From the Skies to Rubbish Trucks and Selling Homes: My Unexpected Journey During the COVID Years

In our last article, we wrote about retirement from the airlines - that it is best if chosen - but that something could come along and your job would be gone with a snap of the fingers.

In 2020, thanks to Covid, a large number of pilots lost their jobs in the blink of an eye, not knowing if they would ever return to their dream job. Their wings were clipped. No longer cloud bound, they plunged to earth to join the masses beneath. What did they do?

Up until 2019, the Western World laughed in the face of anyone who said a pandemic could sweep the world. I recall distinctly working for a large corporate in 2017, putting together their Business Continuity Plan. We covered off every natural hazard but it was hard to convince the bosses that a pandemic was also a possibility. We eventually did a mock operation handling a pandemic to see if we were ready - in hindsight, that mock operation was a parody of what could happen.

The Black Death - London 1350

Plagues had regularly swept the world in the Dark and Middle ages, wiping out up to 66% of populations each time. But with the advent of penicillin and vaccines in the early and mid 20th century, humanity believed they could put all that threat and misery behind them. There was always a prophylactic vaccine to avoid potential death or medicines to take if by some poor luck you caught a potentially fatal infection.

Many of our older readers will remember lining up at school to get this and that jab or lump of sugar with something dripped onto it. My maiden name began with B so I was ALWAYS at the front of the queue with the whole class lined up behind me watching me intently for my reaction to the ginormous needle being pushed into my arm or thigh. “Be brave” the vaccinator would mutter, continually dreading a riot breaking out if the kid in front of her screamed or cried… but I digress...

The dreaded vaccination line

All was well and we became a fabulously healthy population, free from disease and potential death from nasty infections. We took our public health for granted - ‘We ain’t never gonna see them tiny virus’ and bacteria overwhelm us again” - We puffed our chests out with pride and got on with … well… living long and healthy lives.

In the late ‘80s worldwide, and here in New Zealand in 1990, Acts of Parliament were being passed that were definately needed - but would end up having dreadful unintended consequences 30 years later… The Bill of Rights Act 1990. Specifically Part 2, allowing people to refuse medical treatment.

My mother was an highly respected ‘Blood Scientist’ in her day. She was on the international team that eradicated smallpox and she helped introduce HIV diagnostic protocols to New Zealand and Australia. The Bill was passed with much fanfare, with specific reference to ending the horrors of the likes of electric shock therapy and incarceration in institutions for the disabled and mentally unwell. However, I remember distinctly my mum saying, presciently, that we would never be safe from disease ever again.

Vaccination was now a choice, not mandatory. We could no longer rely on ‘herd immunity’ of the masses of vaccinated people protecting those who were too unwell or vulnerable to be vaccinated against illness. We could now only rely on the good will of people who could make choices to get vaccinated to protect our vulnerable peers. I reckon those who wrote the Bill never imagined the advent and rise of Social Media and misinformation.

Throw in complex and potent politics swirling around the world in early 2020, and the ease of international travel, and the stage was set for a pandemic of epic proportions.

I attended an insurance conference in late February 2020, up in Auckland, expecting to discuss the growing Natural Hazard environment in New Zealand and the unsettling insurance implications of the events (My last job before ‘retirement’ was advising Government and Councils on their residential risk in such matters). Instead, the conference was overwhelmed by overt panic at a new illness that seemed to moving fast through China and Italy. People were dropping dead like flies. It looked like a plague was developing - something quite inconceivable in the 21st century.

We were urged to go home and prepare our homes and lives. A few short weeks later New Zealand closed her borders and we were directed to closet ourselves away in our homes and not mix with people outside our ‘bubbles’. For six weeks, in sublime weather for the time of year, we sequestered ourselves from harm’s way.

Auckland April 2020

Nearly every other country in the world failed to react in time and the death rate spiraled. Confirmed deaths from Covid between 2020 and 2024 were 7.5 million people across the world, however, when excess deaths were considered - that is the number of people dying beyond what is expected in a normal year, nearly 27 million people died during the pandemic years.

But little old New Zealand was an outlier. We only lost 25 people during the first Covid year (2020), as everyone obeyed the rules and we eradicated the virus in NZ. We even had our death rate FALL below the normal death rate. We patted ourselves on the back and felt a great sense of community in that we had pulled together to save ourselves.

