Mathias Hanssen

Jun 18, 20206 min read

Quaran-kiwi-team

Updated: Jun 18, 2020

You’re cordially invited to a quarantine in New Zealand!

(in all seriousness, I wish all my loved ones could be here in NZ with us)

When: March 15th to ???

Where: 43a Grenada Street, Mount Maunganui

Why: Global Pandemic

What to bring: all of your belongings, will power, emotional fortitude, and alcohol

Before I introduce you to the gang, let me show you around.

Welcome to Mount Maunganui! A ward of Tauranga, Mount Maunganui is a quaint, beautiful beach town in the Bay of Plenty on the northern island of New Zealand. Over the past couple of decades, the Mount has become affluent with many wealthy Kiwis retiring to the little town. And I mean, COME ON!!! Why not?!

Unfortunately, the Mount itself (Mt Mauao) was closed throughout the duration of lockdown due to narrow tracks that prevented social distancing. I was thankfully able to sneak in a hike up the Mount before I had to go into self-isolation.

Alright, let me introduce you to my second family! Ladies first:

Charlotte

Charlotte, our in-house hair stylist, was the most seasoned traveler. Originally from Worcester in the UK – yes, the same place where Worcestershire sauce was created – she has been through much of SE Asia, Australia, and New Zealand twice now. She gave all of us kick-ass haircuts throughout lockdown – incredibly clutch, thank you again Charlotte! She has cool stories of her using her hairstylist skills in small towns, and even some horse grooming. I enjoyed our chats in our native tongue, seeing as we were the only ones who had English as a first language (and aren’t fluent in any other languages…). Charlotte is knowledgeable in all things travel and I learned several neat travel tricks from her. Although she may not admit it, she is a great cook, especially with Thai and Vietnamese inspired dishes! Charolette is also very artistic, sketching in some of her free time and putting us all to shame with her incredible watercolor paintings.

Emilie

Emilie hails from København, Denmark. Although she is not Norwegian, I will take any Scandinavian I can get! One of the most competitive people in our house, she was quite good at beating us at card games and the crossbar challenge. Although, she was not as graceful at losing because she did not lose often… but she always had a good laugh about it when we finally did defeat her. She is also very well-traveled, having been to Australia, Nepal, and several countries in South America. Emilie is fluent in English, and arguably better at grammar than me, so she helped in our English class for the Frenchies. She is also quite the chef and baker, adept at improvising meals and making some of the best whole grain bread. Both Emilie and Charlotte got us into yoga during lockdown to combat the soreness that kiwi picking induced. Emilie also encouraged us to do watercolor paintings that I believe she now has on display in her campervan.

Estelle

Estelle lights up a room with her enthusiasm and laugh. She is from Bretagne, which is a northwestern region in France. She and Maelle are close friends that came to New Zealand together and are now traveling together in a campervan. She loves to dance and sing, just like Queen B. Estelle would often encourage us to join her in the living room with the music blasting from the TV. She was also often the one leading the charge to have a house party after a long week of picking kiwifruit. She also has a very expressive face that she can wield for easy laughs. Although we didn’t have many long conversations, but we did share our love for good beer. We both craved a fresh, crisp IPA after weeks of light beer. She has improved her English tremendously throughout lockdown! I wish I could say the same for my French (which is almost non-existent). Since lockdown has ended, she has also been improving as a person by conquering her fear of heights and eating more adventurously!

Maelle

Maelle, also from Bretagne, has a boisterous and contagious laugh. She was often laughing at something, and it was hard not to join in. Shy at first, she is quick to warm-up to people to share her smile and laugh. Maelle is a talented photographer; checkout some of her work on Facebook at Maellelg_photo! She captured some of our best group photos and candid moments during quarantine. Her English wasn’t as proficient at the beginning of lockdown, but she made constant efforts to talk in English with us and she improved dramatically. You could tell that she was making a conscious effort to connect and that it frustrated her when she couldn’t find the right words to express herself. However, both she and Estelle were successful in our English class when we practiced grammar and sentence structure. Maelle is also an expert baker. The sweet treats she made during quarantine were gone within minutes of being laid out on the countertop.

Leo

Leo was the one who contacted me about the house and is therefore my guardian angel. He is from Grenoble, a town in the French Alps, and was born with skiis on his feet. An accomplished skier, Leo has traveled much of Europe and some of Canada for freestyle skiing competitions. Essentially fluent in English, he served as a translator for the other French in our house for the occasional word or phrase they couldn’t understand. An adventurous and eager soul, Leo often spearheaded our adventures once quarantine ended. Leo is also quite the socialite. He has been in New Zealand since last August and made many friends before the lockdown that he has stayed in touch with. It seems everywhere we travel we are bumping into a friend of Leo’s. Did I mention he loves cheese? While in lockdown, he had copious amounts of cheese with every meal, maybe except for breakfast. That is why we nicknamed him Cheeseman.

Pierrick

Pierrick is originally from Cessenon, a town in the South of France. He was our macho man with a heart of gold. He loved to sing along to music and wasn’t afraid to boogie. He was usually the one to do the alcohol runs for our house parties, eager to provide us all with liquid courage. Pierrick improved his English grammar and pronunciation significantly over our time in quarantine! Although, he was mostly interested in learning colorful and innovative combinations of curse words… Honestly, all of the Frenchies have made great improvements in their English skills and I am so proud of them :) Like Leo, he is adventurous and encouraged us to get out of the house to do some hikes once the lockdown was over. He also rocks a handle-bar mustache like no other (unfortunately not pictured). He is sadly the first of our quarantine family to return home. As I am writing this, his journey is coming to an end here in New Zealand. He is flying back to France to enjoy the summer with his friends at home. You will be missed mon ami! On se voit bientôt!

Robin

Robin, from Beauvais – a city just north of Paris, was one of the first people I met in Mount Maunganui. We sat next to each other in the van for kiwifruit picking orientation. He was shy at first, but after two months living with him, I came to learn Robin is a big jokester and incredibly funny. Even though he is not completely fluent in English, he still managed to make us all laugh. Humor is one of those things, if done well, that can transcend language. To be fair, everyone in our house was funny and good at joking around, but Robin was certainly the “King” jokester. We often referred to him as King Robin because he was the first to have the master bedroom in the house and wasn’t afraid to let us all know how superior he was. Ha, I am laughing to myself just thinking about it. He was also the worst winner, but in the most endearing way possible.

Let the Good Times Roll

Five French, one Brit, one Dane, and one Texan. We got along famously. After hearing horror stories on Facebook groups and from other co-workers, we have come to realize just how lucky we were. We could have just as easily been at each other’s throats after spending almost every waking second with each other. Admittingly, we weren’t buddy-buddy all the time. I think one of the reasons we got along so well is that we were good at giving each other space and taking alone time when needed. We kept a clean house, as well as taking turns cooking and doing the dishes. To be fair with rent, we rotated through the rooms bi-weekly since all the rooms were different sizes.

We also knew how to have fun and let off the cabin fever steam :)

We went to the beach to build sandcastles and sunbathe.

Emilie taught us the game beer bowling.

The Frenchies taught us this strange game that is better shown than described:

We had a 90s themed party, that I slept through most of...

When we went to level 3 and were allowed to expand our “bubble”, we had over Michael – a hilarious, wild, and kind-hearted Irishman that we met through kiwi picking. The theme was a mustache party/Emilie's half birthday.

Many days off were spent partially on the couch, resting after a party night or a long week’s work. We consumed many TV series, including Casa de Papel, Last Dance, and New Girl.