Hi everyone! Well I finally arrived in Wellington safe and sound after a very long flight. I didn't think I would be able to cope with it but once I was on the plane I realised that I didn't have much choice so got on with it! It was strange though because as we flew to LA we were chasing the daylight round and so there was no sleeping for me when there were interesting things to look out on to. I saw a very impressive glacier over Greenland and some amazing mountains over North America. Sleeping was also difficult when there is the possibility that if you do doze you may miss the food, not an option for me! Last reason for not sleeping was the man in his 60's sitting next to me who was 'a bit of a drinker' and kept bringing drinks back for me and the Scottish girl beside us every time he got one, hard life, well it is after the amount of sparkling shiraz Dan, my folks and I had the night before!! The stop at LA was uneventful and we spent most of it queuing for security checks which wasn't the best for my weary legs. We got to Auckland early on the 2nd September where the majority of my flight finished and met their friends and family waiting at arrivals, not me though (sob), I had another flight in order to get to Wellington. This flight was on a 737 and it made me realise how I had developed a dislike to flying because compared to the bigger planes, you can feel everything; needless to say the approach to windy Wellington was quite hairy!! I got a taxi to the hostel on the Wellington hospital site which was far from luxurious but would do the job. It is a strange place with a real mix of characters. There are about 30 rooms on my floor, 7 floors up. There are a lot of hospital staff; cleaners, porters, nursing staff, doctors and then there are people that live here because it's cheap. There are also patients that live here too which I find a bit strange. Although it wasn't the Ritz I was so pleased to see my room with a bed in it when I arrived. I was meant to have a few hours sleep to refresh myself before starting to explore the area, however, this turned into 18 hours, oops! Needless to say I was wide awake at midnight last night, perfect if I was still in England, but I wasn't, so I had a cuppa which sorted me out for a further few hours sleep. Feeling refreshed and ready to meet people I got up at 7 and kept pacing the corridor in the hope I would meet someone.....nothing! So having not eaten for 30 hours I went to the local supermarket where I spent 2 hours trying to work out what to buy and ended up with a load of random stuff that only to a jet lagged person could possibly make a meal! I got back to find Ric up and around (he's on my course in Exeter, a familiar face!) he'd been touring the North and South island for a month and so is able to give me inside knowledge of where to go if I get some free time over the next 8 weeks. It was seeing a familiar face that stopped the irrational emotions from totally taking over my rational self(!) which I was pleased about as it was starting to get embarrassing! So now with a fellow buddy to explore with I was much happier, we went to the internet café with our laptops to catch up with what was going on, except that my credit ran out and so I lost all that I had written in my journal and so what you are seeing is the 2nd (and more concise!!) edition, very frustrating, such a schoolboy error not to copy-paste! We then went to have a little look around Te Papa which is the museum of New Zealand in Wellington which was awesome. I will need to go back and look at it again because the exhibits appeared to be spinning during most of it, jet lag is such a strange phenomenon which I never understood until now! The museum had some amazing displays that spoke of New Zealand's history, wildlife, climate, culture, people....you could spend days in there! Plus there were some gorgeous views over the harbour from the roof, if only I had remembered to take my camera!! I'm back in my room now thinking about whether to sleep or read in preparation for my placement in A&E tomorrow. I am quite nervous about it but am sure that it'll be fine. I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you for the messages and emails, it's lovely to read them as I think about everyone a lot. Keep me updated with where you all are and what you are doing. Lots of hugs and kisses x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x