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A woman who has been stranded in New Zealand for almost a month says her memories will be filled with generosity – and games of beer pong.
Kate Lane, from Vigo Village near Gravesend, has been living in Queenstown, New Zealand, in a house with 16 other people in a similar position.
Having left the UK for the town in the country's South Island three months ago, the 23-year-old had been working as a waitress to supplement her travel.
But after returning from a camping trip, the country was plunged into a Level 4 lockdown, which, similar to the UK, means residents can only go outside to go to the supermarket, pharmacy, for exercise or to go to work if they are an employee of an essential business.
The country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told New Zealanders: "Act like you have Covid-19. It will help guide your decisions."
Having received the news, Kate tried to get herself home.
She said: "The pandemic hadn’t quite reached the severity levels of the UK and I was naïve to the extent of the situation.
"I decided to look into flights back to the UK. The saying ‘better late than never’ definitely didn’t ring true in this instance.
"Flying out of Queenstown back to the UK is near-on impossible without flying through Christchurch or Auckland first.
"I am literally in the middle of nowhere. The other problem was once domestic travel was banned, there was no way of getting to Auckland as it sits on a completely different island.
"Flights to Christchurch would then take you through Australia and then onto the Middle East or south east Asia.
"Australia authorized a 72-hour pass into their country as a stopover period for flights coming in and out.
"This pass had already expired when I started looking into it and was only allowed into the country if I could find a flight with a stopover time of eight hours or less.
"Of course there were flights, but every reasonably-priced one had a stopover period in Australia of way over eight hours, and flights that didn’t were going to cost me around $11,000 which was definitely not an option."
Despite the travel situation, Kate says the system in New Zealand has been very generous.
She said: "Considering I am not a Kiwi citizen, I have been treated as if I’ve lived here my entire life.
"The government has provided companies with subsidies, and my employer is paying me and my colleagues 80% of our weekly wage for up to 12 weeks.
"A less glamorous Big Brother situation comes to mind."
"I had been working for my current employer for only five weeks and definitely did not expect this level of care from them.
"I am also able to fill out a welfare registration form which helps with food assistance.
"I’m currently receiving a voucher of $100 to spend at my local supermarket.
"I cannot be more grateful for the assistance I have received as a British citizen living overseas."
As of Tuesday, April 14, the death toll in the country had reached 9.
The current stage of lockdown, which has been in place since Monday, April 6, is expected to last until at least Wednesday, April 22.
Kate added: "The living situation is definitely something that I have had to become accustomed to.
"There are 16 people living in a not-so-big share house.
"A less glamorous Big Brother situation comes to mind. Overall, it’s actually been quite entertaining as there’s a mix of Brits, Americans, Canadians, South Americans and Germans all living under one roof.
"We keep ourselves occupied with trivia and poker night once a week. There was also an Easter egg hunt and house roast dinner on Sunday to celebrate the bank holiday.
"It’s my birthday on the 17th and I’ve been told there’s to be a lot of cake and drinking involved to which I have zero complaints.
"I can’t imagine I’ll ever forget spending my 24th birthday in New Zealand, during a worldwide pandemic, trapped inside, playing beer pong with 13 people I didn’t know three months ago.
"It could be a whole lot worse."
