Leaving Las Vegas

Acclaimed photographers Maryanne Bilham and Robert Knight left Las Vegas last month to  self-isolate in New Zealand.

Kiwi-born Bilham and her husband have spent their lives capturing iconic images of rock royalty including Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Carlos Santana, Slash and Elton John.

They thought they were escaping the epicentre of the virus outbreak in the US, only to find their flight here was the source of one of the biggest outbreaks in this country.

Through their lens, they document life in their bubble during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas

March 17, 2020

It’s been a strange few days trying to decide what essentials to take in two suitcases on a journey with an unknown return date.

There’s an over-riding sense of doom for the future and safety of our life in Las Vegas. Businesses have started closing, most of the casinos are shut.

High level of anxiety as I worry about the borders closing, already moved our flight up one night.

Have picked rental car up, will travel in convoy with Robert as we are dropping our jeep to a friend in LA. Safer to drive than fly domestically, less chance of contacts with infected.

Say goodbye to our house and start the journey back to the homeland.

Many of the surf beaches are packed with surfers, Santa Monica Pier is closed but the beach is populated like a normal summer’s day.

No traffic hardly on the 405 to LAX. We drop the car at Hertz to find we are the only ones on the shuttle bus to Tom Bradley terminal.

We are struck by how empty everything is - feeling like we are living in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

We board our flight around 9.15, sitting in two exit-row seats together. The flight is three-quarters full so space for passengers to separate.

The crew are gracious and keep the amenities well serviced.

Back to the motherland

March 19, 2020

Arrive at 5.45 at Auckland airport. We are greeted by airport staff handing out screening cards which every person must fill out listing country of originating flight and level of contact with Covid-19. We are reminded that the most vulnerable way to infection seems to be standing in the long line in customs but staff are asking people to keep a distance of six feet.

We pass through the various levels of screening and give customs a full self-isolation plan.

Transfer to the Cordis hotel in Auckland CBD, all the staff are wearing rubber gloves, which is a welcome sight. The concierge had an isolation wing in place which we checked into, with a pre-organised protocol for ordering room service with no added charge.

We have a view of the atrium roof and Symonds St bus stop. Still busy with university students and others on the street. This will be our view for the next three days.

Relieved to be back in New Zealand where the public messaging and government response seems steps beyond what we have just experienced in the US.

Cordis Langham

March 20, 2020

I can't believe it’s a month since my 60th birthday and our whole world has turned upside down.

Our day now consists of room service, CNN updates and recuperating from our flights. Starting to consider our financial situation in US. Stock market plummeting. We are concerned for our friends back in the US. Feeling a bit psychosomatic - with any throat tickles, headaches and other feelings making me feel that we might be infected.

Communicating with family and start to organise groceries and supplies for our self-isolation at the Airbnb we are moving to on Sunday for the remainder of the 14 days.

Letting friends in the US, London and here in NZ know that we unexpectedly decided to return to NZ because of dramatic escalation of cases in US. That and to care for and support my 81-year-old mother who has a very impacted respiratory system with other underlying issues.

Bizarre to be living in a hotel room where we no longer have any direct contact with staff and everything is done remotely. The fire door at the end of the hallway is closed at all times, further isolating us from regular hotel guests. Weirdly remember seeing TV clips in Wuhan when the virus first broke out, showing travellers being delivered food by robots. Never imagined that a month later we would be in a similar situation.

Transfer to Airbnb

March 22, 2020

Today we move to our Airbnb on the North Shore in Takapuna close to Narrow Neck, Devonport and a whole lot of early memories ... as this is my old hood and where I lived till my late-teenage years. We do a remote check out at the hotel. Our taxi driver seems a little nervous but we wear masks and are some distance in the back seat.

Cross the harbour bridge, which has light traffic. It is Sunday before the nationwide lockdown.

Arriving at our accommodation for the next 11 days the view is spectacular, a full 180 degrees from Lake Pupuke to the city centre. We are grateful to call this home for the next duration, at least we will have plenty of photo opportunities from here.

My family has kindly done a shop so we are all stocked for a few days. It is striking how organised we now need to be in this new bubble to keep everything together. Having family here has been key.

We will be joining my mother at her home as she has a very compromised immune system. My mother was one of the main reasons we decided to return to New Zealand so quickly, this and an uneasy feeling that Las Vegas may not be the right city to tough out the pandemic.

The US already exhibiting a very confusing and slow response.

Keeping in touch with our friends all over the world. We find everyone in a similar situation as they prepare for restricted movement, many stocking up on their wine reserves.

