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Published: January 3rd 2009
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Happy New Year to all! We celebrated the beginning of 2009 a full 18 hours earlier than those of you on the east coast of the U.S.!
As we stood in the (fairly) warm summer night watching fireworks over Caroline Bay in the biggest crowd I have seen since arriving in New Zealand, it felt more like the Fourth of July than New Year’s Eve!!
I would like to share a funny story with you that highlights some of the cultural differences that constantly surprise and delight us. Randy is working in Timaru Hospital part-time, and when he worked at Marlton one of the most enjoyable aspects of his job was that the nurses accepted him into their “inner circle”, which meant that they would discuss personal (ahem, sexual) topics in front of him, which he found both amusing and instructive. Last week in Timaru Hospital he was on the medical floor when he heard snippets of a potentially promising discussion, as the nurses were discussing what constituted “a good lay.” Hoping to hear some juicy information, he wandered over, only to be disappointed to discover that the topic of conversation centered on which types of chickens produced
Main Street in Paekakariki
The ONLY street in Paekakariki!! the best eggs!(many people keep some chickens on their properties) So, apparently, the meaning of “a good lay” is quite different in New Jersey than it is in New Zealand!!
Tomorrow my daughter Rachel is arriving; currently she is on a 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Auckland. I will be meeting her in Christchurch tomorrow morning and we will embark on a 2 week tour of some of the highlights of the South Island. I’m quite excited to share some of my favorite sights and experiences with her.
Early in December, Randy and I had a week off, so we flew to the North Island to explore a bit of the southern portion. We landed in Wellington, and drove partway up the west coast along an area known as the Kapiti Coast. We stayed in a lovely hostel where we had our own en suite room with a private deck overlooking the ocean (the Tasman Sea) in a town called “Paekakariki”. Most of the towns on the North Island have P’s, K’s and W’s as the first letter of their names, and they are all multi-syllabic and difficult to remember. It reminded us of Hawaii( which
Our suite at the hostel
on the left, with its own porch also had names derived from the Polynesian language) and the volcanic landscape was also reminiscent of our trip to Hawaii. It was still too cool to swim, but the beaches were lovely, and we visited the Southland Car Museum, which I found more interesting than I expected, tasted some local cheeses (haven’t found a New Zealand cheese that I don’t like yet!), chocolates, and honey. Randy tried some honey based wine (mead), and we explored some of the little towns and took some short walks. We then visited the town of Wanganui, where we stayed with a friend who was an email acquaintance, another U.S. ER doc working in N.Z. as a locum doc. Marlene, who is from Florida, was very hospitable, and we stayed with her for 2 nights, and she showed us the highlights of her town, as well as her hospital, which has a brand-new state of the art ED.
We then headed across to the east side of the North Island (still only the lower 1/3 of it) to Napier, a town rebuilt in Art Deco style after an earthquake leveled it in the 1930’s. Napier is very relaxing and has a lovely beachside promenade.
Ghert
A Mongolian tent option at the hostel; too much like camping for me! However, swimming is not advisable there due to rough surf. Napier is known for wineries, orchards, and other boutique foods.
My favorite part of the trip was a walk that we took in the town of Kahika, where we passed through a sheep paddock, into a forested area that was cool and lovely, and emerged into a clearing with a very large waterfall. What was especially unique about this waterfall was that you could easily enter the water. There was a sandy bottom so we were able to wade almost up to the waterfall itself. What an amazing feeling to experience the tremendous force of the cascading water and feel the wind it generates on your face!! We never even saw another person during the entire walk.
The trip back to Wellington is not along the coastline-there is no road there. We stopped in a small town for lunch and to use the public toilets. This unit is a self cleaning model. You push a button and the door slides open. You enter and push the button so the door slides shut. A voice announces. “You have 10 minutes,” and then proceeds to play, “Love Makes
Inside the Ghert.
Candles only for lighting the World Go ‘Round” while you do your thing. I wonder how they picked the musical component for this activity??
We spent our last day in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, which is perched on the southern tip of the North Island. There is a ferry that can take you to Picton on the South Island with a 3 hour crossing. We’ll do that sometime. The city seemed energetic, with lots of cafes, etc. and there is a very pretty waterfront area with walkways and a museum (again, next time).
For the latter part of December, I worked a lot, including all the holidays. I did have a small scale latke party to celebrate Hanukkah, and even figured out how to make my mom’s famous brisket from a rump steak. Of course, it was a hit. So were the latkes.
We have 2 new neighbors in the houses directly behind ours. One is a pediatrician from San Antonio Texas. Her name is Gina, and she is originally from Brazil. We have spent some time with her showing her around, and I quite enjoy her company. We also just met Jack, an anesthesiologist, and his wife,
Nahid. They are from Denver. Today we had lunch and took a walk along the beach together, and I think it will be a very nice friendship. So we have our own little American enclave here on James Street!!
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