Former RNZ producer Nicholas Pointon and his partner arrived a few weeks ago in the UK to start their big OE, they now find themselves on a very different kind of adventure.
Nicholas told Jesse Mulligan he and his partner are stuck between a rock and a hard place – they want to come home as MFAT has advised, but are having to self-isolate in their London flat for two weeks as Nicholas has had flu-like symptoms.
Photo: AFP
It’s been a stressful time, Nicholas says.
“Yesterday I developed a bit of a cough and yesterday Boris Johnson announced, he's been doing a series of daily announcements, that if anyone in your household starts developing a cough that you have to self-isolate for 14 days, so I woke up this morning knowing that I had to self-isolate.
“And then later this afternoon, we saw the notification from RNZ about MFAT suggesting that all New Zealanders abroad should make their decision and return home.”
The trouble is they can’t go anywhere for two weeks.
“And it's a fear in the back of our minds that although we booked a flight on April 1, there's a chance that that flight could be cancelled, you know, so it's pretty stressful at the moment.”
Even getting food to the flat is problematic, he says.
“Obviously, we can't go to the supermarket, but we can’t get groceries delivered because all the supermarkets and the online websites that deliver food have been booked out for the next six weeks.
“So, it's pretty stressful at the moment, but we're just sort of playing it by ear.”
Nicholas and his partner are in a flat in Camberwell, South London and are now all alone there as the other occupants have had to leave.
“One of our flatmates suffers from asthma so, when she found out that we might be carriers of the virus, because we can’t actually check there's no testing available to us, she’s had to obviously leave the flat.
“So have all our other flatmates, and now we're just living here alone. It's forced everyone to uproot their lives and change their plans and find other places to live, because a lot of them are working and they can't afford to not work.”
Nicholas Pointon Photo: RNZ
He says he’s had confusing information from the UK health authorities since he first became worried about possibly having the virus.
“Last week I started the week with a bit of a headache on Monday, by Wednesday I had a sore throat and then Thursday, Friday I had the worst fever you can possibly imagine.”
Then his symptoms subsided but he called a helpline to get some clarity.
“I explained my symptoms to them and they asked, ‘Do you have a cough?’ I said ‘No’. They said, ‘Have you been short of breath?’ I said, ‘No I've just had a fever’”.
The helpline advised him he probably had a bout of ‘flu and so feeling better he went back to work, and then he felt a cough develop.
“I just noticed that I did have a sort of scratchy cough coming on later in the evening. So, I called up the NHS, but that helpline service has sort of been scrapped, and they're only taking calls from people who are showing serious symptoms of Covid-19.
“So now I don't know if I have Covid-19 or not, I'm sort of self-diagnosing myself against whatever information we've gleaned off the internet.”
Nicholas is hoping his partner remains symptom-free and they can return on their booked flight because prices have soared, he says.
“The cost of flights back to New Zealand have just jumped so much in the past few days, it’s unbelievable.
“I saw one of the airlines charging 1500 pounds for an economy ticket one way - that’s nearly two grand New Zealand.”
Meanwhile he and his partner are staying cheerful and he’s bingeing The Crown on Netflix.
“We've got an anxious two weeks ahead of us,” he says.
