Parties and rugby

Last week was spent getting used to the world of anaesthesia. Nice to be back in it and a much slower pace than ICU - think I will enjoy it. The week started out well with a visit from the All Blacks to the kiddies ward. Naturally we had to muscle in on the action, managed to get a good piccy of Si and Richie but unfortunately his camera decided to go on a spaz attack when trying to get a pic of me and him - oh well still got to chat to him (and he put his hand on my shoulder!!)
The weekend started well with the news that we had got tickets to all the Auckland and Hamilton matches in the world cup 2011.
So excited now - would have been a blow if we had missed out considering thats the reason we are staying so long.

The weekend was spent in Hamilton with a string of nights out organised. On Friday night there was a fancy dress leaving party for a few of the Brits, with a British themed party. Quite a drunken affair and a great night. Saturday we went house hunting, after finding out that our current landlords are going to sell our place - quite successful and hopefully we'll get it. In the afternoon James joined us and we went to play a game of tennis but only lasted about half an hour before the rain stopped us.
Saturday night we went to the Wales v All Blacks match (supporting the All Blacks of course) AMAZING pre-match entertainment with the best pyrotechnics. Was an amazing atmosphere but have seen better matches (first half was good) After the match we hit the town, which ended up being another heavy night.

Sunday we headed up to Auckland to see Katie Brodie who is hanging out with Gem at the moment, whilst flying to and from the Pacific Islands on route back to England. Had a great day playing tennis with her, Si and James before having a quick dinner and heading back to Hamilton.

Esther's final week/1st trip to the mountain

Monday morning after sorting a few bits and bobs Esther and I headed out to the Coromandel peninsula. Unfortunately the weather was horrendous on the drive up so no pretty views to be seen. After grabbing a nice lunch in Whitianga we decided to take a scenic drive over to Coromandel town (as I had never been) really small little town with not a lot going on, but had a nice walk and it's a very quaint town. That evening we had lovely fish and chips and a few beers. The next day we awoke to beautiful day and after breakfast we headed over to Cathedral cove on Mercury bay. Took a nice picnic lunch and enjoyed several hours in the sun. That evening we headed back to Hamilton for Esther's final evening with us. Took her to one of our favourite restaurants for some posh nosh. The next morning Esther headed up to Auckland for her last few days in NZ before flying home. Been fantastic having her over here with me!

Wednesday to Friday I started my first few shifts in anaesthetics, very relaxed and dossy really which as much as it makes a nice change I will miss ICU. Friday evening Gem and James headed down here and we all took off for the opening weekend at the mountain. Saturday morning we were up at 6.30am to watch the England game. What an absolute waste of a lie in, they totally deserve to get knocked out. The opening of the mountain turned out to be a quiet one really, only the baby slope was open so we took the opportunity to learn to snowboard, not that easy really but had a great day. Followed our good day with some apres board drinks in the pub and headed back to cook some food. Some more friends joined us that evening and it turned out to be quite a drunken one (esp for Si and James!) The next day it was chucking it down with rain and the mountain was closed so we headed north in search of other activities, first we went to a white water rafting centre and after getting all kitted out it was cancelled as the river was too full, then we headed up to Taupo for a walk at the huka falls and a stop at the honey centre, then up to Rotorua for a soak in the polynesian spa geothermal hot pools followed up nicely by a lovely meal before heading home.

North Island with Esther

After seeing Esther off to Napier and Taupo, I had a few days in work - pretty good days really, kept me busy and included a nice flight on a beautiful day down to Tokaroa.
On Thursday morning I headed over to Rotorua to meet up with Esther again, after her bus arrived late we drove down to Wai-O-Tapu to see the champagne pools and the thermal wonderland, on our way back into Rotorua we stopped at Kerosene creek the natural hot pools for a nice warm dip. Back in Rotorua we booked our Maori cultural experience at Tamaki Maori village and then headed to the pub for a quick one before it started. At 5pm we got picked up by a tour bus and taken to the village. Was a great night, filled with games, performances and the haka - as well as an amazing feast (known as a hangi).
The following day the weather was shocking so we went to the kiwi sanctuary which is the main kiwi conservation centre in NZ dedicated to protecting Kiwi's in their own environment. A great tour and my first chance to see live Kiwis. That afternoon we headed back to Hamilton so that Esther could sort herself out before heading down to Taranaki for the weekend with Si, Gem and James to watch the All Blacks play Ireland. After they left I headed over to Raglan for dinner with a few friends from work.
The weekend was thoroughly boring with absolutely NOTHING happening in work - I know its nice to have quite ones every now and then but some action would have been good!
Unfortunately that marks the end of my time in ICU and I move onto anaesthesia next - we'll see how it goes, think I'll have trouble topping my last 6 months!

The arrival of Esther Baker

I have the feeling this may be a lengthy blog - currently uploading all the photos of the trip onto fb for you all to gawp at!