Takapuna Airbnb

March 23, 2020

Wake up to stormy skies. Still both feeling well, which is a relief as one can't help but feel a touch psychosomatic at the moment.

We knew traveling back was probably the biggest risk of possible contamination so will be glad when we are on the other side of 14 days.

Robert is happy. His favourite wine store in visible from our apartment and he can organise a remote pick up.

Have started watching the midday Government briefings to keep updated on the situation here. It seems like most of our day revolves around grocery shopping online for myself and mother's home. And keeping pace with what's happening back in Vegas.

I have started an online exercise subscription which is easy to do at home with no need for props. Also updated an app called Breathe which helps with sleep meditation, stress and sleepless nights.

It seems important to build your physical and spiritual immunity and strength right now as we proceed down an unknown planetary path.

Robert has been reaching out to Slash from Guns and Roses and a few other musician friends. They're all devastated as tours have been cancelled with no foreseeable comeback.

We have young musician friends whose dreams are now shattered.

Take a late-afternoon stroll down to Lake Pupuke. Feels good to have the first walk we have done in five days. Feeling the cabin fever.

March 24, 2020

Woke to dramatic skies.

Working on a job for a Las Vegas client I shot days before leaving Las Vegas with my design partner who is based in Madrid.

A friend’s elderly mother in Seattle, on Vashon Island, has fallen at her assisted living facility and must now undergo surgery as she has a haematoma on her brain. My friend is unable to visit or see her in hospital as all the medical facilities are now closed to all patients or medical professionals.

Midday briefing announces the alert level 4 lockdown is to go into place at midnight Wednesday. We are relieved the Government is going hard on lockdown early - it seems to be the only way countries have a chance of containing the spread. We feel optimistic that because New Zealand is small and isolated it has a real chance of minimalising the death toll and stamping out the virus.

Later that afternoon there is a beautiful rainbow stretching from one side of the Auckland harbour to the other.

March 25, 2020

Since we arrived here traffic has diminished and this morning we notice the difference with schools closing. Everyone is staring to hunker down. We FaceTime with a friend from CBS who is working from home. Zoom meetings are now a big part of their daily interaction keeping in contact. Already LA has in place a shopping priority for seniors at every major supermarket for the first hour of each morning.

Spoke to another friend via messenger who is the executive chef for The World residents cruise ship that's currently stuck off Fremantle, Australia. He wrote:

Robert and I worry for our friend as we know many countries are no longer allowing cruise ships to dock even if they are virus free. At least he is on a ship with few people on board. We have been watching the two cruise ships visible in the Hauraki Gulf that appeared to be anchored and staying in place in the main waterways, unable to dock in the port of Auckland.

We go for another walk to the lake. Another dramatic sunset - by early evening we can see the harbour bridge traffic dwindling and even our intersection below is now devoid of cars.

March 26, 2020

First day of the national lockdown. Talking to my friend in Madrid who can no longer go outside. He says:

Have started reading The Handmaid's Tale and Robert is reading The Grid which was recently released by our friend Nick Cook, known previously for The Hunt for Zero Point.

Spending time binge-watching Netflix. The traffic has pretty much stopped - mainly people walking and cycling in their bubbles. There are buses on the road they are mostly empty.

March 27, 2020

Up early, most mornings we watch the sunrise. Grateful to be in this beautiful country.

Robert has an early morning phone interview with Nikon in NYC. They are running a special story on his experience with the new Nikon Z6 camera and have decided to run a series of portraits he took of the young guitar players from brotherhoodoftheguitar.com. It's a guitar mentoring platform of 150 young players from around the world including eight from New Zealand.

Starting to run low on food. We are unable to shop so our Airbnb host offers to have her son do a trip to the supermarket for us. Weird how commonplace things we took for granted have now become a daily challenge during this pandemic.

March 28, 2020

Life in the birdcage. Starting to feel like we are living in some alternate reality.

Spend most of the morning looking for our New World delivery, such is life now.

Get a nice email from Paul Hartigan, neon and multimedia artist. We spent quite a bit of time with him in February.

His famous installation in Auckland is Colony, the spectacular neon artwork at the Auckland University engineering department. I was fortunate enough to take a portrait of him in February.

He has been battling cancer for the past couple of months. It's an added stress in the current situation maintaining the treatment schedule.

My mother’s neighbour is going through the same thing and it amazes me how positive they both remain. It’s very inspiring - a deeper level to our human condition and overcoming the odds.

