Auckland!!! So at the end of our hospital stint, we headed to Auckland for a week with a trip to the bay of islands in the middle. Day 1 it poured down all day but that didn't stop us. We trekked and trekked round and took in the sights and sounds including the main shopping st (always an essential to suss out), the hospital, the domain which is a giant park home to the Wintergardens and the Auckland museum, Newmarket with yet more shops, Parnell (posh litt...

We headed up north (very) early friday morning and arrived in Pahihia by lunchtime. Saw some genetically modified pink sheep on the way up! Wouldn't lose them easily come sun or snow! Pahihia itself is a small town that mainly serves as a stop for tourists so is pretty quiet at this time of year. We headed over to Russell on the ferry in the afternoon. The coastline is beautiful and the sun was shining which is always a great start. Russell is actually part o...

I don't really have a lot of exciting news but I just thought I'd write a quick update for those of you I've not spoken too, so you know I'm still alive! I've now finished in Nelson hospital and although they were really lovely, I'm glad to have finished. Loads of surgeries kept getting cancelled and other than practice all the new skills I've acquired, there weren't really many more new skills that I could practice, without it being a bit too unsafe for the p...

You always know you're going to have a good weekend away when you get to sit next to a team of ice hockey players on the plane. Well it's probably not happened to many people but Tess and I reckoned it was a good start to the weekend. Friday We arrived in Queenstown and headed straight out to explore! Queenstown is like a little European ski village with loads of shops, cafes, bars and restaurants but you can walk from one side of the "city" to the other in a...

Abel Tasman and Nelson I've failed quite spectacularly to keep things up to date over the past week and now it's hard to remember what i've actually been doing with my life! Saturday (25th June) we spent the day in Nelson - went to the local market in the morning which sells lots of jewellery, clothing, preserves and not much fruit/veg. We tried one of the wraps recommended to us by one of the anaesthetists. I had a Turkish chicken wrap which was absolutely m...