OPINION: I can now see why Jacinda Ardern got your vote and your support - you voted for her management of COVID.
Sure, we probably got some good luck as well, it helps being isolated as a nation and not living on top of each other. But, boy, the rest of the world is burning in a COVID hell.
It's another universe compared to the long weekend of freedom we have just had.
The simple things that can so easily be taken for granted have returned to our lives, so let's not drop the ball from here.
I admit to being a bit slack - so face slap.
But as it stands, friends can come and go, you sit shoulder to shoulder around the BBQ table or fire, you can go to sports events and we ain't looking like we're heading into any kind of lockdown anytime soon.
Let's keep it this way and let's not risk the simple things in life which to me have taken on way more importance than I ever gave them credit for.
Like friends simply turning up at home, socialising, being with others.
It's so damn important.
I turned up to the same party over the weekend twice.
The text never said it was Sunday night, so I naturally went Saturday night. Although, I stayed for longer on the Saturday than I did on the Sunday when the real deal was on.
Let's never again take for granted the most simple things in life.
Four-thousand dead in the past 24 hours, 400,000 new cases worldwide and 83,000 new cases in the US overnight. France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Canada - case numbers on the rise.
Melbourne comes out of a 12-week lockdown on Tuesday night. Twelve long weeks, they won't know themselves.
I hope the economic carnage that awaits them is limited but I feel it may not be a soft landing for many.
Thank god for the Melbourne Cup. Maybe some things are simply too big to lock down?
Although there are still some rules in town, so you might just enjoy the races at the pub, not Flemington.
Duncan Garner hosts The AM Show.
