April 19 - Brook - Today was our last day of individual vocational experience. It sounds like all of our indivual experiences were outstanding today. I went with a area manager for ProCare a Public Health Organization (PHO) to a Maori based primary health clinic at a Marae called Nga Hau e Wha. This turned out to be a great experience for me. I spent time with both the public health nurse and then the doctor while they assessed patients. This highlighted some of the struggles and triumphs of delivering health care in a primary setting to the Maori people. I found that I could identify with many of these issues as they are similar to what I experience in my practice.

While assessing patients with the doctor there was a large commotion going on outside the Marae. I was called outside by the manager. There happened to be a rather large movie being shot outside and the Maori welcome scene with a very popular New Zealand actor was just being shot. The movie is called Mt Zion and is about a Maori singing group that wants to headline for Bob Marley. We watched and were "quite on the set" while the actor was performing the typical Maori warrior dance and welcome ceremony. After this I was walking on the grounds and was interested in the Hangi that was just about about done. I started chatting with the Maori men who were digging there. A Hangi is the traditional Maori way of cooking a feast in a underground or earth oven with a fire set then rocks, food in baskets, then blankets soaked in water, finally the whole thing is covered again with earth for 5-6 hours as things slowly cook. I was invited to have some of the Hangi with them! Wow, it was quite an experience watching them uncover and dig out food for about 300 people. They had filmed the creation of the Hangi earlier in the day and now they were using it to feed the cast and crew of the movie.

Later that night the Hunters took me up the Sky Tower in Auckland. We had a lovely look at Auckland in the setting sun. Afterwards we went out for dinner in the Viaduct area. It was a yummy dinner and the first time I have ever had Tuna that wasn't from a can!!