grew eating goodness knows what, the rat probably!!! After that day the tracks in the fine dust on the floor in the mornings stopped but we never stopped looking just in case
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What time of year Pete? Iām pretty sure you will be covered by our ACC Accident Compensation system but you should check for yourself.
I assume that you know that currently Australians have to undergo the 10 day quarantine on arrival in New Zealand and pay for it. There is also about a 1 month wait for booking a quarantine spot. The quarantine free travel is only from NZ to Australia. When that will change is anyoneās guess.
Is that all it is? Where I live was COVID-free just like NZ, though with 14 day quarantine. However over Xmas and New year the virus somehow got in (no confirmation yet, but assumed to be the new strain). 3 returning residents who had travelled together quarantined together, and the presumption is that one person had it, symptomless, and passed it to another sufficiently close to the end of quarantine for the symptoms not to come out until several days later - then came partying and meeting up with friends etcā¦
When more cases emerged a week ago they locked down to try to stamp it out, with track and trace working overtime. But still more cases have been detected, not all connected. They are hoping the lockdown was quick and hard enough so that when these have come out of the woodwork that will be it. But quarantine has been beefed up too, now an option of 21 days isolation, or 14 days with tests on days 1, 13 and 21 (paid for by the individual), with extension of 14 days from a positive test! Also more rigid rules on isolation. And here if people are caught breaking the quarantine rules they are imprisoned instantly - enforced isolation with a criminal record as a bonus!
A fight is always a hassle - best avoided if humanly possible! 
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Actually, I think you are right and itās 14 days with tests at days 0 (UK, SA and US arrivals), 3 and 10. Speculation is that we will be closing out border to the UK, SA and US.
We have had several quarantine failures and no doubt will have more, so the chances of further disruption is pretty high.
Itāll be autumn, I not about me getting travel insurance it my mate who probably wonāt be able.
Reminds me off when I ordered Indian stone pavers for the back garden
12 crates delivered started to unpack them out off the crates and halfway through I found a dead spider thank god it was dead it was huge. looked like a thing from hell to me who is petrified off them I kept it to show the wife she also said thank god its dead I think it would have given the jack Russells a run for there money in a fight
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Autumn should be lovely in the Sth Island. Just thinking that if you are going to choose one Island at that time of year, the Sth Island may offer more sights along the way.
Pete. Imo . Be firm. Do what you instinctively know is right and practical. Explain that and go with it.
In the end it will be a great memory.
When I lived in the Middle East, we used to tap our empty boots, heel first, on a hard floor before putting them on in the morning. This was usually enough to dislodge any overnight lodging scorpions.
Itās funny, or not funny that in the uk the harmless spider is often dispatched with a rolled up newspaper. Credit to those who treat even the most deadly with more respect.
We tend to use a piece of thin card and an inverted glass tumbler. Spider is relocated outside. Most seem to survive and many seem to come back in !
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In our family Iām the one thatās comfortable with snakes, lizards etc but not overly fond of spiders. Mrs Pete on the overhand will either pick one up (most are harmless) or use your method to remove them from inside. Neither of us will kill anything we donāt have to. We get lots of flying insects especially this time of the year, the fact is that spiders do help keep that number down.
I agree, problem my friends just not thinking like he normally would, understandably I guess. Might ring his wife and see if she can direct him towards a local trip.
Ditto!
Iām not sure that you spotted the typo in your own post, prompting my response!
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