We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances

What does it feels like to leave New York and “land in a parallel universe of calm politics and good health”? Journalist Natasha Frost arrived in New Zealand last month and investigated for the Australian bureau of The New York Times.

“Helped along by geographic isolation, an early lockdown and the public’s overwhelming compliance with government-mandated restrictions, the country where I grew up is among just a handful of nations to have eliminated community transmission of the coronavirus,” Frost writes for the Times.

“Lockdown is a distant memory, coronavirus restrictions something that now – hopefully – happen elsewhere.

“With the nearest major land mass a three-hour flight away, life in New Zealand often seems quite remote even under normal circumstances. Right now, it’s like another planet.”

Frost was a writer for Atlas Obscura. She has also worked for Vice, Radio New Zealand, The Independent and the BBC.

Original article by Natasha Frost, The New York Times, October 30, 2020.

Photo by Aaron Birch.