I was due to start the working part of this trip on Monday 11th. Kate, Rod and I met early and headed up to the university. Unfortunately(!) my MRSA swabs had not come back, so there was no way they were letting me set foot in the hospital. Obviously I was devestated at the fact that i’d have at least an extra day exploring.
I took the $1.60 Link bus back from the Uni, the long way round back to my accommodation. This gave me a chance to see more of K’Rd, Ponsonby and Victoria Park.
Before returning to my room I hit Foodtown, the NZ equivalent of Tesco. However unlike Tesco, the fruit and veg were amazing. Not only a huge selection of familiar as well as distinctly odd fruit and veges, but it was so fresh. The tomatoes were bright red and smelt amazing, the spinach looked like it had been on steroids and no one told me peppers were called capsicum out here.
There was also a huge selection of oriental foods, due to the massive asian population in Auckland. Otherwise a lot was the same, they had a value range and an own brand range, they even had Cadbury chocolate. In no way does Cadbury chocolate taste the same here as it does in the UK. Slightly cheesey!
After dumping my food shop at my room I spent the rest of the day exploring. When I got home and met up with Kate and Rob, I was surprised to here that Alex Bolton, another (non medic) uni friend was in town for one night only. So after a quick cahnge and some food we headed out for a few pints in a backpackers bar. Despite some huffy pub quizzers, we had a great night. Alex and co. had been here for a month, most of which was spent on the ‘Kiwi Experience’ backpackers bus. It sounded amazing and definitely inspired me for when I go travelling. But more of that later! We said goodbye and headede home in good spirits. Still no word of my MRSA results so it looked like another free day! Dash and darn!
A fairly early start, plenty to do. Straight into town to buy my NZ sim card and have my phone unblocked. It was whilst waiting for this that I decided to grab some lunch and I had my first NZ pie experience. It took place in the aptly named Piemania. It has an endless menu of award winning pies but I decided to play it safer with steak and blue cheese. It was fantastic, I can certainly see where the NZ childhood obesity crisis stems from. Will definitely be back, maybe bacon and egg or tandoori chicken!!!!
By this stage my phone was ready. Pointless though as it was now 2am in the UK so I had no-one to call. I had also plundered the Sky Tower I-site for al the info they had onbackpacker bus tours. Big fan of the I-sites, thanks for the tip Irene and Dave.
Then headed to Victoria park market for a mooch around shops. Plenty of junkie jewellery, huge amounts of sheeps wool products and even a shop that sells crocs. Amazingly I managed to stave off temptation and noot buy anything.
It was a while later, whilst checking my emails that I realised my MRSA results had been faxed through. Oh well I guess I’m strarting work tomorrow!
An early start and I headed to the Med school. Admin sorted and a brief tou of the Obs and Gynae department. We called my supervisor, who was working in Hamilton (1 hour south of Auckland) but he had me redirected to his private clinic, the Auckland Obstetric Clinic (AOC).
The clinic is amazing, very swanky and the staff are fab. Lynda, who was looking after me, was a scream and she even bought me lunch, which puts her straight into my good books. I think I may also have found sveral ‘mummies’ in the reception staff. I was plied with many cups of coffee and biscuits. Brilliant!
That evening was spent finalising my plans for the second half of my trip. Plenty of reading, research and discussion.
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