Clara in our quarantine room.
We were originally scheduled to be flying into Melbourne. However, a day or two before the flight departed we were switched to Adelaide. Apparently the quarantine places in Melbourne were full.
As we had planned to organise and submit our Korean visa applications in Melbourne, this felt a bit inconvenient at the time. We had also planned to fly out to Korea from Melbourne, where we could get onto Qatar Air (which seemed to be the most reliable option at the time for flights actually leaving). However, in retrospect we were fortunate to end up in Adelaide. Melbourne soon after started having issues stemming from their quarantine system.
Meanwhile in Adelaide we were placed into a hotel (The Pullman) where we were the first group to go there in quarantine and everything was run really well from what I could tell. Nobody in our groups (people flying in from Chennai and Mumbai) tested positive for Covid-19. The chances would have been extremely low at that point anyway. We had all been living under strict lockdowns and there weren't really many cases in India yet.
We also lucked out by being placed in interconnecting rooms so we could remain together. They allocated us a suite, with an adjoining room. On top of that the food was great, and so much of it! We all gained weight. They had activities planned for us such as inter-room quizes. There were special hotel room workout sheets and videos on the in-room televisions. They even put on two concerts that we could watch from our balconies! At the final goodbye concert the State Premiere and the Chief Health Officer attended.
Anybody who had a birthday received gifts and a birthday cake. Our children were brought toys and games at one point. Little treats would turn up at the door. One day there was a cookie decorating kit for the kids to complete.
Something else that helped I think is that most of us from the flight were already connected via a whatsapp group. A lot of the organisation was occurring this way and so everybody kept communicating online once we had arrived at the other end in Adelaide. I think it helped stem the feeling of isolation a bit.
They were also very patient with having our family land with them. Most people were just returning to their homes in Australia. But we had no fixed address in the country, didn't know where we needed to go when quarantine would end and needed to get documents out of the hotel during the quarantine. They let us switch to being regular guests at the end of the quarantine stay, while we figured out which city we needed to be in next. They spoke to the health department to determine if we could get our documents out to a courier (yes, but they had to sit isolated in a plastic bag in an office for a period of time first).
If you are in Adelaide stay in The Pullman!
I thought the meals were great. Then again I also like airline food. I'm pretty happy whenever I don't have to cook.
Our highest finish in the quizes. We did much worse in some of the other quizes :)
A double rainbow on one of the days.
Erica on the balcony.
The goodbye concert. This was also accompanied with a three course meal.
Seriously spoiled for this quarantine experience.
Escaped from quarantine! (legitimately)
During our extra time in Adelaide we went out for morning walks, and felt it in our legs after being locked up for a while. Everybody was continuing school and work, but we also went out shopping, marvelled at grocery stores, ate some favourite Australian meals, visited doctors to get tuberculosis tests done (all clear) and flu shots.
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