We watch the daily Government briefing. The infrastructure here is working, which is more than can be said for the US leadership that's floundering in confusion and playing the blame game.

Watched a lovely Facebook livecast from my clients Carlos and Cindy Santana reaching out to encourage people to build their physical and spiritual immunity.

For the past few nights have watched a young boy playing ball with his father on the street below. Every night he improves and becomes more adept.

March 29, 2020

In the US many of the larger corporations are downsizing. Looking to our future here but not too sure what our options will be as most traditional photographic work will dry up for a while. We are both working on book projects.

Get an unsettling call in the early afternoon from a government health worker to inform us we were potentially exposed to Covid-19 in a two-seat radius on our flight to New Zealand.

We both feel fine with no symptoms but as we are returning to my mother with her impacted respiratory system this has increased our risk significantly.

Two days before we go to her bubble, I arrange a Covid-19 test for us both. We are in a high-risk group so we made an appointment for the next day at the testing station on the North Shore.

We have found self-isolation reassuring because we are not a risk to the community and we aren’t exposed to the virus. But we are mindful of my mother’s health and keeping her safe.

April 1, 2020

Take an early morning walk to the lake. Many of the houses in the neighbourhood have teddy bears on display. It’s April 1. A month ago we never would have seen this coming, the whole of the planet is pretty much in lockdown now.

Organising with my sister Karen, who lives close by, to drop us one of their cars so we can get tested later this afternoon. We phoned our Airbnb host that we will be taking the test for Covid-19 but it could take up to five days for the results. We need to move from here by April 2. We can't return to my mother till we know we are clear.

We drive to the testing facility and there are few cars on the road. If only Auckland traffic always looked like this! We wonder if we will be stopped but see a few police cars on the highway up to Oteha Valley. It reminds us of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Arrive at the testing station to find we are one of two cars. No queues, which is surprising as that's all we have been seeing on the news. We are directed to the drive-through tents where we wait. A female nurse gives us the swab - she is friendly and efficient and explains it’s not comfortable but neither of us find it that unpleasant.

We return home to a good New Zealand pinot noir.

April 2, 2020

Fog hangs over the city this morning, the Sky Tower spire fading in and out of view. Back at the lake again, our final walk before we head to our new location tomorrow. Such a beautiful tranquil retreat it seems far removed from the chaos of large cities in America and the rest of the world. It's an increasing realisation of our planet being on the precipice of a new era, while the environment heals, humanity faces a new challenge with an unknown outcome.

After we had a phone call advising us of our flight contact we told our Airbnb host and are preparing to leave under the strict cleaning protocol the NZ health workers have given us.

Talking to musician friends this morning, Bruce and Andy Lynch, joking they should do a new cover of Tiny Bubbles by Don Ho. I have known Bruce, and ex-wife Susie, since my Devonport days. Robert did an early poster for Cat Stevens' band while living in Hawaii in 1974. Both Bruce and Susie were band members in that era.

Andy, who was in the band Zed, came to study at MIT in Los Angeles in the late 90s where we looked out for him. Robert introduced him to Slash and other music legends.

Slash, left, and Andy Lynch.

Slash, left, and Andy Lynch.

Bruce has recently reconnected with Cat Stevens on a new project and played the National Remembrance Service for the victims of the Christchurch terror attacks.

Late afternoon Robert receives a text for his test results, which are negative. Thank goodness - just need mine now.

Robert - Fourteen days of isolation

It has been amazing to get back to the house after all the dramas of getting here.

I try to stick to a daily routine of not letting myself go, getting up early, always showering and dressing and trying to walk 1-2 miles a day.

I often think about the astronauts who will be going to Mars and how they will need to be in close isolation for six months.

Each day needs a kind of goal, finding a familiar comfort food, having a couple of Nespressos to make up for the lack of the amazing flat whites I get at my favourite NZ coffee stop or the days you can get a good New Zealand wine to go with watching The Chase and TVNZ News.

Before Easter I saw an ad from The Hunting Lodge Winery of a special package they would deliver in 48 hours. The Hunting Lodge is where Maryanne and I got married in 2003 so that sounded great. Eight days later the wine still had not arrived so I phoned them and the amazing guy that runs the cellar door arranged a special safe delivery to our doorstep.

It’s the little things .

Every day I cringe watching CNN and the Donald Trump clown show. It’s like having WC Fields as your President. Sad to see what is happening to the US and most back there can’t see what’s coming.

