Blogs from Reefton, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Day 17: Murchinson to Reefton, 122km. Further contemplations and the Donkey is cheered on by a couple of turkeys. The Donkey wanted to get away early as there were two high passes to cross on the way to Reefton, the Maruia Saddle and the Rahu Saddle, both 600 meters high. The Donkey had packed plenty of food as there were no services till Springs Junction, 80km into the ride. The Donkey set off in the dark at 6.45 and soon met up with an old workhorse from Auckland, a builder, who was very strong. The Donkey had met a few animals on the trip who were builders and they were all very strong. Sometimes the Donkey wished he was a builder rather than a Donkey. Then he could make things. The Donkey was good at braking ... read more

MON - cleaned the house before we left, shop in greymouth on the way to Waiuta robert harris again, got to waiuta (old ghost town of a gold mining town from 1951, the gold ran out and it was abandoned they now wish to restore it, a bit eerie but pretty cool) the lodge in which we stay is awesome, i have a massive bed to myself, its about 5 beds together as a continuous bunk bed, like waitawheta! theres manuka everywhere and its flowering so its all white, loads of bees, a constant hum. we had lunch thend rove around the site for sam to get to know it, having never been there before. worked for about an hour cutting down manuka and laying it out along a bare patch of land to re-seed it ... read more

After our wonderful stay by the river we woke early and got back on the road looking for somewhere to settle to do some NZ tramping. Now I will forgive anyone who thought the title of this blog is in reference to our current living status, although I look at some of the photos and I think christ what happened to the woman in designer gear and high heels???? She is still secretly there and she visits occasionally to pine over shoe shops!! However tramping is NZ equivalent to hiking and for that I obviously have my infinitely sexy boots. We drove through the cold early morning and stopped in a town called Reefton which was very pleasant and quaint. It is also the first place to get street lighting in New Zealand in 1888 due ... read more

Astrid returned from across the ditch (Australia) where she was attending a medical conference in Melbourne with her friend Nayana Suchak. After the conference, the pair of the them travelled up to Cairns and back through Syndey. I will leave it to her to provide the highlights. However, while in Cairns the pair hurled themselves off an AJ Hackett bungy jump. This purpose built tower allows for a 150 metre fall (7 metres more than the Kawarau Bridge where Avery and I were initated). I was truly blown away to hear that Astrid went. While I had no reason to believe that she would not be able to jump, I am amazed that she was able to make it up the open metal staircase to get to the platform - given that she has a reasonably ... read more

Finally, Abby, I found a second to describe a typical day at work as a rural GP locum. Apologies for the delay - hard to steal a moment to reflect what with all the nonstop fun and lifestyling over here… The workday usually starts between 8 and 9 am with rounds at the hospital. Ours, like most rural hospitals, has long stay, acute care and palliative beds. The long stay and palliative patients are what you would expect. The acute beds are filled with whomever you admit. Our hospital lacks a lab, telemetry and radiology facilities, limiting the presentations we can manage. Typically we admit patients with pneumonia, CHF, uncontrolled diabetes, pain management issues and non-surgical internal medicine complaints. We can’t treat acute cardiac patients here. Soon we’ll be able to administer thrombolytics but we won’t ... read more