Westward Homeless
- Jackie Endres
- Mar 31, 2020
- 7 min read
No, we aren't really homeless. But we don't have a home either. I am writing from the comfort of our cozy mountain hideaway in Sunriver, OR--which we are so fortunate to have. We are homeless, though, in the fact that we don't know where we will be sleeping next month, and we don't even have enough roots down to get ourselves a PO Box for our stay.
Yes, we made it back to the US. Here’s how it went down.
A Week to Say Goodbye
Friday, March 20
We checked into our Raglan, New Zealand Airbnb, shaken by continued news of COVID-19 shutdowns, and made the choice to return to the US. We held an American Airlines flight to PDX for one week later.
Saturday & Sunday, March 21 & 22
We took care to cancel all of our onward travel, seek refunds, and tracked open, closed, and partial refunds via a spreadsheet.
We booked the March 27th flight we had held for Auckland > LA > Portland.
And we ventured into Raglan to get some staples for the week in. Shops were relatively quiet, and no one seemed to be panicking, nor were they rolling their eyes at the social distancing requirements.
I wrote the lyrics for Stay – COVID-19.
Monday, March 23
We finished our previous blog post, and as we were wrapping it up, New Zealand announced raising the alert immediately to Level 3: Restrict and to Level 4: Eliminate on March 25. We drove back into Raglan and picked up some more groceries as well as a few choice NZ IPAs (liquor stores are non-essential and would be closing soon…) and drove to a spot overlooking the beach for one last view.
Jessica recorded the lyrics (including harmony) and sent back to me for editing.
Tuesday, March 24
We decided to head to the bigger town of Hamilton before it shut down for final shopping. We weren’t certain what we could have access to in the states, so over our last week we made sure to get some things that we could bring home (yes, toilet paper). On a positive for us, the USD/NZD was the best it had been for the USD side, so it was basically a 45% discount on everything we bought.
(Here's the pop culture reference you may be missing. 👇)
We also picked up some takeaway sushi and took a look at the Riff Raff Statue, our last Atlas Obscura destination of the trip. The creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (and actor who played Riff Raff), Richard O'Brien, is a Hamilton native and used to cut hair in the 1950s and 1960s in a barbershop that once stood in that location. There is a live webcam feed on the website to watch people (like me) who do the Time Warp to the written instructions posted on the building.
Wednesday, March 25
I had a hard time sleeping, so I got up around 4:30 AM and began some work on the video. Then, I was stunned by one of the best sunrises of my life and had to wake up Heather. In roughly a 270 degree view, we had a double rainbow extend its arc back around, ocean views, the sun rising, and a slow morning commuter.
We finished filming and editing Stay - COVID 19, thanks to a collection of submissions from friends and family. We're pretty proud of the outcome.
Thursday, March 26
After going from country to country and destination to destination in a decidedly unceremonious manner, we decided to have a bit of ceremony around our final day in New Zealand.
We made our normal breakfast and packed our bags as best we could. One of the things we bought in Raglan was another wheeled duffle bag, which helped us to return home with some of our supplies (and a few souvenirs). Then, we enjoyed the rest of the day.
We went on a two-hour walk. At the turnaround point, I started to tear up and said, “This is as far as we go in New Zealand.” We spent the last hour of the walk exchanging favorite memories of all of the places we been, a bit unbelieving that the lives we spoke of were our own. We both cried, but it felt joyous and cathartic. We finished the walk feeling a new sense of completion for our journey, knowing that it really could be the last day of our around-the-world adventure.
When we got back, we set up the bean bag chairs to face the ocean and I cut up some fruit: two delectable native feijoas and an apple, a pear, and the brightest-flesh peach from the property’s mini orchard (I think it has 10-15 trees).
Then, we played badminton outside (we’re not very good) and ping pong inside before retiring with a bottle of champagne to the hot tub to watch the clouds and the waves roll in similitude.
When we were done, we tested some NZ IPAs, made dinner and retired watching the Hobbit, fawning over the New Zealand scenery we had just spent the last month getting to know.
Friday, March 27
We awoke to our last morning, full of clouds signifying our departure. We ate breakfast, penned a note in the guestbook, and headed to the airport.
The rainy highway to Auckland was deserted save for semis and a few passenger vehicles.
