It has been some time since my last communique from here, deep within The Zone. You remember The Zone, right? The Queensland fruit fly? Come on, you must remember that - it was a big deal in the news for at least a few days, if not a couple of weeks. It was the other story about Grey Lynn; the one not about house prices.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that The Zone still exists. We are still under lockdown here; our every move (or at least the movement of our fruit and vegetables) coming under the watchful eye of the Ministry for Primary Industries (the MPI) aka our Overlords.
Well, when I say "every" move it isn't every move at the moment because the MPI have switched to "winter mode", in which the master plan seems to involve doing bugger all until spring rolls round. Depending on who you talk to, this is either to do with the life-cycle of the Queensland fruit fly or it is the MPI's version of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
Either way, the outside world needs to know that there are still people alive in The Zone, trying to go about their daily business despite living under the jackboot of the authoritarian Overlords. The most visible sign (literally) of this state of affairs is that there are now new signs at the major checkpoints in and out of The Zone. Clearly, the sign-writers of Aotearoa are getting a little something out of our suffering, which is good.
The worrying thing about these signs, however, is that they notify the general public that they are entering a "fruit fly controlled area". There are those within The Zone who feel that the wording of this sign is not just a case of unfortunate grammar, but that the MPI are acknowledging that the flies have won and are now in control of Grey Lynn - or at least they will be when they wake up after their mid-winter nap. Only time - and the change of season - will tell.