A couple has been stranded on a paradise island after all flights got canceled due to coronavirus lockdown while they were on their honeymoon.
Ireland-based travelers and bloggers Stephen and Sabina Palmer were on a 3-month trip when they found themselves trapped on Rarotonga, the biggest of Cook Islands, after the lockdown was initiated.
While the couple admitted it’s “not a bad place to be stranded in” in one of their Instagram posts, they insisted they tried to book a flight home with little success as they all got canceled.
“Over the past weeks we’ve been going crazy going back and forth trying to get back to Europe. Every flight we’ve booked got cancelled causing more and more stress,” the Sunset Travellers wrote on their Instagram page.
“For a moment we forgot how blessed we are to be stranded here with 0 cases so far. The snorkelling trip however really helped us to forget all the things that are happening right now.”
As the couple explained, they were set to visit New Zealand on March 26 before finding out the country was going into a lockdown a week earlier than that.
Seeing how they could get stranded in paradise, the couple tried to get back to Ireland by booking an expensive flight to London from where they would take a connecting flight to Dublin according to RTE.
“We booked the flights last minute because there were three days to go. Then, the day before our flight, the US flight changed to the following day. The flight would also be stopping in Washington for a few hours, meaning we’d miss our flight from London to Dublin,” the newlyweds told RTE.
After failing to secure a ticket back home, the couple quickly realized things weren’t as bad for them as they seemed.
“It’s a hard decision to make because on the one hand, you’re in paradise and on the other hand you kind of want to go back home,” Mr. Palmer expressed.
“The worst is the indecision and once we made the decision to stay, it was like a weight was off our shoulders.”
Nowadays, the couple appears to be well-adjusted to their temporary new life whereas they keep themselves busy by snorkeling, hiking, swimming, and fishing in paradise.
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