A few photos from the past week...

This is a marine reserve about 15 min. north of Gisborne.  We went exploring around the beach the other day, but it was COLD so we didn't stay too long.

Picture of the family at the reserve

The other day is was warm enough that the boys actually got their feet wet at the beach.

The boys cheesing for the camera on our walk the other morning.

The wharf at Tolaga Bay (about an hour north of Gisborne).  It's 660 meters long.

Brad and the boys heading on the long trek to the end of the wharf.

New Zealanders are the Nicest People!

We have been so fortunate to meet some really nice people over the past two and a half weeks. Of course, like I've mentioned before, the people at Brad's clinic always seem to have something new (and interesting, at times) to send home with him. Case in point, the items in the picture to the right. These are tamarillos, a type of fruit grown here in New Zealand.  Now, I'm not sure how to explain them exactly...Brad likened them to a flavorless peach.  At least they are the consistency of a peach, but with a lot of seeds, similar to a pomegranate. Needless to say, they weren't the tastiest fruit I've ever had, but it's always fun to try something new.  These along with all of the kiwis and oranges have been much appreciated here in our household.

Then, the other day we were at the laundromat drying some laundry (they don't use dryers here, and our clothes line is on the south side of our house...imagine trying to dry your laundry on the north side of your house, in the shade, during winter, let's just say, our laundry doesn't get dry, even if it's outside first thing in the morning and stays there until it gets dark).  So anyway, I digress, we were at the laundromat and a man was there doing his laundry, and when we left he went out to his car and brought back a bottle of wine for us.  He said he worked at one of the local wineries and wanted to know if we would be interested in trying their Sauvignon Blanc, so of course we said "yes".  Not to bad for a trip to the laundromat!

And finally, this past Tuesday we went swimming at an indoor pool here in town.  We were getting ready to leave, when a woman came in with her daughter.  She started to get her daughter, who looked to be about four years old, into a wetsuit.  Since we had been toying with the idea of getting the boys wetsuits, Brad went up to her and asked where she got hers.  The lady then reached into her bag and pulled out another wetsuit, "Here," she said, "take this one, we don't use it anymore, and I was going to give it away, anyways."  We couldn't believe our luck.  So, if you've heard in the past that New Zealanders are a kind and generous people, we are here to tell you this is nothing but the truth.

The Puhi Kaiti Hauora Community Health Centre

This is where Brad spends his days here in Gisborne, the Puhi Kaiti Hauora Community Health Centre.  He works with four other physicians and will be joined by a fifth in October when another locum from Minnesota is scheduled to arrive.  He is looking forward to this since he'll finally be able to understand someone here.  Now many of you are probably wondering why he is having difficulty in this area since New Zealanders speak English, but as many of you know, he needs to be spoken to loudly and slowly, and the ladies in the clinic like to speak quickly.  And that along with the accent is just too much for him.

He came home today saying that he noticed that the nurses and patients kept laughing at him during the exams.  When he finally asked what was so funny, the nurse said it was so "cute" (her explicative) how he says "pee" instead of "piss" all the time.  I'm sure he'll learn the vernacular soon enough, but in the meantime it'll give the staff at the clinic something to laugh about.

Our Trip to Mahia Peninsula

A few weekends ago we took a short road trip about an hour south of Gisborne to the Mahia Peninsula.  There's not a lot there, we found out, other than some really nice beaches,a lot of sheep (of course), and a small town that seemed pretty deserted (looked like a lot of "holiday" homes).  We were able to get out and see a few of the beaches and enjoy a small lunch we had packed despite the dreary weather.  These first four pictures are from a black sand beach we drove by that looked too pretty to pass up (despite the steep slope we had to traverse to get to it):

A view of the pasture overlooking the beach

These next few pictures are from Mahia Beach:

"check out these guns"

Harrison climbing up the sand dunes

 

Jonathan hiding in the grass

Brad & Jonathan watching the waves roll in

A Bit About Gisborne...

