Gemma Richardson was in her lounge in Auckland, New Zealand on March 23, 2020 when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the country into a strict lockdown. The 35-year-old expat from Flintshire had been waiting for the day the country would succumb to the looming threat of Covid, but no-one could have predicted the seemingly endless border restrictions that would ensue.
“It’s such a weird feeling,” she told WalesOnline from her home in the Kingsland area of the city which she says took the brunt of the country’s Covid cases. She is reacting to the news that two years after those ominous words from the prime minister she is finally allowed to leave the country and head home to see her family and friends in Wales again. “It feels completely surreal to be honest, but as though this is the right time to go - a long time coming.”
After she visited the country on a tour with the Welsh national rugby team in 2011 she said she “fell in love with what is essentially Wales on steroids”. She got a job she enjoyed with Auckland-based online marketplace Sleek, moved into a five-bed house which she has shared with friends ever since, and came back to Wales almost every year.
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“I had a flight booked for June 20, 2020, to come home and see family, and I only cancelled that in the May,” she remembered. “I didn’t think it would last too long.
“But then when looking at what was happening in other countries, seeing the situation in the UK, and knowing at the time we only had one case in New Zealand, I actually was okay with the border restrictions here. My thought was: ‘Let’s get this done and get through it.’”
As of Monday, May 2, New Zealand began welcoming tourists again from more than 50 countries including the UK for the first time since that announcement. Before arriving in the country tourists need to show proof of vaccination and a negative Covid test result. You can find out more on the situation in New Zealand here.
Over the past two years Gemma has missed her friend’s wedding where she was due to be a bridesmaid, the births of many friends’ children, and much more.
“There have been lots of weddings,” she said. “I’m at an age where everyone seems to be getting married and having babies and I’ve missed those.
“I missed my best friend’s wedding a few months ago where I should have been a bridesmaid. That was so hard. I was desperate to watch her walk down the aisle. She called me when she did so I could see on the phone. A lot of my friends back home had babies just before the pandemic who are now two and three and I’ve never seen them.
“There have been lots of things that have been very hard and upsetting. What it has taught me I think is resilience and an ability to let go of things that are not in my control.”
She is keen to point out that there have been some brilliant experiences too during the pandemic. She travelled the south island for 10 days alone in January - not a tourist in sight.
“I decided to just get away on a road trip,” she said. “The pandemic has made me more comfortable with being on my own and being comfortable with who I am.
“Of course I’m upset that my life has almost been on hold, but I’ve tried to make the most of it. Most people will never have the chance to travel in New Zealand with very few others around.”
Due to her visa status she knew that if she left the country she would not be able to return while restrictions lasted. “That was the hardest part for me,” she explained.
“I knew if something happened to a relative in the UK my status in New Zealand meant I couldn’t get back. A lot of my expat friends here made that decision to go back and are still in the UK now.
“Thankfully my family mostly were okay, and I don’t know if I’d have been able to get through it without technology. I talked to mum every week on Whatsapp for hours.”
Despite everything her and her friends have endured she says she is grateful to have been in New Zealand during the pandemic, but admits frustration has grown across the country. The country has had fewer than one million cases throughout the pandemic and has had fewer than 750 Covid deaths. There were 6,700 new cases in the country on May 1.
“Generally there has been frustration,” Gemma said. “Jacinda talks a lot about the ‘Team of Five Million’ and I think the majority have been behind her, but the frustration has grown.
“There is frustration too in how New Zealand deals with inflation and the rising cost of living, which is very similar to what is going on in Britain. We’ve struggled to fill job vacancies due to a lack of travel and a shortage of transient skills.
“Of course I have frustrations, but I have to be at peace with it, and I am proud of what has happened here. I would prefer to be caring and think of others than not, and I feel we’ve done that.
“My frustrations are more targeted at what has happened in the UK, which has hurt me and upset me more than what has gone on here. By that I mean how the UK delayed lockdowns.
“It’s very hard when you’re in it to step back and see the bigger picture. Certainly from the outside people here have questioned what has happened in Britain. I do feel in many ways we’ve been very fortunate here and I’m grateful to have spent the time here.” To sign up to our Wales Matters newsletter for features on health, politics and education sign up to our newsletter here.
She is most grateful to her “family” of expats who have got each other through the most difficult of times. “Of course I have many friends from New Zealand, but you do have that camaraderie with those like you don’t you?
“I have lots of mates here from Britain and Ireland who have pulled together here because we have all had an understanding of what we were going through. It’s amazing looking at all the chat groups now and seeing people landing at home.”
In five weeks she travels back to Flintshire and her itinerary couldn’t be any more congested. “I’ve written down plans for every single day,” she laughed. “I genuinely don’t think I will have enough time.
“I’m going to Cardiff for two Wales football games against Netherlands and Belgium, I’m going to Ireland and Portugal too for a couple of days. But most of all it’ll be spent with friends and family.”
What is she most looking forward to? “A hug, absolutely just a hug. I was thinking about food; maybe a proper bar of Dairy Milk, a chippy, a curry - although they do a good curry in New Zealand. But for me it has to be seeing my family again and hugging them. You can’t beat that.”
