Summer Holiday week off

Summer hols started with Si heading up to Whangerei on Fri night with Gem and Charlie as I had to stay in Hamilton till Sat morning as I was on call back for transports. Thought I had managed an easy night until the phone woke me at 4.30 saying that I needed to go and fetch someone from Rotorua for urgent angio for a heart attack. If it wasn't 4.30 it would have been the perfect retrieval, very stable patient and going straight to Cardiology so no paperwork for me to do on the return. I did however get to see sunrise over Rotorua in the helicopter which was pretty cool. And still managed to get in in time to get a lift up to Whangerei with Katie at 8am.

3.5 hours later we arrive at Whangerei and headed to straight to the beach to meet Gem, Si and Charlie and enjoy some surf. Unfortunately when I arrived Gem had realised she had accidentally damaged my board - surf was a little too big and strong - if just waves and sand had done that to the board Im glad she came away unscathed! We were joined later by 4 other friends from Hamilton who also were booked into the same campsite for the night and we had a lovely evening of BBQing and drinks. Sunday we headed out for a short walk and some more surfing - Oh, and Gem stood up for the first time - Yey!

After saying goodbye to the gang we headed east across the Northland peninsular to the Waipoua forest which is the home of the largest native trees in the country - the Kauri. After arriving at our campsite at 6pm we soon realised that we had passed the only place we could get food 30k back - so we backtracked beofre putting our tent up in the rain!

Monday we headed into the Kauri forest and saw the four sisters Te Matua Ngahere (father of the forest) the 2nd tallest kauri however with the biggest girth (16.41m) and Tane Mahutu (lord of the forest) the tallest kauri (17.7m) We then headed on our drive up to Ahipara - the base of the 90 mile beach.

On our drive up we passed through Hokianga, had a lovely lunch in a cafe on the water's edge - amazing views out over the sand dunes and arrived at Ahipara around 3pm. Had every intension of hitting the surf over there until we discovered that there was non..booo. Spent the afternoon sat on the beach chilling as the weather had cleared up nicely for us.

Tues we spent the day doing a big trip up to Cape Reinga, where Maori's believe is the departing place for all Maori souls heading back to the homeland and where the pacific ocean meets the tasman sea. To get there you head up along the 90 mile beach - quite cool as you can drive along it - need a 4x4 though so we went with an arranged tour. Got to sand board the enormous dunes - more like sand tobogganing. was good fun but we were hoping you go a little faster than we did (the kiddies whizz down!)

Wednesday we headed east to the Kerikeri peninsula again in search of a little surf, unfortunately found none but did manage to fit in a bit of snorkeling and found a vineyard with tastings - the most northern vineyard in NZ - also had a golfcourse and a really posh restaurant attached so we booked a meal there for the evening - a little bit nicer than the alternative which was a BBQ at the campsite. Weather was pretty rubbish the whole time we were there windy and rainy but had cleared up a bit by the next day.

Thursday we succeeded in finding surf at a little place called Taupo bay on the east coast - started out in waves far too big but found a nicer spot the other end of the beach which was nice and manageable. Spent about 3 hours there before we decided to head on to our last place before the weekend. That was on a lovely beach recommended by friends - Matauri bay - a surf beach apparently, although yet again - no surf. Was a lovely spot for the evening though and enjoyed a nice walk up to a view point and a great BBQ and enjoyed some beers with the sunset (oh and Si got to fly his kite)

Friday we chilled out on the beach for the morning then headed to the bay of islands to meet Gem and James for the weekend. That night we went out for a meal to a restaurant that sells itself as a fish restaurant , although after sitting down and ordering our wine we were informed that they had run out of fish.......not impressed! Saturday we went to Kawakawa - which is the home of the oldest stone and wooden building in NZ (thought James would enjoy it, what with building being his job....but apparently with it being built in 1840 he wasn't that impressed!) but a nice place to sped the day - went to a recreated maori village and headed back via a vineyard to board the rock, a purpose built backpacker boat. and bar.