It's amazing how the PM and the Government is handling the whole CV19 issue down here as we have first-hand experience having been exposed to the virus and in the end testing negative. Various departments of the ministry have been calling all the time to make sure we are ok and ask if we need anything.

When I do get cabin fever I just think how nuts it is back in the US with Trump trying to incite an uproar with his supporters trying to force the States to lift lockdown by telling them the Democrats are trying to take their guns away from them.

I don’t mind lockdown in one of the best places on Earth to be during these crazy times.

April 3, 2020

Call in early to the Shorecare facility to confirm Robert's results and to get mine – both are negative. Both breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate as we can now head back to my mum's bubble tomorrow morning.

Collect a remote locker pick-up from New World and head north where we will stay one more night in a lodge close to mother’s residence.

At the lodge we discover a stranded older English couple who are waiting for a flight out to return back to the UK, something that they have been working on for the past few weeks and a potentially risky thing to do as we know from our flight two weeks ago.

Each day I stay in touch with my sister who has lived in Byron Bay for more than 10 years. She owns holiday rental condos - another market that has dried up for a while.

Interesting how different the Oz isolation laws are - the immediate family bubble doesn't exist there. It's more about social distancing, each state is different. She has found it more reassuring to adopt the NZ model and is trying to educate her immediate family in this concept.

Enjoying the fresh air and the skies seem crystal clear.

Friday morning we return to my mother, Anne. She is overjoyed we have finally made it back to join her and her dog Chloe.

We have spent the last two years trying to build a new base in Auckland, traveling backwards and forwards to our home in Las Vegas.

Now the bridge has been removed we see ourselves residing here for the future. We couldn't be more grateful to be back home.

It's more than three weeks now since we landed back in Aotearoa. The one constant has been the frequent calls by the NZ healthline checking up on us. We were told our file has been closed as we remain in good health and tested negative for Covid-19.

But we’ve just been made aware the main cluster link to the Bluff wedding was a contact from our flight. Not just the Air NZ crew but three other passengers aboard the plane.

The initial call letting us know we were exposed on the flight and all the very regular calls since now make sense because we were part of a contact-tracing group.

We are beyond relieved we made it through without getting sick, otherwise we would’ve had to pay for more hotel accommodation while we battled the illness. And it would have taken much longer to return to my mother’s bubble.

On reflection we opted out of a domestic flight from Vegas to LAX by driving, as we thought the risk to exposure was getting too high in US and wanted to limit our contact. The irony is we ended up on the NZ 5 flight that arrived on March 19, which has turned out to be one of the main clusters.

April 4 to present

Week three of our isolation we have joined my mother's bubble.

In late February we stayed with mum when the mercy flight was sent to Wuhan to collect the Kiwis who were stranded there. The decision was made to put them in quarantine at the old Army Bay military facility, which was just a few miles from my mother’s house. I remember at the time feeling some angst that they would be housed so close to us and there was a high possibility they would be Covid-19 positive.

The idea of being out of the US and in a safe haven began to disappear. The irony being that our return flights to Las Vegas in mid-March and rapid return had put us in more danger of possible infection than any other situation.

At least two to three times a week we have both received phone calls from the New Zealand healthline checking our wellbeing, which is impressive and way more caring than anything we could expect in the US at the moment.

We have admired the daily addresses by Jacinda Ardern and the director general of health Ashley Bloomfield. We have found Ashley Bloomfield to be a constant source of reassurance, a voice we can trust in the cacophony of the world, as he articulates the country's status in the fight against the pandemic each day.

While we are across the current American situation we find it increasingly upsetting, frustrating and confusing trying to learn the real truth, and the absurdity that Trump is considering reopening many aspects of the workforce by May 21.

American friends are sending stories with taglines like "Kiwis Rule". The Washington Post story on April 9 about how we are squashing the curve not flattening it. What we are learning from our LA friends is about the mad rush before lockdown on gun stores - alarming as now many are worried bullets are running out, total madness.

We are enjoying the daily visits from the tuis that visit the tree in our garden with their beautiful songs.

The strange irony for us was we just worked with Johnny Depp right before we left for New Zealand in January, and Jeff Beck. He was the first rock artist Robert worked with and the artist he has photographed the most over 50 years! They chose the John Lennon song “Isolation” and put a very cool spin on it for the world of today.

Robert's photography is featured in the Genesis publication BECK 01. It was during the launch of this publication we met David Hedley who is part of the amazing Genesis publishing team and owner of Hedley's bookstore in Masterton which recently celebrated its 110 -year anniversary.