After many weeks abroad, the Prime Minister’s mostly escaped living and breathing the fallout over rapidly rising Covid cases. Her return tonight coincides with almost 10,000 daily cases and almost 600 people in hospital.
When Jacinda Ardern touches back down on home soil later today things will instantly feel different.
The Prime Minister’s post-Covid travel agenda in Europe and the United States over the past two months is in stark contrast to everyday life in New Zealand.
Ardern’s travel has been crucial at a time when the world’s rules-based order is fraying, and New Zealand looks to diversify its trading avenues.
It’s served a purpose and had successes, like the EU free-trade agreement and optimistic signals around a pathway to citizenship for Kiwis living in Australia.
But back home, foreign affairs isn’t high on the priority list of many, and very soon Ardern’s attention will be firmly back on the cost-of-living crisis and the crippling impact the pandemic is having on schools, hospitals and businesses.
Back home, schools were forced to switch to online learning for the last week of term as teacher relievers simply ran out nationwide.
As much as people would like to move on from Covid in New Zealand, most haven’t.
That’s because many are only just contracting the virus for the first time as case numbers skyrocket back up to almost 10,000 a day, while others are experiencing the anguish of reinfection coupled with new illnesses, in particular flu.
Even in Australia, where Ardern has spent the past week, life is vastly less focused on Covid.
Back home, schools were forced to switch to online learning for the last week of term as teacher relievers simply ran out nationwide.
The wait times to see a doctor or get treated at an emergency department are growing by the day as flu wreaks havoc on the country, not to mention the almost 600 people in hospital across the country suffering seriously from Covid.
Businesses are struggling to keep doors open due to the number of staff sick with influenza, Covid or stuck at home isolating as a household contact.
In the likes of Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch it’s normal to see handwritten signs on retail and café shop windows saying they’re closed due to staff shortages.
New Zealand is sitting in the orange traffic light setting and Ardern has made it clear something dire would have to happen to move everyone to red.
That’s despite all the latest statistics hitting metrics that would have increased restrictions at any other time during the pandemic.
New variants are only adding to the bleak picture both here and abroad.
Cases are rampant on the other side of the world where summer weather should be keeping a lid on things with most events and interactions taking place outdoors.
In the US, states are now into their sixth wave of the pandemic as reinfection rates go through the roof.
It’s the same in the UK where cases are soaring.
The difference between there and here is that the northern hemisphere decided some months back to draw a line in the sand and move on.
Covid has fallen so far off the priority list for international leaders that it barely warranted a mention in Ardern’s bilateral meetings overseas, or joint press conferences with media afterwards.
Travelling with the Prime Minister in America last month was deeply revealing as the New Zealand contingent drew attention to itself with its routine mask-wearing and determination to eat outdoors and not spend long periods of time in confined spaces.
It was similar for those travelling to Madrid, Brussels, and London with Ardern over the last fortnight.
The Prime Minister made multiple speeches to large audiences who were sans mask indoors.
It’s easy to get used to that way of life - the “new normal’’ - when you’re in a country where collectively everyone has reached that point, the sun is out and pre-pandemic norms like festivals and concerts are all the rage again.
Meanwhile, in New Zealand many are back doing daily RATs due to cold-like symptoms that could be a cold, could be Covid or could be the beginning of flu.
Covid has fallen so far off the priority list for international leaders that it barely warranted a mention in Ardern’s bilateral meetings overseas, or joint press conferences with media afterwards.
All the while back home her own cabinet ministers have been going down like flies – Grant Robertson, Nanaia Mahuta, Andrew Little and Priyanca Radhakrishnan have all tested positive for Covid-19 in the past week.
As much as Kiwis would like to be on the other side of the pandemic, the reality is anything but.
Ardern will only spend three nights back on New Zealand shores before jetting off again for five days in Fiji at the Pacific Islands’ Forum.
Covid will be much more on the radar at that meeting than any other she has attended in recent times, with Niue feeling the negative effects of opening its border to New Zealand and most of the rest of the Pacific vulnerable as it balances needing tourists with increasing cases.
When Ardern returns in a week’s time, she will be hoping to see some of the results of her travels and determined messaging that New Zealand is back open for business.
With the winter ski season started the Prime Minister will be optimistic that her trade and tourism missions have convinced overseas tourists to head down under and spend time on our ski slopes in the coming months.
That involves keeping the borders well open, businesses running, and having a health system that can cope with any overflow.
Right now, some would say that’s a big ask.