This is a view of Midway Beach (close to where we live) and downtown Gisborne and the Taranganui River.   Gisborne is located on the East coast of the North Island of New Zealand.  The city itself has a population of around 30,000, and is one of the sunniest and warmest places in New Zealand, with average temperatures in the summer in the 80's, and 50's and 60's in the winter.  It is also the first city in the world to see the sun each day.

The area around Gisborne is very agricultural. They grow a lot of citrus fruits, kiwis and grapes.  The people in Brad's clinic bring oranges and kiwis for him almost everyday, so we've been enjoying that immensely!  In addition to all of the produce, there are about a million sheep within a two-mile radius of the city (and within!)...okay, maybe not quite that many, but there are a lot.  And let me tell you, these sheep have million dollar views.  They literally graze right up until their grass turns into the beach!

This past Saturday, after a morning of checking out the local garage sales, we went and hiked around the Titirangi Reserve (which is where these pictures are taken from).  It's a hill with walking trails, a playground, and great views!  This area is also close to where Brad's clinic is located (more on the clinic later...I'll let Brad cover that).   Overall, it seems to be a great place to live for a while and we're looking forward to being here for the next year.

Our New Home

Our House

The boys at Midway Beach

Midway Beach

We arrived in Auckland at 5:00 in the morning on the 12th of August after 23 hours of traveling.  After a gut-wrenching drive (through rush-hour traffic, on the left hand side of the road, with a tired Brad driving...) we arrived at our hotel.  Luckily they let us check in to our room early.  We spent the day relaxing and swimming in the hotel pool.  It was raining out, so we didn't get out to see the city much.

That evening, Brad and I did everything possible to keep the kids up until 7:30, at which time we finally gave up and let them go to sleep.  Around 3:00 in the a.m.  I heard a small voice call to me from the other bed "mom, I'm hungry and can't sleep anymore",  "me, too"  chimed in another voice.  Then to my left I heard a much lower voice agree with the first two.  So, the three of them got up, ate left-over pizza and watched TV, and I rolled over, put a pillow over my head and slept quite soundly until morning.

Wednesday, Brad had a meeting with a lady in Auckland to make sure all of his papers were in order and he could go ahead a practice medicine (legally) here.  After his meeting we boarded another airplane (quite small...only twenty seats total!) and flew to Gisborne.  The office manager from the clinic met us at the airport and took us to our house, where we found homemade soup in the fridge and fresh fruit and flowers on the table, not too shabby!

Brad didn't start work until the following Monday so we spent the next few days getting settled in and exploring the area.

The following video clips are a tour of our house.  WARNING:  You may want to turn your volume down to avoid hearing an extremely whiny child in the background:

We are a couple of blocks from the beach.  The closest beach to us is Midway beach, and Brad is itching to get out and try his hand at surfing again (maybe if you're lucky, we'll post a picture of him in his new wetsuit...quite a treat!).  The boys enjoy running around on the beach collecting shells and trying to see how close to the waves they can get without getting wet, as well as finding all sorts of other treasures, which usually cause Brad and me to say "drop that right now, that's trash!".  

Hello from Brad

It is Sunday after my first week of work.  We are still getting this blog thing set up, so hopefully we will get some pictures on it and what not.  It is kind of raining and crappy out today, so maybe we will get some work done on it today.  So far things are going great.  The trip over here wasn't bad at all.  Our house is really nice.  It is just a five minute walk down to a really nice beach.  Everyone here is complaining how cold it is right now.  There has been frost on the car in the morning a few times, but it has got up to 60 everyday.  Spring should be starting soon.  

Work has been going really well so far.  I roll in around 9:00 and haven't stayed past 5:20 yet, which is really good for all of my non-medical friends out there.  I haven't done a call yet, so we will see how that goes.  It is pretty old school here.  I have my one little room with all my stuff in it.  I room my patients my self and take their vitals.  About half my patients have been kids and about 75% have been Maori, so that has been fun.  

We have been communicating on Skype now that we got our internet set up.  Everyone needs to get an account.  It is free.