The Silence of March Lockdown

There’s nothing more eerie than seeing your hometown (Dunedin, NZ) so empty during the Level 4 Covid Lockdown. Cumberland Street, running between Albany Park and the Otago University was strange without its constant stream of cars stopping and going. University didn’t look the same without students rushing between classes, nor without students and staff alike chatting in the popular cafes on campus.

Below is a slideshow of the photographs I had taken at some point during NZ’s nationwide Covid19 lockdown. In order:

1. Albany Park without the usual clog of traffic and noise, and no dog walkers, sports enthusiasts, or students lounging together on the grass.
2. The antique auction house and the two dates on the billboard that were never to be due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown.
3. This shop always had the old newspaper pages stuck to the windows, but I thought this sort of added to the feeling of a ghost town, especially in black and white.
4. University of Otago campus can be seen opposite Albany Park, looking quite strange without the usual throng of vehicles.
5. Looking toward North Dunedin on George Street; there are parked cars, but no one is driving, still isolating.
6. The Good Earth cafe, a popular cafe for tourists and well-off citizens, is empty, preserves and jams left untouched on the windowsill.
7. Good Earth Cafe
8. Good Earth Cafe (again)
9. The windows of St David Cafe (a cafe on Otago University campus) reflects the silence of lockdown during March-May 2020. Normally there’s at least a few people at those picnic tables, catching up over a cup of coffee or studying on their laptop.
10. Picnic table bench in black and white outside the St David Cafe on Otago University campus.
11. The umbrella-less picnic tables outside St David Cafe.
12. The reflection in the window of an empty Thai restaurant shows the silence of the roads and footpaths, while revealing a table set up for diners who ended up never coming.
13. Autumn leaves lie undisturbed by students’ feet on University of Otago grounds.
14. Everything is still and strange when there is a nationwide lockdown.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything in my life so far that compares to the strange stillness of an entire nation in full lockdown mode during a pandemic.