Tudor Codreanu had just pulled over his motorcycle to watch some penguins at the southernmost tip of South America.
He was on well-earned long-service leave after 11 years at the Western Australian Country Health Service.
Apart from the penguins, his mind was on his speech for his daughter's looming wedding, back home in Bunbury, Western Australia.
But then the phone rang.
Four days later, he was on a flight to Japan.
Passengers and crew from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, docked there at Yokohama, were being evacuated to quarantine in the state-of-the-art former construction-workers village Manigurr-Ma in Howard Springs, in Darwin's rural area, after a coronavirus outbreak on board.
They have since gone home and but for the two weeks they were quarantined there, the staff of Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT) ensured the passengers had the best care possible.
Dr Codreanu was the medical lead.
"That is a privilege and an honour and a humbling position to be in, to be able to be called by your adoptive country to go and help," he said.
"It's less than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"The penguins thought I was a bit rude to leave them."
Father of the bride
But what would this mean for his daughter Sonia's wedding?
"I will be very much in trouble if I don't turn up," he said.
"I don't think that since the great Spanish Flu in 1917 anyone has written the father-of-the-bride speech in a quarantine camp.
"[Howard Springs village] will certainly be mentioned because it is a unique experience.
"Our residents and everybody who works here, we witnessed history in the making."
Panic cautiously please
Possibly one of the most important people in the village was not a doctor or a nurse.
Epidemiologist and professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, Martyn Kirk, was also on hand to help out.
"I was asked if I wanted to assist — I jumped at it," he said.
"We study the transmission of diseases and how they pass from one person to another, so it's my day job.
"There's been probably too much heightened panic. We really need to exercise caution but not be too concerned.
"I think in the future we will see this disease will become established around the globe.
"Hopefully it won't recur year after year, like we see with the influenza virus — hopefully we will be able to stamp it out with good quarantine and contact tracing."
But Dr Kirk was mostly hopeful of a home-cooked meal with his family.
But they had one request.
"Toilet paper is one thing they did mention, because Canberra is out of toilet paper," Dr Kirk said.
"Don't ask me why. Panic buying is unnecessary."
The world on her doorstep
Arranging all the AUSMAT medicos, staff, tradies, pop-up hospital and supplies for the village was Abigail Trewin from the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre.
She has been on the go since October, with the measles outbreak in Samoa, and the bushfires in the southern and eastern states.
So working in her home town of Howard Springs has been a welcome posting.
"I'm really proud of the Territory and that we've brought people home to Australia," Ms Trewin said.
"This wouldn't have been possible without facilities like we have here in Howard Springs.
"I think it's been an amazing use of the assets we have here and a great credit to the Territory.
"It's been a real privilege to look after Aussies — normally AUSMAT heads offshore and supports our neighbours and amplifies disaster response — this, along with the bushfires is the first time we've been really supporting Australians on Australian soil."
In for the long haul
One of the longest serving staff at the quarantine village has been Australian Border Force Northern Commander Colin Drysdale.
He was stationed in Howard Springs for five weeks.
"It was a very challenging role because of the complexities the number of moving parts involved in the process," he said.
"I've got all this in front of me, how am I going to work my way through it?
"We've successfully delivered what we set out to do, which was provide safe and secure facilities for the quarantine period of the persons that were in here and the persons have been released fit and well."
