Thanx for this post, reaffirming that NZ is not only populated by crazy freaks! Though I'm not from there myself, I've visited on numerous occasions, as my parents have decided to make it their home. They moved there in 2007, and since then they've become full fledged, passport carrying kiwis.

However, about three weeks ago we had a couple of really disturbing phone conversations. Being emergency physicians, their jobs were suddenly terminated without as much as a warning, simply because they didn't want to get jabbed. Not that they are anti-vax, by any means, it's just that they don't trust the mRNA vaccines pumped out by the "usual suspects" of pharmaceutical businesses. Sure, my parents are both past retirement age, but they love their work, and would like to continue as long as they're competent at it. (And believe me, they are!) Still, they are pretty determined about not getting any unknown crap injected into their bodies.

What followed, was a frantic negotiation with their labor union, who managed to negotiate that at least they should be able to use up their accumulated vacation days before being officially dismissed (which in fact stretches out till March). If they can get vaccinated during this time, they should be able to return to work afterwards. The Bay of Plenty Health Board agreed, though it's anyone's guess what the work environment will be like...

Since neither of the non-mRNA vaccines are available in NZ, they flew to Colombia (where my sister just moved to from Germany, with her Colombian husband, for similar reasons) to get the Chinese vaccines, which are made in the conventional way, using dead cells. But hearing the stories about their last days in NZ gave me the creeps, for real:

Most airlines won't sell you a ticket if you're not vaxxed. Even if you do get a plane ticket, there are not many flights out of the country to begin with. On the day my parents departed Auckland airport, there were no more than two. Since you always need a test (PCR or antigen), they had to get tested. However, they had to drive from Whakatane to Tauranga to Rotorua before they were even admitted to a testing center without being vaccinated. And once everything was in place, they had to pass various police checkpoints on the way to the airport.

Since Colombia is working out well for them in this regard, they are actually thinking about going back to NZ, if only to sell their house and all their stuff in it. Talking to them brought up a lot of parallels of when they escaped from socialist Hungary back in 1986 (only three years before the system changed, but which nobody could foresee beforehand). Last minute lucky breaks, and making it out of the(ir home) country while leaving their entire household behind, looking like they were gonna be back shortly.

Hopefully this won't have to be the case (again) this time, but my dad keeps mentioning how socialism lasted 50 years in Hungary, and most of the 20th century in Russia. And no matter how you look at it, that would be more time than either one of them (or even me) has. So let's hope that rationality and freedom loving humans will prevail, and they can return to enjoy life in an otherwise amazing country.