After one week we were forced to move out of our motel room and into the hospital accommodation. This was simple to say the least. Situated in the hospital grounds in near proximity to a house for criminals/drug addicts that were being re-introduced into the community. Lighting was minimal so it had a kind of eerie atmosphere. It came with a shower less powerful than the stream of urine from a man with prostate problems and a nice layer of grime over everything...

We were reliably informed on arrival that the best way to find anything we want to buy is to look in the Eastland Trader. This is a small paper booklet that comes out every Wednesday with adverts submitted by locals for anything and everything you may want to buy/sell/trade (Gisborne residents do not seem to trust the internet). For those readers in Kent this is essentially a mini version of the Wealden Advertiser...except you have to pay for it, and it's very ...

With only four wards and 120 beds, which are rarely full, we knew that work life would be pretty different. It is a somewhat strange mixture of some aspects that are much more basic than what we were used to and others that are more advanced. For example, ultrasounds and CT scans when required will be done within two hours and that's with an apology for the delay, where in the UK you can wait a couple of days for these. In contrast, if you need any imaging or b...

Multiple people in Wellington, including the immigration officer, had warned us that Gisborne was 'pretty backwater'. Now I think this description is something you can only truly understand if you have been to Gisborne, but we'll try our best to describe what it's like. It's a fairly small town with a population of 46 000, a town centre that's one street in size and only a handful of buildings that are more than one storey high. Shops are generally open 9am-3pm...

The day had finally come to set off on our long awaited trip of a lifetime. Feeling very unprepared and having dumped the entire contents of our flat in Greg's parents front room we set off. We departed with a tearful goodbye at the airport from Anne (Greg's mum) and some good pieces of advice from friends and family including 'you can do it!' on a tin of mints and 'say yes to everything'. Along with this we received a useful kiwi pronunciation guide from our f...