Good week here in Gisborne. After a few days of relative isolation (lousy weather, getting dark early, most people have families), I am finally starting to settle in. Thursday was a wonderful turning point--the sun came out, I made progress on getting my luggage (still not here), AND I had my first surf lesson! It was so fun! One of the other docs set up a group lesson for six of us ladies--such fun girls to meet and play with. With wet suits the water was warm and the surf board made for an excellent body board. ;) Yeah, I did not get up on the board that lesson. I think the California surf instructor we had was more disappointed about it than I was! But there is always today's lesson...;)

By the way, this is a statue of Captain James Cook, the first European to come to New Zealand. The statue stands in front of Poverty Bay. Apparently when Capt Cook arrived on its shores, the native population appeared and its warriors performed a traditional dance. Having seen some of the dances, I can tell you that they are energetic, aggressive, and can certainly look fierce with bug eyes, tongues stuck out, and tattoos everywhere including around the mouth. Capt Cook either grew tired of it or mistook it as a threat and shot several of the natives. Not surprisingly, they refused to share provisions with the visitors after that, and Capt Cook thus named the location Poverty Bay. Ha, there is a lesson for you...
Met my neighbors this week, Carlee and Tim, two pilots newly relocated from Christchurch starting work in Gisborne. They have a very interesting story. They actually worked in Africa for 3 years flying there, training for triathlons, until a severe bike meets car accident sent them home. They graced my home last night and tolerated my cooking, which I very much appreciated. I also got a kick out of telling them about the town, me giving advice to newcomers. Becky would be proud--I've come so far in one week!

As for work, Friday was the first day I took on hospital duties. A couple of ceasars (c-sections), a patient on the floor, a retained placenta from a vaginal delivery (pronounced va GI nal). In the first week of orientation at the hospital, however, I have already seen more pathology than the last months in practice. Two postpartum pulmonary emboli, a recurrent ovarian cancer, dozens of brittle diabetics. Gisborne is a central medical center for its region, somewhat isolated due to geography and servicing a low socio-economic center. The facilities are nice, but not quite complete. Different specialized services, such as radiation therapy or oncological surgery, are referred to tertiary centers. Referrals are based on the district, and sadly that can mean one case gets taken care of in three different districts: for example, a Greenfield filter to be placed in one, chemo in another, radiation therapy in a third, and travel to any of these is difficult...not easy to coordinate, not socialized medicine at its best...As for the rest of our speciality, we are considered consultants. GPs in the community address everything and refer to O&Gs (Ob/gyns) only for a problem. With obstetrics, private and hospital midwives manage patients in the community and on the maternity ward, and we only see high risk obstetric patients and only do operative deliveries. So we take a day of call a week, then three speciality half day clinics, and an administrative day. There are meeting and non-clinical duties there as well, but a world of difference from my past life...

Well, daylight savings kicked in for us last night, so the clock turned back and it is only 8 am (five hours behind California, although a day ahead). So I have a whole fabulous sunny day ahead of me! I wish you all the same! Cheers!

Getting to know Gizzy...

Kia Ora! Hello from the island of New Zealand. I am happily settled in here in Gisborne (or Gizzy if you are familiar), and finished with my first day of orientation at Gisborne Hospital. It is also my first day on my own. And driving. Now that's scary...

But let's back up a few days first. I arrived in Gisborne from Auckland on Thursday. Now get this: I go to check in at the Auckland airport for my domestic flight on Air New Zealand, and I approach the automated kiosk. Here I get my boarding pass, AND it prints out the label for my luggage. Huh, interesting. I put my own label on, take my bag to the luggage conveyor, put it on the belt and proceed to security. No one checks my ID, no one screens my bag...At "security", someone looks to see that I am getting on the right flight, and that is IT. No undressing, no liquid check, no metal detector! Whoa...weird. Now that is laid back...

