Two bereaved international travellers, a deadly viral pandemic, a 640km road trip and one tank of gas.
What could possibly go wrong?
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. And so it was with this week's bombshell announcement that Covid-19 had slipped undetected back into our closed international borders.
The carriers were two infected sisters who had rushed home from Britain to see their dying parent in Wellington.
After nearly three months of grit and sacrifice, the team of five million had done the impossible – eliminated coronavirus from our island shores.
And despite promises that our strict border closure and mandatory isolation regime would protect us from further incursion, the virus is again among us and officials are now scrambling to trace and isolate more than 300 close contacts of the infected siblings.
The Prime Minister admits there were unacceptable failures in protocols set up to keep us safe. The Opposition has described it as "a catalogue of cock-ups".
So how did it happen? Here's what we know.
After arriving in the country on June 7, the women, aged in their 30s and 40s, were taken to one of Auckland's mandatory isolation facilities – the Ellerslie Novotel - to begin their two-week quarantine.
But with their parent's condition rapidly deteriorating, they applied for a compassionate exemption on Friday June 12, pleading to be let out early to spend some precious time before it was too late.
The parent died later that night and the exemption was fast tracked, being granted the next day.
An acquaintance of the sisters, who we now know to be a female member of Highland Park's Lioness Gym for Women, is understood to have dropped a vehicle to the pair on Saturday June 13.
The sisters have also received "care packages" from acquaintances, ferried by "contactless delivery" direct to their hotel room.
Despite a newly mandated requirement that everyone in managed isolation be tested for Covid-19 to prevent a second wave, the women were released on Saturday without testing and allowed to embark on a 640km North Island tiki tour of State Highway 1.
Though the Novotel is located right next door to the Southern Motorway, they somehow took a wrong turn and headed north, becoming hopelessly lost.
Opting to "phone a friend", they called for help. The Lioness gym member, along with a mate, scrambled to the rescue, driving to their location to get the roadie back on track.
Presumably the sisters used an internet-ready mobile phone, so it's unclear why they didn't simply use Google Maps.
Earlier in the week, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield had assured the nation that the sisters had travelled direct to Wellington without interacting with anyone.
But things are often not what they seem.
In a dramatic twist yesterday, National's Michael Woodhouse claimed in Parliament that after losing their way on Auckland's snaking motorway network, the sisters shared a "kiss and a cuddle" with their mates on the side of the road before doing a U-ie to begin their mammoth drive.
It's not known where this rendezvous occurred.
However, "limited physical contact" between the group was confirmed by the ministry in a statement last night, after the women were re-interviewed yesterday afternoon by health officials in light of Woodhouse's explosive allegations.
And though the women's story has now changed markedly, the ministry was quick to rule out fibbing by the grieving pair.
The 8.06pm statement said it was important to remember they were distressed by the sudden passing of their parent.
"It is not uncommon for information and details to evolve, including details being missed during case interviews and contact tracing where there is heightened emotion, intense grief and stress."
Bloomfield put it this way: "It's very common, particularly when people are under stress or grief is involved, that they [later] think of things that may not have been top of mind."
So back to the roadie.
On Tuesday Bloomfield stunned the nation by revealing that after nearly four weeks of no cases, there were two new infections to report.
He revealed the sisters had driven from Auckland to Wellington to attend a relative's funeral but stressed they had not interacted with anyone or used "public facilities" on the way.
When pushed about how this was possible on a journey that would take most commuters at least eight or nine hours, he confirmed comfort stops had been taken on the side of the road.
We're told the women made the trip on a single tank of gas. We don't know what vehicle they were driving but presumably it wasn't a gas-guzzling stretch Hummer.
In fact Bloomfield revealed today they were driving a diesel.
"Anyone with a diesel vehicle will know it is very possible to get from Auckland to Wellington and beyond on a single tank of diesel. And they've reassured that is indeed what happened."
He also dismissed Woodhouse's "kiss and cuddle" claim, saying the physical interaction was only "fleeting", involving a sympathetic "arm around them".
So after an undisclosed number of "nature stops" along the winding SH1, and by this stage presumably travelling on nothing but fumes, the pair eventually arrived in Wellington where they spent time with their other parent.
On Monday, as agreed with the ministry, they also headed to a Covid-19 testing facility and underwent a virus test. The positive results were confirmed on Tuesday and it's understood they are now being quarantined in a Hutt Valley hotel.
Their surviving parent is also in isolation.
Meanwhile, the Auckland gym member who dropped them the car attended "group" training sessions at the gym on Tuesday morning, oblivious to the fact she had been exposed to Covid-19.
She and her friend have now been tested, with the woman returning a negative result.
The gym owner, who ran a "hands-on" training session with the woman on Tuesday, has isolated herself and her family as a precaution.
And it emerged today that a flight attendant who arrived in New Zealand on the same flight as the sisters journeyed to Rotorua where her children then attended school and rugby training.
It sparked fears the virus could be spread among several school communities and parents were given the option of keeping kids at home.
The flight attendant has since tested negative.
There are now hard questions being asked about how our border control and quarantine measures failed so spectacularly and who is to blame.
"I apologise that we've ended up in this position," Bloomfield said today.
And with a furious team of five million demanding answers, the curious case of the Covid-19 road trip will be central to those investigations.
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