I don't know where to begin…

Riding a rollercoaster is the only way I can describe the last week of my life!

One moment I’m booking an extra months accommodation and settling into my new life in Pucon, Chile and the next anxiously deciding do I stay in Chile or go back to New Zealand.

This wasn’t on my to do list when I planned travelling slowly and exploring South America and the Americas for a year or so!

Mental note… put it on for next time!

My initial thought was, I’m fine! I’m in Pucon, it’s quietened down now the tourists have gone and I have a beautiful apartment and new friends to pass the time with - all very logical!

Then the 50/50 messages came from friends and family, some saying come home and others saying no you’re probably safer there than travelling, I didn’t really want to put myself right into the melting pot of people and potential… Especially with 18+ hours of travel ahead of me!

This was the hardest decision I think I’ve had to make, to abandon my plans of slowly travelling and exploring South America with 3 months or so in each country and then moving on.

So what do I do, do I stay and ride it out not knowing what the next three months will entail or do I go back to New Zealand, be close to family and then come back to complete this beautiful continent!

Ugh this is so hard!

So I decide it is time to go, thanks to some very calm level headed friends logically talking to me - now normally I’m very logical, but not in this situation! There were tears, uncertainty, unknown, but at the end of the day I had to make a decision and run with it!

Plan A - Flight from Temuco to Santiago Saturday 21st, then fly Santiago > Buenos Aires > Auckland > Queenstown (to self quarantine with Jo who was also heading there)… Ok I’m set!

Nope I’m not set… changes happen, the President announces a ‘State of Catastrophe’ which who knows what he was going to do on the 19th, so I quickly booked another flight from Temuco to Santiago and thought I would stay at a hotel for 3 days and wait for Sundays flight…

Wrong!

Notice came through of closing regional / provincial boarders on the 19th, which means I wouldn’t get to Temuco!

CRAP!

Jo and I then talked - from Buenos Aires to Pucon - and she said ‘you’re not going to like this’ … my response was ‘carma or semi carma’… know fully well she was booking me an overnight bus, I had to go home and pack as it left at 945pm!

Then last night the 18th March at approx. 530pm my friend Rebecca in New Zealand messaged whilst I was on the phone to Jo, post packing… that the Air New Zealand flight that night out of BA to Auckland was the last flight = JO YOU NEED TO GO!

Jo packed in record time, and I know her living style I’m super impressed! Made it to the airport and got on that flight by the skin of her teeth… YAY

Ok, now for me… That was the flight I was taking Sunday = NO!

I then ended up on the phone to my friend Melanie who ‘talked me down’ and calmly got me to think through my options… meantime Rebecca jumps on the phone to Trudy at House of Travel in Blenheim and next thing she has me on a flight tonight!!! Santiago > Melbourne > Christchurch > Queenstown and this is where the generosity and humanity kicks in and gets me in tears every time, both Rebecca and Trudy said don’t worry about paying fix it up when you’re back in New Zealand, we just want you on the flight!

Now, I just want to get home!

But first… a 12 hour bus ride, that included two punctured tyres and a change of bus 4 hours out from Santiago (insert face palm here…), upon getting to Santiago I booked a room to chill at a hotel with the goal of sleeping, but alas no sleep as I was to anxious. So, I headed to the airport only to find I was 4 hours early for checkin - oops. So, after a week of stress and only eating an empanada and Chilean style cinnamon scroll each day, it was time for some delicious Chilean vino and carne…

Then… New Zealand Embassy sends an email - there could be standby flights direct to Auckland! Queue paying, abandoning the vino (ok so I asked them to hold it for me whilst I went to the counter), checked with the ladies, no Auckland flight today but they did check me in so I have my boarding passes = a fraction less anxious… But 8pm I get to check the bag in and go through customs, this still isn’t over people!

I still have to get through 3 flights to get to Queenstown, to Jo and our beautiful apartment that has a beautiful story to go along with it as well… Seriously, in moments of insaneness like I’m currently in, fighting to get home from Chile to New Zealand, so anxious I feel like my chest is tightening and I’m on the verge of tears at every moment, these beautiful stories arise.

I messaged my sister in Cromwell about a house to self isolate in, being that she could cook us yummy food and I could see my nephews and niece out the window… Kate messages Shannon, Shannon posts on a Queenstown FB group and next thing this beautiful women is offering us her apartment in Queenstown for half price, has it semi stocked and is like just get on the flights and then pay me - queue tears!

It is moments like these that humanity really shines and seeing strangers go out of there way for Jo and I, brings me to tears the moment I think about it (ok so about 20x writing this already).

So right now, I just want to be on the plane and in New Zealand, I have about 7 hours to wait and praying that everything goes ahead and I catch nothing on the plane… But my beautiful sister is shopping for us, I’ve had offers from people I’ve never met to bring us food, wine, baking and soup whilst in isolation.

I’m sure this applies everywhere but boy it feels good to be going home!

P.S. I wrote this whilst still at Santiago Airport but figured I should post upon being successfully back on New Zealand soil.