Surviving the Veepah and the Volcano

Sign on cafeteria door at Auckland City Hospital

The primary reason I came back to New Zealand at this time was to complete the requirements to get full Internal Medical specialist license to practice in New Zealand in the future. The Medical Council required that I come back, work for at least four months in a larger hospital, and then undergo a day-long clinical evaluation. This last step is called a VPA, Vocational Practice Assessment (or "Veepah" to me).  Arranging this became quite a challenge. In fact, early in June the Medical Council told me they were having trouble finding two assessors to come to Auckland to do this, and suggested I may need to come back in the future and work in another hospital for several months. I was very upset by this news, and reached out to anyone I knew here that might have some sway with the powers that be. People were very cooperative, and I managed to set this up for my second to last day at work, July 26. It was a huge amount of work to set it up, requiring things like getting 40 patients to sign consents to have charts reviewed, more consents for patients to be seen on the ward and in clinic, names of 16 doctors and hospital staff to vouch for me, as well as a hefty fee to pay. By the time the day came around, I was ready to get it over with, felt relaxed and decided to just go about my work. It helped that one week before, one of the young assessors called me and confessed "I can see you qualified for this when I was four years old". They were not allowed to reveal their verdict, but I think it went well because by the end of the day they were trying to recruit me to work. I will not hear the official word from the Medical Council for 1-2 months. We'll see.

Back to reporting the highlights of our last six weeks in Auckland. We flew back from SF July 1st, just in time for "The Flight of the Conchords" concert that night at Vector Arena, New Zealand's largest indoor venue.

 Tickets were hard to come by, and our sets were a bit distant...

but it was well worth it to see New Zealand's self-proclaimed "fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a cappella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" on their home turf. It was fun.

Jemaine and Bret

Another highlight was the Wednesday Pub Quiz at the Windsor Castle in the Parnell neighborhood. The pub is co-owned by one of the Registrars at the hospital and we began going a few months ago. It is a grueling weekly two-hour trivia marathon with lots of Australasian questions we don't have a clue about. We met up with a group of locals to form the "Nil Balance" team (so-named for the status of their checking account). Frankly, I had given up hope of a win, but what do you know, all the pieces fell in place two weeks ago and WE WON!! See the final score below,

and the winning team,

Nil Balance

and the prize.

We were excited to attend many films as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. Highlights included:
1) Bernie- a film by Richard Linklater starring Jack Black. You may have seen it in the spring in the US. If you haven't, rent it. Very well done and funny docudrama of real events of a unique murder in Carthage, Texas. Highly recommended.
2) The Imposter-also a docudrama of a bizarre story of a 24 year-old French-Algerian passing himself off as a 15 yo missing Texas teen- a great double bill with Bernie.
3) Beasts of the Southern Wild- a hard to describe fable from Southern Louisiana, disturbing, haunting, and very memorable. It has gotten a lot of accolades and caused some controversy, not for everyone, but well worth seeing for the cinephile.
4)  Blackmail- a 1929 silent film by Alfred Hitchcock shown in the beautiful art-deco Civic Theater with a full live orchestral accompaniment and new score, shown with a Charlie Chaplin short Easy Street. Shown in a new restored digital prints, quite a treat.
5) Wish You Were Here-an Aussie thriller about two couples on vacation to Cambodia gone horribly wrong- Fayne aptly described as a tragic retelling of The Hangover II.
After work was over, we had two weeks to see more of New Zealand, pack up, and prepare for more adventures on the way home. It started with a 12-hour train ride south to Wellington.

  It was a beautiful day and we had great views of the snow-clad volcanoes in Tongariro National Park.

 

Mount Ngauruhoe

Mount Ruapehu

 In Wellington we got to visit again with our Irish friend Florry O'Connell, who took us for a walk along Island Bay district.

The weather was as nice as we've had in Wellington, as you can tell from this view of the waterfront from our hotel.

After three nights in Wellie, we rented a car and headed north, first to Palmerston North because I hadn't been there, my friend and pharmacist Kirsha Wood previously from Timaru now lives there, and I was curious as to why this town is the but of so many Kiwi jokes and insults. The most cutting insult may have been from John Cleese who said "Palmerston North should be renamed “suicide capital of New Zealand” as “if you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick”. I must say we found Palmy a very pleasant university town in a rich agricultural area.

Lunch with Kirsha at Cafe Brie

 There were lovely parks, theaters,

 

many out-door sculptures,

Who's Afraid by Paul Dibble

Pacific Monarch also by Paul Dibble

and the hallowed New Zealand Rugby Museum.

 From there it was a rainy drive over to Hawkes Bay and Napier, a town noted for it's art deco center and a place we visited last year. The region is a favorite of many New Zealanders due to many splendid wineries, beautiful coast, and generally sunny climate (not for us though). Then it was on up the coastline to the East Cape, the one major area in the country we had yet to pass through. (I put a map at the end of this post for the more geographically-minded readers.)
Gisborne is another very nice town with an attractive central clock tower

The Captain

 but may be most noted as the place Captain James Cook first set foot on New Zealand soil in Poverty Bay

Young Nick, the cabin boy who first spotted land

Gisborne is also the gateway to the Pacific Coast Highway, a six-hour drive around the East Cape, a remote, rural, poor, with a large Maori population. It rained most of the time on the drive, but we were able to stop a few times and enjoy the sights.

Sheep crossing road

Long pier at Tolaga Bay

Beautiful Maori Christian Church at Tikitiki

 A lot of New Zealand /Maori writing and film is set on the East Cape, like Whale Rider and Boy.

Waihai Bay, setting of the film Boy

 At the northwestern end of the Coast Highway on the Bay of Plenty is Whakatane, a picturesque seaside resort and departure point for White Island, the top of a subterranean volcano that continues the active volcano chain from Tongariro National Park. The weather brike just enough in the morning for us to take a trip there. The crew supplies the hard hat and the gas mask, and warns you to seek cover in case of an eruption.

A gaze into the sulfuric crater lake

Pure Sulfur crystals

Getting off the island was a bit hairy, as the tide went down and the storm came in, so we got drenched as we made a somewhat treacherous and unexpected wade through the surf to get the raft back to the boat. The very next day the volcano erupted for the first time in 11 years and the day after that Mount Tongariro erupted for the first time since 1897, We felt lucky to escape. You can follow a web cam set up on White Island. Note the small dinosaur in the lower right corner.
The drive back to Auckland allowed for a few stops, like in Katikati, known for its town  murals and "the longest stone haiku pathway outside of Japan",

"Clouds seen through clouds seen through"

The giant kiwifruit at Te Puke,

 

the large open pit gold mine at Waihi,

and the giant L&P bottle in Paeroa ("Lemon and Paeroa- World Famous in New Zealand").

It was back to Auckland to pack up for the final week, then off to Tahiti, Easter Island, and the Galapagos on our way home.