Returning our rental car was a new experience, where we had to park in a park and ride, take pictures of our vehicle, drop the key and parking ticket with the park and ride attendant, and email Enterprise confirming our drop off. We boarded a shuttle bus with a few other passengers spaced six feet or more apart and arrived at the airport.
There, we noted flight signs peppered with red “Canceled” labels, walkways absent of any other people, and shops and restaurants shut down due to the “Covid-19 situation.” There was a single deli open where one could buy pre-packaged foods. We opted to spend our final $10 NZ cash in a vending machine where we bought some candy to bring home for Easter.
In boarding our flight, we first went through an initial check to get to our gate, where the line stretched far down the terminal as passengers spaced themselves appropriately out. They boarded passengers slowly, but with it not being a full flight (all Americans seeking home), we were ready to go in no time.
With hardly any other flights taking off at the same time, there was no taxiing. We got to the runway and took off faster than any commercial flight I've taken.
Heather and I watched movies, ate one meal, and slept for the remainder of our New Zealand Friday. We awoke to notifications of landing in Los Angeles just before 6 AM on the beginning of our American Friday.
Arrival was a joke. There were no questions around our health or well-being, and arriving passengers were quickly shuffled through the casual customs process. We rechecked our bags and were shocked as we made our way to our domestic gate. Electronics, book, and fashion stores were open. Dunkin’ Donuts enjoyed a healthy line. There was a mix of people respecting six feet of separation and people who didn’t seem to notice the pandemic.
Though Auckland’s quiet shutdown seemed eerie, LA--bursting with confusion over whether to take it seriously or not--was eerie.
The flight to Portland was uneventful. American reduced snack and beverage service for the safety of its employees, but we didn’t notice as we tried to steal a bit more sleep.
We landed in Portland (welcomed by the spring clouds, rain, and cherry blossoms), rented a car, and drove—through traffic, packed shopping center parking lots, and more apparent confusion as to whether we should or should not proceed normally. Of course, before we departed Portland we stopped at our favorite bulk grocery store and thought about stocking up on one thing…
And opted instead for the other liquid gold that is Topo Chico.
As we neared Bend and Sunriver, the roads thinned out and we were rewarded on our long day of travel with some beautiful views.
Fifteen minutes after I got to our new temporary abode, I joined a Zoom call with my whole family save my stepdad that erupted into an uncomfortable and shouty debate after, when asked how I was feeling, I responded, “Honestly, I’m a bit ashamed to be American right now…” and detailed my shock at the cavalier behaviors towards a global pandemic that seem to persist while people suffer the loss of life, of loved ones, of jobs, and more.
Not really the, “Welcome home,” that I was looking for, but, I guess it aligned with my sentiment anyway.
And then...?
We are looking to adjust to a new normal like the rest of the world. We are sinking deep into the self-care that we can: running more, stretching more, reading more, connecting virtually more, and eating more mindfully (there are apparently no runs on produce).
We’ve got this place through May 1st, and then we will reassess. It’s not a bad place to be stuck (I’m currently watching the snow falling on towering pines out the window), but we’re not really ready for stationary retirement yet. After May we will see how the world looks and make a decision among three options:
The world has healed enough to open economies and borders, and is accepting US citizens: We look to travel. It’ll be a totally different itinerary but we are committed to finishing what we can of the trip if it’s possible.
Global optimism, but travel still restricted: Hold out for another month, perhaps staying with friends or family this time.
Recovery looks far off: We will start looking for jobs stateside. We have a hierarchy of where we’d like to end up, but if the economy is hit hard enough, we will have to be location agnostic.
This article from the NYT doesn't bode well for our ability to travel any time soon, so we are bracing for any of these futures. For now, we are enjoying the slowdown and making sure to handle loose ends like the aforementioned refunds and cancellations.
On a trip where we endeavored to chase summer, it is a bit fitting that a surprise ending has us thrust into a winter scene.
P.S.
I’ll be putting together (maybe) two more blog posts to cover the last leg of our NZ trip (before the bottom fell out) and a summary of our favorites from the ten countries we did hit.
We’re all in this together. If anybody needs help accessing something they need during this time, please let us know so we can put our resources and networks to good use. Stay safe, stay connected, stay patient, stay put, and stay kind.
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