Kate Hawkesby: What Delta Level 2.5 will look like for Auckland

I won’t be here next week because I’m off for a week of the school holidays; to my living room, like every other Aucklander, but before I go, I thought I’d make a prediction for Monday. I still think, as I said the other day, that we’ll go to Level 2 in Auckland and Level 1 for the rest of the country. But it won’t be called Level 2, it’ll be a new bespoke arrangement, some version of a 2 with a cutesy catchphrase they’ll think up to try to make it sound fun; like Delta 2.5+ or something.  They'll just want to give us the illusion we're not in 3 anymore. It’ll include a hard boundary around Auckland, as we know already. But, we will get hairdressers open and a few shops, the idea being that we feel so grateful and appreciative for that, that we forget about how long we’ve had our freedoms taken off us. I know people tend to predict things they hope will happen, and I’m guilty of this too, this may be my hope overriding my common sense, but I just can’t see how they keep Auckland in 3 and the rest of the country in 2. When in the same breath they keep saying they’ve got control of this, that there’s no widespread transmission, and that they’re not worried about case numbers. Of course, if that’s the case, then what the hell have we been doing locked up all this time? But logic is not their strong suit, nor reason, they’ll simply look for appropriate spin, and hope we suck it down like Kool Aid. I’m finding fewer and fewer people around these days who find lockdowns a good idea. You’ve got the odd retired person, or those who’ve swallowed the fear messaging who seem to enjoy it, but anyone with a business, a young family, teenagers, students, or half a brain about the country’s economy and debt levels, are over it.  We don’t have the same novelty around it this time, it’s been longer and more painful, we’ve had less clarity (if that’s even possible), there’s been no plan, and the ultimate sting that much of this could've been avoided, had we made a decent and timely vaccine order back when everyone else did. Every tunnel needs a light at the end to drag us through it. This one has just felt like a long dark tunnel. A torch flickers on and off periodically when they talk about vaccination rates, but then they back peddle and say ‘oh actually vaccinations are not the only thing that’ll get us out of lockdowns’. So how much is on us and how much is on them? It’s their job to sort ICU nurses and ventilators and vaccines and access to vaccines, all we can do is get vaccinated. Given this Government’s addicted to good press, I reckon we’ll see a political decision made Monday to appease people; a drop of sorts, a bone thrown. I don’t even care anymore, as long as they open the hairdressers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.