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Published: February 3rd 2010
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we left the cook islands on a 3am flight on january 9 and arrived in auckland at 8am on january 10. the flight was only 5 hours, but becuase NZ and cook islands both border the international date line on opposite sides, we essentially lost an entire day during the flight!
we arrived at auckland airport, where we needed to pass through customs before transferring to our domestic flight to wellington. the biosecurity screening in NZ, we quickly discovered, is quite rigorous. because jeff and i had brought in camping equipment (of particular concern, our hiking boots and tent).... we were sent to a different line-up, where such equipment was carefully examined. the inspector picked every single bit of dirt off of my hiking boots with a toothpick.... and then our tent was sent to a special room for thorough inspection. thanks to auckland airport, we entered the country with cleaner gear than we'd ever imagined. we walked over to the domestic terminal and grabbed some breakfast in the star alliance lounge before jumping onto our 1 hour flight to wellington. once in wellington, we again ran into weiling...a GP from canada that we'd previously met back in canada in
inuvik and saint john.
wellington is the capital of new zealand and located on the southern tip of the north island. it is known for being very windy...hence the nickname. there is a ferry there that goes to the south island. the city was like many capital cities back in canada.... pretty, clean and generally quiet. i loved all the little cute cafes and restaurant. there was so much fabulous food and coffee! we took a shuttle with weiling to our hotel downtown called Ibis. this is where we stayed for 4 days for our orientation with New Zealand locums. it was right in the heart of the city and only 2 blocks from the harbour, which we went for a couple runs. the city itself reminds me of both vancouver and st. johns NFLD.
there were about 12 people in total at our orientation. five (including ourselves) were canadian, and interestingly, jeff and i together had worked with all the canadians at some point in our very short careers! the there were also a few americans in our group and the rest were from the UK.
we went through NZ Locums which is a not-for-profit agency
that recruits physicians to rural/underserviced areas in NZ. all of the new zealand docs that work in rural locations are guaranteed 2 weeks of vacation by the government... so we are here filling those spots while the locals docs take much-needed breaks. there are also areas which are permanently short of physicians, so those are places that we may stay longer than 2 weeks. we don't have our entire schedules yet, but so far we will be spending 2 weeks in westport, 4 weeks in tuatapere, 2 weeks in gore, 4 weeks in oamaru, and 4 weeks in temuka/geraldine. these are all on spots on the south island (which is significantly less populated than the north island (where auckland and wellington are located).
learning about the new zealand medical system in three days was quite a cram session. the most different thing for us is that patients pay for their visits. interestingly, their prescription medications are generally fully subsidized by the government - they just have to pay a flat $3 fee, and the government covers the cost of the medication and dispensing fee. there is also an interesting no-fault insurance policy called the ACC where any type of
accident (from pulling a muscle while working in the garden, to getting hit by a car), and the medical attention it requires, is covered by the ACC. there are some similarities in the medications that they use but there are also quite a bit of differences... and the names of the medications are usually very different, proving to be tricky at times. many of the medical issues are quite similar...lots of diabetes, obesity, heart disease....and issues endemic to the Maori (their aboriginal population) are quite similar to the first nations back in canada. on the final day of our orientation, they brought us to the Te Papa Museum, which documents a lot of the history of the maori's.
we indulged in delicious indian, japanese and pub fare while in wellington...and jeff got his fair share of decadent coffee. (and i had a very generous share of timtams..- chocolate biscuits from australia..)
we had mentioned to the staff at NZ Locums that we were hoping to buy a cheap old station wagon; coincidentally, one of them was trying to sell one....so within 1 day we became owners of a 1996 red mitsubishi lancer. the only challenge so far has
been that jeff can drive standard transmission and i can't.... jeff can't wait to teach me how to drive it... especially on the left side of the road!
so, off we went to the interisland ferry in our new wheels. the sun finally came out that day, so we were able to appreciate all the gorgeous scenery enroute to the south island.
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