The weekend started with a lovely visit from Will and Zoe on Friday night, unfortunately I was working Friday so didn't get to spend much time with them but since they were heading off to the South Pacific Islands for the next few weeks it gave me some nice company for the journey up to Auckland.

So, on Saturday morning we made the journey to the airport for Will and Zoe to get some sunshine and for me to meet ESTHER BAKER!! She arrived at around midday (not the night before as I first thought - doh) and then I dragged the poor girl round to the domestic terminal to catch her next flight down to Nelson on the South Island, after arriving in Nelson, we seamlessly picked up our hire car from the car park outside (they just left the keys in the glove box and my name on the car!!) and headed 3hrs down the coast to the seaside town of Kaikoura. Unsurprisingly Esther wasn't quite with it for most of the journey, but I did manage to get her a good feed of fresh fish and chips from a fishing port in Nelson. After arriving in our lovely hostel in Kaikoura we flaked pretty much straight away to prepare for the next day. Sunday we awoke to horrendous weather, and the unfortunate realisation that our swimming with dolphins experience was not going to happen. After a nice walk down the beach we decided to make the decision to head down to Christchurch for the day so we didn't waste time anywhere. On arrival in Christchurch we headed to the arts centre where there was a lovely market on and some really tasty food, had a nice wander around and headed into Christchurch, on the way there we passed the Avon river and noted some punting - so we decided to take a little punt on the Avon (yes, we are in New Zealand!) After our punting we met up with my friend Katie who moved to Christchurch 3 months ago and she decided to show us a few nice places before we headed to the pub for a cheeky afternoon pint and then later and early dinner. That evening we decided to take a final attempt to swim with dolphins and headed back up to Kaikoura for the night to give it one last go in the morning. Unfortunately, our gamble did not pay off and it was again cancelled the next day - so, back down to Christchurch for us and this time to check out the Antarctic centre - which was pretty cool. That evening we had a lovely home cooked dinner with Katie and went out for a few drinks.

The next day we headed over on Arthur's Pass to the west coast. We knew this would be a long day of driving so decided to make the most of it, and stocked up on food before we headed out. We took every opportunity to stop, go for little walks and take photo's. We had lunch in Arthur's pass village and went for a lovely little walk. On our way we also stopped at Hokitika, a lovely old coastal gold mining town and some beautiful beaches before finally arriving in Franz Joseph. That evening in Franz we went to amazing glacial hot pools (?oxymoron?) before heading out for an enormous dinner.

Wednesday morning we got up ready to have our glacier experience, we were so lucky to have the most stunning weather, not a cloud in the sky - which just makes the glacier look even more stunning. Got to spend about 2 hours on the ice before heading back t o the town. After, we headed down the coast to Wanaka, stopping at lake Matherson to enjoy the views over Mt Cook and the glacier. On arriving in Wanaka we headed out to get some takeaway and have a relatively chilled evening in.

Thursday we started the day with a nice walk up Mt Iron, unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we didn't get to enjoy the views we were promised, but we were particularly surprised by the amount of women who run up and down it all morning!! (Crazy Kiwis) After our walk we headed down to Queenstown, where, after dumping our stuff at the hostel we went for a lovely hot chocolate followed by a spot of frisbee golf. Such a good idea and great way of spending a few hours - think Sefton should set up a course! After frisbee we popped back to have showers before treating ourselves to an AMAZING meal out followed by a few cheeky drinks.

The next morning we had our flight to the Milford Sound. Our 9am flight was initially cancelled for low lying fog that cleared completely in time for the 11am flight. Stunning views as we passed the snowcapped mountains of the southern alpes, flew over Isengard and as we came over the top the mountains just opened out into fiordland - STUNNING. We landed in the Milford Sound to pick up the river cruise through the sound. Such beautiful scenery - can't quite give it the right words. The flight back, we took a slightly different route with views out over the fiords and out to sea and down over the lakes....
Unfortunately, that evening I was really not well, so after grabbing a bite to eat we had a lazy one back at the hostel.

Saturday we headed over to Arrowetown to spend a bit of time in the beautiful little gold mining town, visiting the old chinese settlement, the very informative museum, the lord of the rings site where the black riders got washed down the river and going for a lovely walk. We even found a beautiful cute little cinema where we decided to come back to that evening after dinner.

Sunday morning we awoke to our 1st day of bad weather since we arrived and decided to have a nice lazy morning with a good big breaky and wandering around Queenstown looking at the shops. Our flight was due to leave at 2.15pm, however after arriving at the airport we were informed that all flights were cancelled. Luckily, there was a later flight from Dunedin to Auckland later that evening, so we were put on a 3.5hr coach down to Dunedin to connect with the flight (I only say luckily as other people had to wait overnight for their flight out!0

So, the end of a really good week. Tomorrow Esther is off to Napier and Taupo and I'll hopefully catch up with her in Rotorua later in the week.