The Rock is probably the best value for money experience in NZ - They pick you up at 5pm, they then head out of the bay of islands to a nice secluded spot- on the way they attach a rubber duck to the back of the boat and hand out air rifles - free drink to the best shot - disappointed it wasnt James with his shooting skills! We were a little pissed by that point - after having started our drinking on the beach earlier with a bottle of wine bought at the vineyard. We then anchored the boat and started fishing for our dinner. I caught the 1st fish (a tiddler) and earned myself a free drink - unfortunately no fish we caught were big enough to eat, although Si will boast that not only did he catch 6 but there was also one that was so big it snapped his fishing line! That evening after our dinner of steak and salads we were put into groups for kayaking. The kayaking was incredible. The water was full of phosphorescence which sparkled like diamonds when disturbed - so so cool, we decided to ditch the kayaks and dive in amongst it - the water seemed so warm, we couldn't work out if that was because it genuinely was warm or we had really good beer jackets on. The next day we got up to a good breakfast and started the day with a snorkel trip - the most fish i've seen in 1 trip, visibility was amazing and we went out catching lots of kinna (sea urchins) to eat later. (which, although is meant to be a delicacy is really quite gross)
Rocked up back onto the dead fish beach (named after Si's shenanigans on the same beach at Chrsitmas) where we had a lovely lunch and kayak. After lunch we headed back to Paihia for our return back to Hamilton and reality.

Really good hol and unfortunately the last for a long while!

Work Work Work...and a bit of play

So the last 2 weeks I've had the chance to get really into the job. I am working lots of weekends from now on but they're pretty good fun.

Last Thursday I went on my 1st retrieval which happened to be a fixed wing (technical talk for small plane) over to the east coast (Gisborne) where I had to pick up and bring back a ventilated ICU patient. Was a pretty straight forward one for my 1st since most the work was done for me - just needed a little blood pressure control really.
Friday I worked a long day on the unit (which means you look after the unit soley and dont go on exciting trips) James came down for the weekend to play with Si so I got to join them for drinks afterwards as I wasn't in till 4pm the next day.

On Saturday we decided to go for a surf in the morning - not great conditions but really fun all the same - love being out in the surf, there are pretty strong rips at the moment though so gotta be careful. At 4pm I headed into work and all seemed to be pretty calm until at 8pm I got called to head down to Taranaki (down the west coast) to pick up a guy who'd rogered his arm and needed urgent surgery - and the only surgeon they had that could sort it was away on his holidays. Was a beautiful flight down the coast at sunset in the helicopter - so bizarre, tourists pay hundreds for that flight and I get paid to do it!

Sunday we went to play some morning tennis pre-work then a pretty uneventful shift - until my evenings call back...was home for 20mins, just enough time to get into my PJs and skype the folks when I got a call hauling me back into work to prepare for a flight to Taupo. Really hairy trip - not only did we have time contraints (a weather front was coming in and the pilot was really eager to be out the sky by 2am) but the patient was REALLY sick and the emergency dept in Taupo had actually made things worse with their input - they would have been better leaving her how the ambulance had - probably the sickest patient I have ever looked after by myself! (they survived and we're discharged the next day!)

Monday I had off, so after catching a few hours sleep katie and I headed up to Auckland to watch some of the Heineken open tennis. Really good, got to see Ferrero and Ferrer play (although both out now!)
Had a lovely evening with Gem - helped her put together her new BBQ and christen it.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful - no further flights or excitement (unless one comes in tonight!)

Off up North for the week tomorrow for some beach fun - I know it's not long since we had time off but after this it'll be ages since we're off again.

New years holiday with Mum and Dad

After getting up at 4am on Tuesday morning we started driving down to Wellington, 7 hours later we were at the ferry terminal ready to board the interislander ferry to the South Island.

