The year 2020 started out pretty much like any other year. In New Zealand it was the middle of summer, schools were closed and the beaches were full of happy holiday makers

Sometime in February, just as all

the kids were going back to school

for the new year, we started hearing

about a virus, or illness that was making

people in China very sick.

We all felt very sad for them but carried on with our lives.

After a couple of weeks back at school and daycare, the Adam children, Max, Tarras and Lauren were looking forward to a very special mini holiday .They were going up to the Waikato to visit all their Nanas and Grandads and Uncles and Aunties and Cousins up there. Little did they know that it would be their last trip for a very long time.

This virus they'd heard about had a name now...it was Covid-19 and now it was in lots of other countries and people all over the world were getting very sick.

This was very scary. Not just for the kids, but for the adults too. They didnt really know much about why it was so bad or why so many people were getting sick.

Were people in New Zealand going to get it too?!

Unfortunately it did come to New Zealand and people did start getting sick. But the NZ Government, who are the people who make all the decisions about important things in the country, decided that they would get tough and make sure that people stayed safe by staying at home and keeping away from places where the virus could spread.

So Max and Tarras and Lauren and their mum and dad and their dog Barney, and even their Uncle Clay who was staying with them and couldn't get back to his home in time, settled in for the big lockdown.

They couldn't go to school or daycare. They couldn't go and visit their friends. They couldn't go swimming and they couldn't play their team sports.

But they could run around their big backyard, and they could help their Mum make yummy treats and they could help their dad build them a super duper treehouse and lots and lots of other fun stuff.

They still had lots of nice food to eat and most week day mornings their mum helped them with interesting school projects.