Friday for me, Thursday for most of you, was all about laid back. Slept in, unpacked my backpack (no luggage yet, still true today, boo...), and hung out with Becky, my predecessor. The apartment that I am staying in is on the wharf with a view of the bay. The big double sliding doors face south onto a balcony that wraps around, making breath-taking views of sunrise and sunset possible. In the small harbor, cargo ships come in one at a time and unload goods. This may sound very industrial, but it is actually very cool to watch, and it is impressive how quickly they get in and out. The little tug boats are my favorite and they dredge the waters day and night to smooth disruption from incoming river flow. A five minute walk puts you on Wainui beach, where we headed Friday afternoon to watch the O'Neil Cold Water Classic Surfing Championship. The sun was shining, and the waves were sick, and that is about all of the surfing lingo I know. I do hope to take a few surfing lessons this week, see how it suits me...

The city itself is small, with a one street downtown, shops apparently close before 6pm. There is some diversity of restaurants, but most people eat at home due to cost. There is a video store, a library, an indie theater, and a community theater, but not much more. There is a running club, a tennis club, horseback riding, hiking, surfing, swimming, essentially all things outdoors to make up for the slight paucity of indoor activities. Going to invest in some board games for the upcoming long winter nights...;)

Saturday and Sunday were lovely--some sun, some rain, a couple jogs on the beach. Saturday morning we hit the Farmer's Market, the hotspot for that time of the week, to shop for a little party at the apartment, a farewell/welcome party, since she was leaving. This gave me the chance to meet a dozen great people and their very cool kids, and to start sampling New Zealand wine. A blend I had not heard of before: Shiraz-Viongier. Can't wait to try it...

So now it is Monday...Becky caught a flight back to the states today, leaving me to my own devices. She did leave me well prepared, however. Still, the first time I hit the "driving on the left side" streets, well, let's just say that it was the riskiest and most stressful thing I did all day! God help those around me...I honestly want a sign that instead of saying "student driver", says "American driver"--that ought to scare people! I think tomorrow I will ride the bike to work...

Well, early to bed tonight...still trying to get my sleep pattern straightened out. Cheers to all...

Hello, loved ones! A quick post at this stop before heading to my final destination...

Sitting at a coffee shop in Auckland. Have an interview at 12:30, a formality really, then off to Gisborne. So far I am loving NZ. The people ARE really nice. The Auzzies were kinda assholes, pardon my French. I got off my flight yesterday with a migraine that only seemed to get worse (I was so miserable when I arrived in Auckland) and it seemed like the Auzzies just enjoyed pointing out when you did something incorrectly (no, the form needs to be filled out THIS way) instead of being helpful and understanding that I just wanted to vomit on them. The Kiwi's, however, were very sympathetic. I found it a good omen that I hailed a cab whose driver was Iranian and by the end of the ride he didn't even want to charge me the $78 NZD fair. Of course I paid him, but he really would have done it for free. "Gabelli nadareh". It made me feel better. On top of that, at the hotel, the hotel manager comes out to collect my bags while I am talking to the driver in Farsi. I walk into the hotel, and I have been given a free upgrade to a suite! I realized later by his name, that the hotel manager is Iranian too, and I was the recipient of cultural courtesy yet again! Amazing. There are maybe 200 Iranians in all of NZ and I have already met 1%...now I can't wait to meet the Kiwis...The suite was lovely, big and clean, and, praise God, quite. It had a balcony that looked out over a park below, a mini-Central Park in my mind. Mid-rises (not quite high rises) made up the land scape behind, and the sky was somewhat overcast, the air cool and fresh. Sadly I went straight to bed yesterday around 6 pm with the help of migraine meeds, and slept for 12 hours. At 6 am, I finally got out of bed. The sun did not rise for another hour (yikes, considering the days are only going to get shorter). I made a cup of coffee in my room, ordered up some fresh fruit and sat on the balcony reading the NZ Herald. Amazing how their scandals sound a lot like ours...;) Finally, a hot shower, clean clothes, and I stepped out to find a wi-fi hot spot... which brought me to, of all places, a Starbuck's. I have to laugh...this big change in lifestyle, and I still end up at a Starbuck's...some things will never change. Okay, that's all for now. I promise pictures later, but my phone battery has died and the converter I brought is all wrong. I am off to find one now...much love to all...:)

I am a Tough Mudder!

