Editorial: A Christmas tale – dodging the Covid Grinch

SPENDING Christmas with my family was the plan and last week it looked completely achievable.

But as I set off to pick my Dad up from Newcastle airport, little did I know the Covid-19 wheels of change were also rolling, gaining momentum to derail my plans and send my Dad and I running the gauntlet of ever-changing border restrictions up and down the entire eastern seaboard, trying to make it home and avoid ending up stranded for Christmas.

And so begins my Covid-Christmas tale…

To set the scene, my dad lives in Queensland, my mum in Canberra and my sister in Melbourne, so we knew it may not be simple, but all of our places of origin and destination were outbreak free and I had a plan!

Dad would fly into Newcastle airport, I’d pick him up and we’d drive to Canberra, see family, then travel to Melbourne to spend Christmas Day with my sister, before all flying back home to Queensland to relax between Christmas and the New Year.

It’s 3am Sunday, December 20. Coffee has been brewed and sealed in a travel mug, the Fellows father and daughter duo embark on a journey to Melbourne via Canberra to finally see family after twelve months of isolation and world devastation. 

After seven seeming very long hours dad arrived at Newcastle Airport, collecting an excited scone.com.au journalist from the long-stay car park, the first leg of our adventure now complete.

We become aware of some cases on Northern Beaches but we aren’t going anywhere near Sydney and have no need to worry about that red zone; we’re fine, fuelled and pass at an uninterrupted pace through to Canberra. 

Tea, cake, dinner and drinks were lavishly offered upon our arrival to Canberra and we patted ourselves on the back for arriving earlier than anticipated. We had beaten the holiday rush.

At approximately 7:18pm, ‘ping’ messaging sounds, interrupted animated conversation with family friends and bearing the bad tidings that our Melbourne border permits, acquired on the drive down, had been revoked.

The Victorian Health Department informed us new permits satisfying new “rules” must be completed after 1 am Monday, December 21. 

At this point, one may think, ‘we should have known’ but trust us, we knew about the New South Wales hot spots. We researched and noted the red, amber and  and green zones and deliberately drove along the M1 and through the new Sydney tunnel, without stopping.

What could possibly go wrong? In short, everything.

With a glimmer of hope in our hearts, we rang the COVID-19 hotline to confirm that driving to Canberra via Sydney without stopping would still allow us to enter Victoria in two days time.

The first call to the hotline included a 15 minute wait (not bad), only to be told ours was not a national hotline issue and, “please ring the Victorian number.”

Call number two and four minutes of intense navigation later, we receive the classic, “due to the high demand your call could not be taken please try again later,” followed by deadline and an empty space barring our expression of dissatisfaction that any old warfie would be proud of.

Calls three and four went along the same lines, as did expressions of dissatisfaction before the final call made at 9:05pm.

“Sorry your call could not be taken as the office is closed, our office hours are 8am until 9pm.” Patience was running thin.

Up early and remaining hopeful, we get through to the call waiting line on the fourth attempt, yippee. Forty minutes later a call back is offered, “as if I am going to get out of this line now,” said dad. 

We patiently wait another 30 minutes and speak to a real living person and after posing the long-awaited question, “does driving through constitute being in an hotspot?” which clearly stumped her.

We were relieved when she came back and told us that all we needed to do was complete the new border passes and present them when we arrive to Victoria.

This was until she added, right at the end, “oh and you will need to self-isolate for 14 days as well.”

I heard the thump as our Christmas spirits hit the floor. 

With a long tradition of never planning, this was new. Revisit and revise the plan -plan B so they say. Plan B included staying in Canberra for a couple of days to enjoy old friends and a couple of games of golf with said friends, before heading back to the Gold Coast for Christmas. Easy, simple, wrong again!

Just as our newly constructed, seemingly perfect plan B was born, the Queensland Government declared they were closing the borders to travellers who had been in NSW Hotspots, from 1am Tuesday morning. Surely not, but alas, certainly so! 

We were not about to risk another, “oh and you will need to self isolate for 14 days as well,” situation, so not expecting any favours, we quickly threw our bags into the car -not much to repack- and headed back to Queensland.

We figured, as Queensland residents, our best shot at seeing family from Victoria would be driving back home to wait for them to catch flights from Melbourne to the Gold Coast. 

Now, we could have tempted fate and returned on Wednesday as planned but the whole issue of passing through Greater Sydney (now designated as a hot spot) even without stopping, may result in quarantining at our own expense.

In other words, we were playing a lottery with rules are a fluid as our plans. 

We evolved, became smarter and decided to get home via a combination of Central NSW inland routes, which added a few hours to the trip but also guaranteed an uneventful return to our home state without having to self-isolate during Christmas -don’t worry, we will endeavour to pick up one of the last available Christmas Ham’s for our two-person celebration on Friday.

We crossed the border at Goondiwindi and spoke to a charming Police officer who sympathised with our travel story and inability to make it to Victoria.

The last four hours of the drive absolutely defeated us, the two-days of driving finally taking its toll but we made it home in one piece!

Despite it all, it was a great father-daughter bonding experience as we toured three states and territories in 30 hours, whilst enjoying music and Australia’s wonderful scenery from the comfort of the car.

Our unplanned tour and personal experience of the ever-changing borders and hotspots of the eastern seaboard is over, the Covid-Christmas grinch may have thrown some spanners, but now we are settled at home eating the Christmas ham.

I hope for all of our readers, no matter what sudden Covid obstacles may be through in your path, that your plan B or plan C still brings you all the “feels” of Christmas and some time with a family member or a friend to share this crazy Covid-Christmas.

For current hotspots in NSW click here and for QLD border restriction information, click here.

Merry Christmas!

Taylah Fellows
Journalist