But we were betrayed. Groups of disenfranchised people on the fringes were busy fossicking on the internet to find anything that might fit their world view; and thus began the rise of conspiracy theorists.

But the essential work had been done and we had protected ourselves until vaccines became available and those who chose to had the opportunity to keep ourselves and our loved ones reasonably safe from the fast changing virus.

One of our greatest tools in the absence of vaccinations was isolation, from each other and from the rest of the world - the same tool used in plague times a thousand years ago. It worked pretty well, but there was one modern industry that was impacted the most, and that was aviation. Ironically, the very industry that had spread the disease across the planet with so much ease and haste.

Pilots who once believed themselves to be in the perfect job found they had no job - seemingly by a snap of the fingers as it all happened so fast. Mortgages, student loans and living expenses still had to be paid but there was no income. It was almost a case of how the mighty have fallen.

When you are literally a high flying earner and are suddenly told that through no fault of your own, you have no job and future prospects are unknown, how do you cope? What do you do?

Today, we are happy to introduce to you Air New Zealand First officer (but very shortly to be Captain) Steve Harris. He had only started with Air New Zealand a few short years earlier, so when the pandemic hit, he was low on the seniority list and found himself furloughed. Here, he shares his story.

Getting fitted for his new role

It’s hard to imagine my time at Air New Zealand involving a two-year forced hiatus. My job as an A320 First Officer was full of variety, energy, and great people. Then a brick wall hit – Covid 19. Borders closed, planes were grounded, and literally overnight the airline industry was turned upside down. Like so many others, I found myself without a job.

It was a shock, but not the end of the world. I’ve always had interests outside of work; spending time with family & friends, running and keeping active. I leaned on those to keep me grounded but I still needed a new way forward. By far the hardest part of being furloughed was the unknown time period I’d be out for. Six months, six years? Nobody knew. Reinvent yourself with a three year degree or wait it out? There seemed endless possibilities, if you had the time and spare money….. but unknown time for committing to anything and no income adds a bitter flavour to the idea of ‘possibilities’.

With no planes to fly and bills to pay, I decided to do something practical, I enlisted on the first Class 4 licence course I could find. Before long, I was driving rubbish trucks around Banks Peninsula. It wasn’t easy but it was honest work that kept me moving. One of my routes took me down a steep, narrow Lyttleton street, and wrestling a fully loaded rubbish truck down that hill was no joke. I remember thinking to myself: this is harder than flying a plane!

That year taught me humility and grit and to always leave a Christmas gift out for your rubbish truck driver – those people work hard with little thanks.

But I also wanted something that gave me more flexibility for family life. Long hours in the truck left little time at home, so I started thinking about careers that could fit into family better. That’s when I retrained and got my real estate licence. Moving into real estate was a huge shift - from driving trucks to selling houses - but it tapped into another side of me: connecting with people, helping them through big life decisions, and building something I could shape on my own terms.

It wasn’t easy starting out. For six months I door-knocked, reached out to every contact I had, and worked relentlessly to get my name out there. Finally, the breakthrough came: I sold a house at auction with two keen bidders going head-to-head. When the hammer fell, I felt a wave of relief, money finally in my pocket after months of effort.

That moment taught me that persistence really does pay off.

High tailing it back to Auckland after finding out he had his job back

In early 2022, just under two years since the airline industry came to a standstill, I got the call I had been waiting for, recall to the A320. As I write this now (August 2025) the circle is somewhat complete as I have just been awarded a command course on the A320 in November.

Looking back, I see those years as a lesson in resilience.

Losing my job at Air New Zealand could have left me stuck, but instead, it pushed me to reinvent myself, to adapt, and to trust that change can lead to unexpected opportunities.

From the skies to the streets, to the world of property, I’ve learned that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back it’s about moving forward with purpose, even when the road takes you somewhere you never planned to go.

I was also extremely lucky to have a lot of good people in my corner, those regular check ins and offers to help certainly didn’t go unnoticed and are the main reasons I managed in the way I did.

If there’s one thing I hope others take from my story, it’s this:

Change WILL come, often when you least expect it. But if you meet it with courage and an open mind, you might just discover strengths you never knew you had.