Corona Quarantine Chronicles: A Scotland Guide on Lockdown Down Under in New Zealand

I was on the couch with my corona quarantine companion last Wednesday, watching a bit of telly, when my boss appeared. On came an episode of Rick Steves’ Europe! Naturally, we decided to watch. It was the “Scotland’s Highlands” episode, and eight minutes in, with the lush landscape of Glencoe as backdrop, Rick introduces local guide Colin Mairs in his customary way: “we’re joined by my friend and fellow tour guide–”

“I know him!” I turn to my companion excitedly. “That’s one of our guides, Colin! We got to chat when he came to Seattle in January for our annual tour reunion!” We pause and rewind the program so I can capture the digital evidence and message Colin in New Zealand about his unexpected appearance in our living room seven-thousand miles away.

Tour Guide Extraordinaire, Colin Mairs

Kilt-wearing Colin Mairs grew up in Glasgow — yes, he has the cute Scottish accent! — and for two-to-three months each year he leads Rick Steves tours through Scotland. Colin shares his country’s rich history and culture, shows off its best sights, takes travelers whiskey tasting, facilitates sheepdog demonstrations, and is even known for singing on the tour bus! But he spends most of the year running his own tours in New Zealand (where he’s lived since 2015) through his company: Mondumo Small Group Tours. 

After graduating from university with a degree in French language and literature, Colin began working as a tour guide in 2010. He’s lived in France and Portugal and speaks fluent French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Under normal circumstances, Colin would be leading tours of Scotland right about now. But — well — I’ll let Colin fill you in, as he’s agreed to serve us a tasty insight into his current life Down Under in Auckland these days.

How does a Scottish laddie such as yourself end up in New Zealand?

My wife Claudia (who is originally from Mexico) was already living in New Zealand when I came here traveling and we met. After a couple years of a long-distance relationship (of around 11,000 miles!), I moved permanently to New Zealand and we are blessed to be able to call this beautiful slice of the planet home.

On Lockdown Down Under

What’s the situation like there at the moment?

In New Zealand we have eased up on lockdown restrictions. Last week we moved to Level 2 – that means that most public spaces including cafés, restaurants, and shops, are open again. The Covid-19 numbers of confirmed cases are just less than 1,500 cases and a total of 21 deaths in the whole country at the time of writing (May 18). The case numbers are low, even by the size of the population (New Zealand being a country of around 5 million people). The New Zealand government, led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, took the approach of “go early and go hard” against the virus and it has largely paid off.

“In New Zealand we use the term “bubble” to refer to the immediate nucleus of people you are living with and spending the lockdown with.” 

New Zealanders, I would say, are notoriously good rule followers, and aside from well publicized cases of, for example, people flouting the rules by going surfing, the population has by and large respected the lockdown.

A “Bubble” of Two

In New Zealand we use the term “bubble” to refer to the immediate nucleus of people you are living with and spending the lockdown with. We are allowed to go out for walks with the people in our bubble but should stay within the neighborhood.

My wife and I are a bubble of two. I was on tour when the alert levels started to ramp up. It made the tour a bit more stressful to manage, having to constantly keep one eye on news updates to see if things were getting more serious. Everywhere we went we were reminded to wash our hands or offered hand sanitizer. We made it to the end of the tour, finishing on March 22nd, and everyone got home safely.

My wife had already been asked by her employer to work from home since before the official lockdown. Claudia’s main job is with the country’s biggest telecoms provider. But she is also a director of our small group tours company. She has been as busy as ever, but misses the personal interaction with her co-workers, and the barista coffees (as we all do!).

Scotland Tours Canceled

I was due to be going to Scotland for my usual season of leading tours for Rick Steves Europe, but that has now been completely called off. I should have been in Scotland from the start of May until mid-June. Personally, I am sad to miss out on my Scotland season.

Not only does it make up a significant portion of my work for the year, it also gives me the opportunity to catch up with family and friends, which is always something I look forward to.

