Life seemed perfect for Barbara Clayton as she lounged on a beach chair looked at her thatched hut standing in clear blue water off the coast of Bora Bora.
That idyllic vision was shattered when her phone rang, however. It was her travel agent telling Barbara her cruise had been cancelled and that the Canadian government was asking citizens abroad to return as soon as possible.
"What? No, I don't want to do that," she recalls before delivering news to her husband Steve Clayton.
"The only news I'm getting (at this point) is the CNN, and you know how that is," she said in a conversation with MidlandToday.
At the same time, her daughter, who lives in Ottawa, started texting her with the same message "come home now."
"So then I downloaded the CBC app to look up how serious the situation really was," Barbara said.
The Penetanguishene husband and wife had left Canada on March 11, travelling from Los Angeles to Tahiti in French Polynesia. They were planning on hopping islands, from Bora Bora to Mo'orea before taking an extended cruise in the south Pacific Ocean.
Even though at that time, rambling around the virus had started, she said Air Tahiti still allowed them to go ahead with the trip simply by providing a doctor's note.
"We were excited," Barbara said, talking about how she felt before they left. "But the fibres were being stirred up at that time."
Their travel agent checked to make sure their bookings were still going ahead with the couple arriving in Tahiti on March 12 after travelling for 12 hours.
"Everything was good and perfect," said Barbara, noting their agent informated them the next morning that the cruise had been cancelled.
So, they decided to just go with the flow and extend their stay in Bora Bora. They then flew back to Tahiti and took a ferry to a smaller island called Mo'orea.
"We were going to be there for two nights and then go back to Tahiti for two nights," Barbara said, adding the virus had other plans for them.
She said she noticed the resort had very few people (only about 40 compared to the hundreds they usually expect). Everywhere they went, they noticed restaurants and bars were closed. Staff at the resort were very nice, but they were all asking when Barbara and her husband were going back.
Surprised by those questions, Barbara said she inquired why that was the only thing everyone wanted to talk about. At that time, she said, Bora Bora had only two reported cases of COVID-19, but authorities had begun limiting the ferry service.
"They'd limited it to only two trips," she said. "They were going to limit riders to only essential people, ---workers with doctors notes."
That's when Barbara said she and Steve started getting nervous. With things beginning to look bleak, she said, "We got the hell out of there and back to Tahiti."
On March 21, they were on time to catch their flight back to LA, only to find out it had been delayed by a couple hours.
"We had a three-hour window to make our connection in LA," said Barbara, not knowing what adventure awaited her at the US airport.
"We arrived in LA, and had to pick up our luggage and re-check in to WestJet," she said. "The airport is huge. We landed on terminal 1 and our flight was taking off from terminal 3. When we arrived there, we were told our tickets had been cancelled because of the Tahiti flight being late."
They eventually got a flight back to Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
"When I landed in Toronto, I could have kissed the goddam ground," she said. "I was really happy to be home."
Customs and immigration lines were moving quickly, Barbara said, likely because authorities wanted everyone to get home and isolate.
And that's exactly what the Claytons did.
"We drove back and just went into self-isolation," Barbara said, adding they're both symptom-free. "When I finally reached my home in Penetang, I was about ready to kiss my door. In those 12 days we'd been gone, it had really gone belly up."
Her cat sitter had already stocked up their home with groceries and other friends had also offered to do runs for them.
A true adventurous spirit, Barbara's now planning on gonig with the flow for her fall cruise, unless things change.
"Who could predict something like this?" Barbara said, talking about how she handled all the about-turns during her most recent trip. "Keep your head, don't panic."
She said there is also some value in booking a vacation through a local travel agent at Beyond the Beach, instead of going through online systems.
"Brenda (Slater) was absolutely professional and I think I stressed her out so much," Barbara said. "She was watching for all our flights and was constantly contacting me about how we were doing."
