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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Anthony Woolford

The strange scenes as Hadleigh Parkes leaves Wales and jets straight into world of quarantine

Hadleigh Parkes had few problems with social distancing judging by these pictures of his exit from Welsh rugby on the weekend.

The 29-times capped centre bid a final farewell to Wales on Saturday when leaving his Pontcanna home, in Cardiff, for a Qantas flight from London to Sydney with wife Suzy and young daughter Ruby.

The 32-year-old centre found himself having a whole jumbo jet cabin section to himself and his family for the flight to Australia, via Qatar.

It was recently confirmed Parkes will join the growing exodus to Japan to play for Panasonic Wild Knights — the same team as departing England lock George Kruis.

You can read how Parkes' decision to give up his Wales career has been received here.

With reports Qatar Airways could be curtailing flights this month, Parkes brought his departure from Wales forward and had to fly to Australia beforehand, as it provided the only route to New Zealand at present due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bulk of his belongings have been packed on a container ship heading straight for New Zealand.

Hadleigh Parkes and family aboard an empty plane
The hotel where the Parkes family are in quarantine

But Parkes, Suzy and Ruby face a nightmare few weeks before they can fully acclimatise to life back in his native New Zealand.

Parkes, on his arrival in Sydney, had to go into a 36-hour quarantine in a city hotel, organised by the New South Wales authorities, before he is able to get on a rare flight out to Auckland.

Once in the New Zealand city, the Parkes family will have to go into further isolation for 14 days.

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