23-29 COVID-19 – Summary Week Three

Blue skies on the horizon

Week three and no end in sight for the craziness in the world. While New Zealand is tackling the COVID-19 crisis with astounding vigour, the Cook Islands still not having a single confirmed case, the odds starting to turn in our favour. We might just be one of the first countries in the world to be able to declare ourselves Corona free. A feeling of uncertainty remains, while it is all exciting to spend the afternoons in the pool, read a book on a lounger or dream away in the hammock by the beach. Talking to the outside world, i.e. family in Europe we do get a feel for how bad the situation globally is and how long it might take until those countries start traveling again. A visit to the Cook Islands is not the highest on their priority list at the moment. And yet, we do get huge support from our returnees, people that stay with us year after year, in a villa that they consider their own personal Happy Place. Their support is what keeps us going at the moment. Their loyalty is what drives us to keep the property looking sharp and up to date so that when the madness subsides, we will be ready to welcome the world back in no time.

23 – COVID-19 – Hausunterricht 1.0 (Home-schooling 1.0) 

Charlie & Yann talking to Grandma in Germany

As every parent in the current code yellow situation, we are confronted with the home-schooling situation. So, we set out to create a positive learning environment with colourful pictures on the walls, book shelves, reading corners, play mat and all the other jazz. We set up a routine and went right for it. 5 minutes in or was it sooner? We realized that there is a reason why parents are parents and teachers are teachers. We ended up calling upon our parents to jump in and now they are conducting daily video calls to have a fun conversation in German and French. The kids love it because it is the only time, they ever have access to a smart phone. So now instead of saying let’s start your lesson or task or whatever you want to call it, it is simply: who wants to call granny? Me, Me, Me and off we go.

The nice thing though is all that time we get to spend together. And advise from the school was also not to be too strict on ourselves (kids&parents) we will not be able to recreate the classroom setting but simply spending time together holding a book, reading stories and talking about it seems to be a good start.  I am sure we will be touching on that topic again in the near future.

 24 – COVID-19 – Friedliche Ruhe – Insulaner und Investoren (Inner peace – Islanders and Investors)

Cooking fish on open fire is a huge part of life in Manihiki

One morning I was enjoying my coffee on the deck before sunrise and I noticed a number of neighbours ventured out to the reef in the pursuit of gathering food. The scene was so calming as it showed that people are still in sinc with nature when life just manages to slow down a bit. Based on that moment have I paraphrased a story that I heard years ago or maybe read I am not sure anymore. It is a conversation between a Tourist/Investor and a local fisher man at a bar. The story is specifically NOT set on Rarotonga and doesn’t include any Cook Islanders, so please do not take offense.

The investor basically tries to plant the idea in the fisherman’s head to start seeing his daily fishing as a business that with the help of the investor could grow into big business which the fisher man would be able to sell and then retire. It would only take about 10-15 years to reach that stage. The fisherman lets the investor polity finish his story and asks him: “Why would I be doing that worrying, working hard for 15 years?” Punchline: „So you can retire, buy a boat and go fishing every day!” Upon which the fisherman orders another cold beverage and just shakes his head in disbelieve.

I just love that story and it keeps coming back to me when contemplating life every now and again.

25 – COVID-19 – Beangstigende Ruhe – Ein Ausflug in die Statistik (Worrying calm – An excursion into statistics)

After the very peaceful morning yesterday, I checked the MFEM statistics page which is a section on their website and worth a browse. It is quite worrying seeing how much as a country/economy we are depending on the tourism dollar. There is not much else and with New Zealand and Australia most likely starting to promote in land tourism after COVID-19 our recovery might just take longer than in other parts of the world. But we remain positive and are hopeful that Kiwis will come back in the not too distant future. Their COVID-19 numbers are allowing us to hope that Aotearoa might beat the virus soon and then a corona free corridor might just open up. NZ is going into winter soon, so they might just want to escape the cold and come to their favourite place, the Cook Islands! Let’s hope.

26 – COVID-19 – Hoppelt nicht raus, bleibt zu Hause (Don’t bounce around, stay home)

The current view. Meitaki

A simple reminder for us all to just stay at home. And why is that so hard? The current situation with people having to stay home feels like being locked in a paradox. 

Under normal circumstances you always hear us complaining about not having enough time to read, exercise, talk to friends, learn something new, write that book! But yet, now that we have to stay home and it is the only sensible thing to do as we all understand, but funnily enough we are still not happy. Nothing to do, it’s too boring etc. 

It feels like our addiction to our amazing handheld devises has robed us of one o the most beautiful things in everyone’s childhood: imagination. The constant stream of information, pretty pictures has washed away our ability to create something meaningful to do with our time. Time to put the phone down, switch of the COVID-19 news stream and have a family dinner – no phones allowed at the table! 

27 – COVID-19 – Schreibpause (Writer’s break)

Happy Easter 2020

 Happy Easter, everyone!

28 – COVID-19 – Schreibpause (Writer’s break)

Germinated sweet corn on the cob

The picture shows some sweet corn shoots. Pure luck! We fed the corn to our chickens but they wouldn’t touch it. A week later I found the corn on the cob on the lawn and it had started germinating. Love nature! Next step is planting a row of sweet, sweet corn and organizing a movie night!

29 – COVID-19 – Ein Blumenstrauss fuer Insta (A flower bouquet for Insta)

Tropical flower bouquet ready to decorate the reception if it wasn't empty...

A post about how as a company we focus on the time after COVID-19 and concentrate on keeping our team healthy and the resort looking sharp around the edges. Some of the routine we go through feels a bit odd at the moment because we do everything we do for our guests and well, now there are no guests. So, the flowers that we cut in the garden to make the bouquets for our office and reception are now only props for photos that we produce for Instagram. At least this way we can keep in touch with our guests and show that we are still alive and ticking. The team spirit is great, even though we are adhering to strict social distancing practices at the resort. But our Facebook team chat is livelier than ever and the whole situation has made us all grow because we know that we can depend on each other during this hard time. Operating a small resort like ours feels like running a family business and while we were always tight it now feels like we are turning into a real family.