A new normal 
We're now down to Level Two. The road has been busier. Sarah will be on the bus first thing Monday morning. Bronwyn has been out and about. Rachael won't be going back to university just yet though. I'm told there was a sudden rush of people setting out just after midnight on Thursday, and long queues for haircuts, but largely it's still rather quiet!

At the beginning of lockdown, Bronwyn and Sarah painted some bits of wood and pinned them to the bank to make KIA KAHA (Be strong) and a smiley face. Palm Sunday, Ross put some palm branches on our gate, and Good Friday we had three crosses with Christmas lights on top of the bank. Several times, there have been calls for people to simultaneously stand at their gate and sing. I walked up the hill and played Pokarekare Ana on trombone one Saturday. It was very windy, and tricky to play with the music stand braced against the fence. I opted out of the 6am dawn playing of the Last Post. Dawn wasn't actually until 6:55am, and I'm British. I can wait for November!

Potatoes doing well. Lettuce and spinach might just make it. Plenty of guava jelly left, and apples and feijoas as well. Sarah has been baking as part of her Hospitality lessons. The cheesecake was excellent. As were the Afghans, brownies, chocolate cake, decorated fairy cakes and today, Madeleines. Haven't been hungry lately!

We've finally had some decent rain, and the tank is comfortably over half full. Auckland is running out, and water restrictions have just started. The ground is still sucking up all the rain that falls on it, so the dams are still empty, and will still be for a while yet.

So the water has run out, the economy has tanked, but everyone seems to think we've done remarkably well here. I'm afraid Jacinda Ardern can't run for president, and although we've got a spare room, we can't accept any Covid refugees because the only planes are emergency evacuations. No idea what's going to happen here without overseas tourism, but at least we've got plenty to eat, and the hairdressers are happy!

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