With the move to Level 2 last week, it gives hope that we are going in the right direction, and at Level 2 we can now extend our bubbles. We saw some close friends over the weekend, and gatherings are to be a maximum of 10 people. It’s really nice and a little surreal at first to actually be in the company of other people again!

How have you been spending your time?

Just after moving into Alert Level 4 we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Instead of going out to our local favorite restaurant, we had a nice meal at home. To make it feel more special, we got ready in separate rooms and dressed up nice!

We live in Auckland, the largest city of New Zealand. Even for a city, Auckland is surrounded by nature. The city straddles the isthmus between two harbors, so we are never far from the water. Where we live we are a five minutes’ walk to the water of the harbor. There are lots of public parks around and green spaces so we try to go out for a walk most mornings.

Lockdown Mealtime Innovations

Being foodies, we enjoy going out to restaurants, so that has been something we have been missing. But we have been trying some new recipes and getting into baking — which we had never really done before.

As Claudia is still working it gives us a routine Monday to Friday. For meals we have, for a long time already, used a meal-planning delivery service. The ingredients are delivered to us on the Sunday afternoon, and it contains easy 30-40 minute prep recipes for five nights. This allows us to try different foods that we might not otherwise think to cook at home. 

As for our friends, we have been keeping in touch by video calling. We have arranged a few quiz nights and actually it has been a chance to connect more regularly with friends in Scotland and Mexico, as everyone is at home anyway. It just means that we need to get up at 7am on a Sunday to have a “night in” with friends in Scotland where it is 8pm on Saturday.

Is there any message you’d like to get out to the world?

The fact that New Zealand has now returned to a relative sense of “normal” is an indication that things are heading in the right direction. I hope that we will all learn something from this time. As someone who regularly reads and talks about history, it is quite an existential feeling to realize that I am living through one of the biggest world events of my lifetime — a once-in-a-century pandemic. I wonder how people will look back on this time and what future generations will think of those who panic bought toilet paper and who disregarded the stay at home advice.

I’m waiting to see how the situation develops to know if I will be able to go ahead with the New Zealand tour I have scheduled for October 2020. That one I am running as a collaboration with my friend Sarah Murdoch, so that makes it extra special. I really hope we’ll be able to go ahead. There are still spaces available if any adventurous souls want to discover New Zealand with us! (Spaces are available on our February and March 2021 New Zealand tours as well as a first Mondumo Australia tour, which is running in March 2021.)

The end is not yet in sight for the virus and I think we have almost all realized that Covid-19 is a marathon not a sprint. Worldwide we need to be able to operate our personal and work lives efficiently and effectively at differing alert levels over a potentially much longer term, and we all need to play our small part to stop the spread of the virus. 

Colin’s Online Presence:

• Colin’s blog (Where you can check out the adorable diary entries of eleven-year-old Colin that he recently posted!)

More ways of finding Colin Mairs:

• Mondumo Tour Information
• Colin on Twitter
• Colin on YouTube

Colin Mairs on Facebook:

• www.facebook.com/mondumosmallgrouptours
• www.facebook.com/excursionscotland

Colin Mairs on Instagram:

• @mondumosmallgrouptours
• @excursionscot
• @colinmairs

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Some Final Bubble Thoughts…

Have you been to Scotland? New Zealand? Australia? Are you dreaming of going? And who, like me, is convinced we should all be adopting this Kiwi use of the word “bubble” into our local lexicons worldwide? (I may, however, need a bit more clarification on proper usage. For example, “we’re a bubble of two” is clear, but could one also say, “I can’t make that Zoom meeting on Friday, because I already have plans to go for a walk with my bubble.”?) Please chime in with your bubble responses below! And be sure to share any other thoughts, questions, and travel reminiscences in the comments!

As always, thanks for tuning in! For more “Corona Quarantine Chronicles,” check out these interviews of travelers staying home in Granada, Spain, and in New York City! Plus, coming up next we’ll hear about life on lockdown in London from virtuoso pianist, Harry the Piano!

Ciao for now! 🙂