Once over in the South Island we headed over to Nelson ready to start our sea kayaking in Abel Tasman the next day. On Wednesday we got kitted up and hit the water from Marahau - very windy day and only managed 1 hour before our guide suggested we pull into one of the bays - winds picked up and hit about 30 knots, apparently too windy to kayak. Unfortunately the beach we were on had no shelter and we were stranded in the middle of Abel Tasman for the next 7 hours being constantly sand blasted - NOT FUN!! Saw some people attempt to get out into the sea and just ended up capsizing! At 6pm the winds died down enough to start out again, as we kayaked along we saw kayaks abandoned at every beach. We stopped at a beautiful quiet cove and pitched our tents jut off the beach, so it all turned out well in the end.

Thursday (NYE) we awoke to gentle sea breezes and beautiful weather so managed to make up alot of time - headed out along the coast, saw fur seals and penguins. The fur seal decided to play in the water right next to our kayak, really cool. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful bay - who am I kidding, the whole national park is beautiful. After a full day kayaking we stopped in Anchorage where our New Years Eve accommodation was waiting for us - an amazing 13ft catamaran all to ourselves. New Years Eve was spent chilling on the catamaran, drinking plenty of booze and diving in off the boat. Just before midnight we were taken to some caves to see some amazing glowworms and wheta (horrid massive cockroach type things....uuuh) At the turn of midnight we watched some amazing fireworks off a barge in the bay.

On New Years Day we were dropped off at anchorage bay (after our morning swim) and started to walk out the park - took about 6 hours (took a few side tracks) really amazing weather and beautiful views of the park. Once out of Abel Tasman and hobbling from all the blisters we headed back over to nelson for the evening.

Saturday we had a cycle wine tour of Marlborough planned - unfortunately got there later than planned due to accidents in front of us on the roads - but at around 11am we set off on our bikes, 1st stop Cloudy Bay, 6 hours later we had sampled enough wine to make us wobble on the bikes and bought nearly enough wine to last us the year - especially with a case bought for us from Mum and Dad - Thanks. That evening we found a lovely pub down the road to drink more booze and have a nice dinner.

Sunday we headed over to picton to catch the ferry back to Wellington, wasn't a very nice day - very windy and overcast so we spent the afternoon in Te Puia, arguably the best museum in NZ - had a lovely dinner on Cuba street that night. Monday was beautiful weather so we decided to go up Mt Victoria for the views over the city (after a bit of shopping). Then we got Simon on a flight back to Hamilton (he was going back to work) while we headed up North to Tongariro NP.

Tuesday we did the Tongariro crossing, one of the best day walks in the world, stunning! Mum, being a geologist was in her element. An amazing end to the holiday.

So, now the holiday is over and Mum and Dad have left me to head back home. Not to long till our next holiday though - only 2 weeks!!

Christmas break

So the week started with me being on relief - the nice thing about ITU relief is that if I'm not called in by 10am the rest of the day is mine to play with.

On Monday - I didn't get a call by 10am so Mum, Dad and I headed over to Rotorua for some fun and sight-seeing. They both visited Rotorua when they were over in 2004 so were keen on doing some things they hadn't done before. 1st stop was lunch which was lovely meal at the same cafe I was at when Gem gave me the news she was engaged. After that we headed over to Whakewarewawera which is a thermal village in Rotorua. Has great views of the famous geysers and very interesting story behind their lives there.
After that we headed home via zorbing. Successfully managed to get both of them in a zorb which they absolutely loved - never heard Dad giggle so much - brilliant fun!

That night we headed out for a lovely meal with Si as well (he had been stuck in work all day)

Tuesday - No call again, however I did have to be in for 12 for teaching - so after some Christmas shopping in Hamilton we grabbed some lunch and I sent Mum and Dad over to Waitomo in my car to do some caving (booked them into a black water rafting trip so they couldn't get out of it) They really really enjoyed it and another thing they wouldn't have done without me just booking it.
Tuesday night we went for some posh-nosh in Hamilton to my fav restaurant.

