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OUTDOOR SANITY
in a Covid World
By Annabel Anderson
The day was Tuesday, 17 August 2021. It was a stormy
mid winter day that the Southern Lakes had been
looking forward to all season after a lean winter on the
snow front. Majority of the early winter storms had hit
the eastern coastal pathway of the Southern Divide but
with over half a metre of snow in the forecast it was the
storm-riding day of the season and Treble Cone was
pulsating with an energy that only happens a couple of
times a winter when powder fever hits.
As the front finally cleared allowing an hour and a
half of visibility before the lifts shut that afternoon,
anticipation was high for what the next day would bring
as mountains across the Southern Lakes received the
dump of the season.
On the journey back to town, whispers began to spread
about the re-emergence of Covid in the community after
a 15 month hiatus in which New Zealand had enjoyed
a somewhat normal life while the rest of the world
had descended into chaos. The 6pm news briefing
confirmed the worst and advised that the country was
going into a snap lockdown from midnight that evening.
In an instant, the tone of the town changed.
Despair, grief, frustration and loss summarise the
feeling that fell over the village that evening and in the
days that followed as the magnitude of Delta kicked
in as we all looked up at "what might have been". The
usual winter stoke was gone, replaced with glances of
acknowledgement of collective mourning as everyone
began another round of playing ‘Go Home Stay Home’.
It was as though candy had been dangled in front of our
faces and then snatched away just as we were about to
take the first bite. Unlike the lockdowns of 2020 which
had an element of warning, this time the mood was
different and it was stark.
No matter where I’ve found myself situated in the world,
or what situations I’ve found myself in, I’ve always
managed to find a degree of calm amongst the chaos
by gravitating to the outdoors. For the months of July-
October in the Southern Lakes of the South Island the
alpine playgrounds above the snowline spring to life.
Add in a snap Lockdown game of 'Go Home Stay
Home', the shutting down of the mountain playgrounds
and all of a sudden I became extremely grateful for
knowing what was accessible straight out the backdoor.
Like a daily dose of medicine to maintain a degree of
mental and emotional equilibrium, what was accessible
from the doorstep and ‘local’ was a stark reminder of
how important being outside was going to be to mentally
survive another lockdown..
Being in New Zealand is a lot easier than a lot of
countries around the world when it comes to making
the most of what lies down the street and well within the
strict guidelines of permissible ‘outdoor recreation’.
Sometimes this has been easy, sometimes it’s been
more of a challenge. When I say challenge, I’m referring
to time spent living in and amongst multi-level high rise
buildings in foreign cities resembling concrete jungles.
Amongst the everlasting grey haze of a London winter
I discovered the hidden treasures of the city; a maze of
secret paths that lead to wide open commons, hidden
gardens and walkways that weave their path beside
the river and interconnect like veins all over the city.
These veins became my way of getting around, my daily
commutes by bike and the places I would run to escape
the oppressive nature of the concrete jungle.
Fast forward to 2021 and we’ve been forced to rethink
the meaning of outdoor recreation. When people once
thought of it as getting into the hills, multi-day hikes,
surfing empty waves on remote beaches and the like,
the restrictions of lockdowns have forced a re-think.
When you're confined to what you can access from your
doorstep a pair of shoes and the footpath constitute the
ability to remove yourself from your home/work/family
environment to provide a much needed escape and a
mechanism to cope in a world of daily unknowns.
This ability to remove yourself, interact with your
environment and re-enter allows us to return and show
up as a better version of ourselves, especially when
the unknown sees a natural rise in anxiety coupled with
shorter fuses all around. An injection of oxygen through
our bodies helps not only cleanse our airways, but also
our minds and our emotional state.
Many of us have known the benefits of the outdoors
for a long time. Fresh air, the breeze on your face,
sand between your toes, bird song, the rustling of wind
through trees, water running over rocks and simply
being able to escape from being around large crowds
of people. For those that have long been drawn to the
outdoors, an increasing amount of research has backed
up these anecdotal benefits and has been shown to
improve mood and focus and to help reduce stress.
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