Vaccination will mean less chance of hospitalisation and this is clear from statistics here in New Zealand and globally but in the end, we must be prepared for the reality that we will face when we open up on January 13.

Our great Grandfather Christopher Duarte was Portuguese, born in Cape Verde off the coast of Africa, and made his way to the Cook Islands. I have spent the last year or so researching our Cape Verde roots and genealogy and found a number of our relatives now living in the USA. He would marry our great-grandmother Mata Tupuna Tanetuao from the village of Tupapa, and she sadly would die giving birth to my Grandmother Mama Arascena Kaitanu De Wote. He was given the name Kaitanu because he was an accomplished planter and he used this name as his own till he died and is buried across the road from the Arorangi Bakery as his first wife was Vaimotu.

As a planter, my parents like so many of yours grew up digging and planting, cultivating copra, coconuts, oranges, lemons and mangoes on a leased block behind our family home in Ruaau, Arorangi. Planting is in our blood, though it must have skipped my generation as I have never been able to master the green fingers of my Mother or our family. But the planting of seeds and preparation for the future were firmly imbedded in our growing up as children. At our Grandmother’s house in Arthur Street in Ponsonby, sitting around her chair I remember her telling us what she wanted us all to become. Lawyers, doctors, teachers and graduates…there was not time or inclination of anything less and for the most part, the seeds she planted and those of our parents have come to fruition.

As we as a country and countries around the world look to open up our borders, preparation is critical, lives are saved because of it, and the seeds planted of not just the influx of tourists which must happen for our economy to survive, but also those seeds of reality that an open border also means at some stage Covid will arrive on our shores. Seeds of reality that Fiji, Thailand, Samoa and other countries in the Pacific have and will also have to grapple with as the doors open and people flood in. Because as soon as that door opens, and it must, we will welcome in more than a friendly smiling tourist with money to spend and families that wish to return.

There is not a single country globally that has opened its borders where Covid has not found it, and we would be foolish to put our heads in the sand and believe otherwise. Yes, it is a change of tack, in that elimination, especially of the Delta variant, is just not a possibility and instead, as in New Zealand and other countries, we are preparing for the numbers to go up and for the sick to fill hospital beds and sadly deaths to rise. I’m certain those tasked with this preparation are doing all they can and it has been the responsibility of governments globally to resource fund and prepare our health response as much as we prepare our wealth response.

Covid free countries, like our beautiful home – the Cook Islands – have so far been spared the dilemma and trauma Covid brings, but that can also seduce us into thinking not us, it won’t happen here. Like I said, there is not a single country globally that has opened its borders and spared of Covid and this new Delta variant, and because we know that, it is not a matter of if it arrives, but what do we do, how do we prepare, and what do we do to keep ourselves safe when it arrives.

As numbers climb in New Zealand, we have pivoted to accepting the numbers will continue to climb and that the strategy to eliminate is long past and living with this virus is the only way forward.

The seeds are planted for this new reality, and at times it is building the plane as we are flying, and countries respond, then respond again to a wind that is this virus. It can at times be so difficult to predict or see and understand its path and why we should pray for our countries’ leaders.

So prepare, its sober advice, but it is all we can do. Vaccination will mean less chance of hospitalisation and this is clear from statistics here and globally but in the end the seeds we plant today must be ones of reality and preparation as we look to open up on January 13^th – Kata was right, this is opening up a Pandora’s Box, and though we watch the numbers climb, we know also there is no other choice.