My name is Chris Long and I grew up as a part of “The most isolated family in New Zealand.”

We live two days' hike (50km) from the nearest road in south Westland and the only access to our house is by hiking two days or flying by small aircraft from Milford Sound, Te Anau, Haast or Queenstown.

After growing up in isolation for 17 years I decided to travel the world. In the last eight years I have been travelling, adventuring and working in 50 countries on six continents. My favourites include working at Scott Base as a field trainer, sailing in Greenland and through the North West Passage on a small yacht, sea kayak guiding in New Zealand, teaching outdoor sports in China, commercial salmon fishing in Alaska, and backpacking to 60 countries on six continents. You can see more about my experiences on my YouTube channel and Instagram: @wildkiwiadventurer where I make vlogs from all the incredible destinations I have been.

In October last year I moved to Tromso, Arctic Norway to work as a husky dog sledding guide at Tromso Villmarkssenter. With 300 Alaskan huskies, they are the largest dog kennel in Scandinavia and the daily routine included taking tourists on 45-minute husky sled rides around the local wilderness.  

I have loved my time in Tromso and have absolutely loved the long dark winter. We would do most things as normal except always while using a head torch. We would go skiing under the northern lights, wilderness cabin trips, climbing and skiing off some really cool mountains and spending lots of time with the 300 husky dogs that we live with. I even managed to sleep with three huskies in my bed at one time! More info in this video:

All was business as usual up until March 13th when the Norwegian government effectively closed the country to tourists and enforced a general lockdown across the country similar, but not quite as strict, as the lockdown in New Zealand.  

Within one day of the 13th of March we went from open and business as usual for our company of 80 staff and 300 husky dogs, to being told by the government to close, and all the staff being temporarily laid off.

I was very lucky because I actually live on site and our boss Tove has been very welcoming and has asked us to stay living here and has even reduced the rent to help us out.  

Within a couple of days I was offered three days a week of work back in the dog yard feeding and looking after the 300 dogs that still need to be cared for. Out of the 80 previous employees there are now seven of us working just three days a week and living on site, so no people are coming and going from town. We are effectively in quarantine and can’t have visitors where we live, and can only go to town for essential trips.  

Since then life has continued slowly. It has snowed more in April than it did for the rest of the winter (record snowfall this winter in Tromso) and all the dog kennels are under the snow. We have been digging for hours every day just so the huskies can get into their houses.  

We have been doing a lot of skiing and dog sledding whenever we want to, but we aren't allowed to do longer overnight trips into the wilderness. We even built a series of ski jumps down the driveway to our dog kennels to keep us entertained!

We are now coming into 24-hour daylight and soon the sun won’t set at night.  

It was a very hard decision whether to stay in Tromso, or go home to Gorge River where I know I would be safe if the world goes into a serious depression. I discuss it in detail in this video:

But in the end I decided I would stay and live in Norway until the world goes back to some sort of "normal". How long that will be no one knows and I so far don't regret that decision.  

• If you're a Southlander living (or forced to return home) from living abroad, we'd love to hear your story. Please contact us at [email protected] Likewise, if you know a Southlander living abroad, please encourage them to get in touch with us to we can all learn more about how this coronavirus is changing life for Southlanders everywhere.