Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Whangārei family has advice for beating lockdown boredom

Guthrie and Viv Lepper and sons Devon, 11, and Robbie, 9, from Parua Bay, Whangārei, have some messages, and advice, for everybody in lockdown. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Set some challenges, keep occupied, get a routine going and make sure you have some fun - that's the advice from a Whangārei woman locked down with her family.

Viv Lepper, from Whangārei Heads, is lucky she and husband Guthrie can work from home, while sons Devon, 11, and Robbie, 9, will today pick up their learning packs from school, so that they can carry on with some more schoolwork.

''Here we are again (with lockdown) and while the first few days were pretty good as we only had it for three days then, but with the extension it's been bit of a struggle, but we've got plans to help (cope with the lockdown) and have some structure to the day (for the kids).''

Viv said it was important that there was also a lot of fun to be had to stop the lockdown becoming a burden.

''We've got a bit of routine now. We go for a walk around Parua Bay in the morning, which gives us some exercise and fresh air, then there's a couple of hours homework, then there are some fun things to do in the afternoon,'' she said.

''We're looking at a bake-off challenge. We've been watching The Great British Bake Off and that's given us some ideas for our own bake-off. It's also important to have something to look forward too and we're looking at restarting our quiz challenge.

''During the long level 4 lockdown last year we had a quiz challenge with some other families over Zoom or Skype every Saturday at 4pm. Each family would take turns to set the quiz questions and it was a lot of fun, and something we really looked forward to every week.''

Devon loves music and is spending some time playing the drums, while Robbie is a keen footballer and has been practising in the garden.

''You've got to stop them from getting bored,'' Viv said.

As well, the family were setting themselves little goals to achieve to challenge themselves during the lockdown.

She said her message to others this lockdown is to make sure they have fun, look after each other and stay safe.

''We've done this before and we can do it again. Kia kaha.''