Wednesday - Again, no call......doing well. This time we headed over to Raglan to introduce them to my favourite surf beach. I took my surf board and Mum hired a bodyboard (Dad's back was playing up so he watched from the beach) We then went to a few of the shops for some last minute shopping.

Wednesday afternoon we drove up to Auckland to stay wit Gem and James so we could get up to our holiday destination (Russell) earlier the next day (Christmas eve)

On Christmas eve we went and did thebig food shop for Christmas - lots of seafood and meat - for Christmas the kiwi way i.e. BBQ on the beach. I decorated a little tree in the corner in vague attempts to make it a little more Christmassy (difficult when it's over 30degrees)
Gem, James and Si joined us at about 10.30pm - had a few glasses of wine and headed to bed in preparation for Christmas day.

Christmas Day
***************
Woken up early by Gemma excited about the day. Made us all get into our swimwear and go for an early morning swim - very good idea. Got out the water to a nice glass of bucks fizz, with cloudy bay champagne!! Had a lovely breakfast of eggs benedict then started to set up all the pressy opening on the front lawn. After an hour or so of exciting gifts (I got thoroughly spoilt - especially by Si who bought me a new ripcurl surf watch and a pair of funky special edition GHDs, my old ones recently packed in) After the presents we went over to the nicer beach where we chilled with a few beers on the beach followed by water vollleyball!
Had an amazing christmas dinner on the BBQ- about 5 courses, scallops, prawns, tuna steak, ribeye steak and christmas pudding...yum yum yum Finished the evening off with phonecalls home (wonder if people could tell we got through 10bottles of wine and 1 crate of beer.....)

Boxing day we got the ferry over to Paihia and Waitangi where the treaty between the British and the Maori was signed. Really beautiful treaty grounds and great way to learn about what happened over here. The treaty is still used as a basis to all the rights of the Maori's in NZ. We then wandered around a few of the shops while Si and James went to play in the sea. Had another great BBQ of lamb steaks with more wine.

Sunday we had a sailing trip booked for the afternoon. We sailed around the bay, about 40 islands and stopped at one. Si found a dried up dead fish on the beach and decided it would be fun to hit Gem over the head with it. Then he found another which he speared on a stick, dipped it in the water and chased Gem with - She screamed like a small child v. funny. We walked to the top of one of the islands for amazing panoramic of the bay of islands.

We headed back to Hamilton on Monday as Gem needed to prepare to start nights and we needed an early night as we were going to be getting up at 4am to start our big journey down to the south island.

See next blog (sorry these are really busy - but kinda using it as my own diary of everything I get up to aswell!)

Coromandel Peninsula 18-20th December

Sorry these are coming in really late - had a really busy couple of weeks and havent had much time to sit down and blog - all the photos are up on facebook for a video diary though. So for the update - bits at a time.

Mum and Dad spent there 1st weekend in Auckland with Gem seeing all the sights whilst Gem was at work. I spent that week doing my 1st set of nights on ITU. Very busier - much worse than the shifts in the UK but really good and I learnt loads.

For the weekend I booked the same bach in the Coromandel that I stayed at for Si's birthday - since I loved it there thought I would show the family.

Decided on Friday night to open a few of the christmas pressies early since we decided they would be really good to have that weekend. James and I both got snorkel kits and Si a volleyball and net.

Spent Saturday on Cathedral cove beach, jumping off rocks, playing with the bat and ball and rugby ball (when Si wrecked his foot - took a nice chunk out of his toe), did the snorkel trail at Gemstone beach (marine reserve with buoys set up with information on them as you swim along) and then went back to the bach opened a few beers and set up the volleyball court on the beach. (Si, Mum and Me V James, Gem and Dad).......Guess who won!
Had a lovely BBQ and plenty more beers that evening.