After 3 days in Atlanta, I am headed back to Sacramento for the last time before my trip to New Zealand, having accomplished the last of my "time off" goals: with the help of a great team, I competed in and completed Georgia's Tough Mudder race on Saturday!!! Over thirteen miles of mud running, obstacles, and straight forward HELL! I can't even sugar coat this--I am so happy that all of the people I tried to talk into this refused my offer, otherwise I would feel great guilt for their pain...The race started off normally, about 100 racers in our heat taking off after the national anthem, trotting through the woods, smiling, joking, anticipating. Then we hit our first obstacle, a cold river we had to wade across twice--no biggy, invigorating. Next, crawling hands and knees through pipes partially submerged in water that the twisted course designers ADDED ICE CUBES TO! Did I mention it was only 55 degrees at that time? But the adrenaline was pumping and we were doing this thing. The next two miles were intermittent hills and obstacles, obstacles including crawling under barbed wire, a water filled smoke house, through mud under nets, climbing steep mud hills, and others I can't remember. Then started the endless miles (seven, i think) through the woods up and down steep trail hills with tight switchbacks, so steep that the 4x4 aid vehicles couldn't have traversed them. I passed many, including two twenty something guys in tutus (the doublemint twins were my favorites) and was passed by many, including a woman twenty years my senior. Somewhere in there was a log carry. My left knee started to protest at mile 7, And when I arrived at the log carry, none of my teammates was around to share the weight with. Not much I could do, I picked one up and shuffled the quarter mile mandated, then dropped it and hit the hills again. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to quit. After the woods was still four more miles of obstacles, including climbing over walls, greased monkey bars, smoke filled fire lined run, balance beam, a death march over more hills, and then a repeat of the first two mile loop, holy shit. After mile 10, I couldn't run anymore, my knee and hips hurt so badly. When we finally got to the last two challenges, I was so giddy to see the finish line, I didn't care anymore and certainly had no fear, which was good considering what these challenges were. First, run up a thirty foot platform (God, I hate heights), then jump in the freezing lake below and swim to the far shore. The key? Don't stop to think, something I seem to do well these days. ;). So I do this and come up for air after jumping in the lake. Problem. Water in my nose, and then in my mouth as the displaced lake water went in with my first breath. I kept trying to cough and clear my airway while paddling to stay above water, unsuccessfully. :(. Remember, this is the end of the race--I'm exhausted and this is not good. Finally, one of the lifeguards tosses me a rope and pulls me to shore. At that point, there was no macho part of me that would refuse that rope! I get to shore, and the finish line is right there...I just have to run through twenty feet of hanging electrical wire first! I am now shivering cold, starving, dehydrated, hit my wall three or four miles ago, so I just start to run, no thinking. After the first few shocks though I just froze in the midst of the wires, I couldn't take it anymore. "Go, go!" people shouted, and my last push got me across the finish. It was so demanding I just wanted to cry... It took me thirty minutes to stop shivering violently. Our entire team finished, including a team member who twisted his knee after mile one, our time just over four hours. We were later told that this was the toughest Tough Mudder yet. Part of me actually felt a sense of failure at the time because I did want to quit at the end and by then it was no longer fun for me. Today, I realize exactly what I accomplished, what fears I overcame, what pain I pushed through and I am proud to be a 37 year old Tough Mudder chic! And I was so glad to do it with such a great team--the people of "Kick A$$, Take Names" are the best! I am looking forward to sharing this experience with them again for the Tampa TM in December! That is if I can ever walk again--still a little gimpy today.;). For more details, "Like" Tough Mudder on Facebook and see the photos from the event. And call me if you are crazy enough to join us for the next one!!