Sunday, while cleaning the bach ready to leave we got an urgent phone call from my brother to tell us that he and Claire were now engaged- very exciting, but it also means that within about 2 months both of my siblings are engaged - think Si is feeling the pressure..... After cleaning the bach we headed to the other end of cooks beach and swam out to a little cave that you can climb up the walls of the cave and jump in - also pretty good snorkelling - although an unsuccessful trip as Si lost his snorkel and James broke his fins (luckily managed to blag to the shop that they must have been faulty.)
Sunday afternoon we went to hot water beach where we hired spades and dug ourselves holes in the beach so we could sit in hot springs. That evening Mum and Dad headed back with us for a week in Hamilton (and surrounding areas) I was set to be on relief (where i'm on short notice call back for sickness) so it was fingers crossed for a quiet week....

Mum and Dad arrive

Blog for 15/12/09

Sorry I forgot to blog - was very busy, what with Mum and Dad arriving and my first week as an ITU reg.

The week was spent mainly in induction - learning all the basics and the things about the unit that are different to the ITU I've worked in before (basically, being a tertiary referral centre we take everything, so lots of new things to learn)

Worked my 1st 2 shifts on the Thurs and Fri and they were pretty uneventful really, no helicopter retrievals and nothing terribly exciting on the unit (I did however attend 4 cardiac arrest calls on Fri afternoon)

At the weekend I spent Sat doing some christmas shopping in Raglan after hitting the surf of course! Surf was rubbish though so didn't last very long in it before giving up. Niamh did have a lovely dinner date together though before going out for a few drinks (poor old Si was working the weekend)

Sunday I headed up to Auckland to meet Mum and Dad at the airport. Went up via Gem's and did some christmas shopping with James (Gem was working the weekend 2) before they arrived. I stayed Sunday night and Gem cooked an amazing meal for us.

Monday I spent the morning with Mum and Dad in Auckland, more christmas shopping and a really lovely lunch on the viaduct before heading back down to Hamilton to have a quick sleep before starting nights!

Hawke's Bay

Si and I had Friday off so we decided to head over to Hawkes Bay to see Napier and sample the local produce!

We arrived at about 2pm and quickly found a campsite and erected the tent. From there we headed into Napier to see what it has to offer. Got a quick bite to eat, played more crazy golf (I won..AGAIN) then went out for a drive around the local area and a little walk before heading back into Napier for some dinner.

Saturday we awoke to rain, not ideal when heading out for a bike tour of the vineyards. Unfortunately Si must have caught some vomiting bug as he couldn't even keep water down - again, not ideal!. He did however want to try to come so we headed out on our bikes. Luckily the rain stopped just in time to enjoy the day. The 1st stop (at 10.30am) was a cider house and brewery. I ordered the sample tray (£5 for 6 1/2 pints!!!) Si tried a sip of the alcoholic ginger beer and left me drinking the rest - solo! After that we headed out to a boutique vineyard where they had some AMAZING wine. Si joined in the tasting this time after realising that although he couldn't keep water down, alcohol seemed to go down quite well! The wine tour continued till about 5pm after which we realised we spent over $300 in wine. Oh well, it was REALLY nice (or was it just that we were a bit pissed!)

Sunday we decided (a little crazily) to get up at 7.30 to watch the All Blacks v Barbarians replay (the match was played at 3am so we didn't bother getting up for that) After the match we packed up the tent and headed to the coast in search of surf. Found some surf - bit average but had a good time anyway. Back to Napier for lunch then headed home around 5pm.

This week I have started my 1st week as an ITU reg. Had 2 days of induction, where I was shown around the helicopter, warned not to wear nylon as when it burns it sticks to you, told that if the helicopter lands on the sea it goes upside down and you have to kick the windows out....... and when it is necessary to crack someones chest open.
So, sounds like this run will be a breeze!!