The Intersection of Food and Medicine

So a sentimental post as we prepare to leave a place that has been so home-like for the last 9 months...

We are so accustomed to having medical people tell us what not to eat.  Anything that tastes good is probably in someway bad for you, or so it seems somehow.  I try, and I think a lot of doctors do, to actually not tell people what not to eat, because life has to be worth living if you are going to live longer for it, but the "Western Diet" is pretty terrible and there is actually a lot that probably shouldn't be eaten or drunk or whatever.   However, though that is the first relationship between food and medicine that springs to mind, as I spend a fair bit of my time being the bad guy and saying what not to eat (I really do try to not be that guy), that is not the relationship that is on my mind tonight.  Tonight is for something far better than that. 

As some people know, Z and I are food critics extrordinaires (at least in our own minds), and have a another, though recently neglected blog about our sushi eating adventures (what can I say, NZ has crappy sushi).  And I have previously written about the non-nutritional significance that food holds.  Z and I are big fans of Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire).  There are recurring themes in his books about the communal, emotional, and even spiritual nature of food, particularly in In Defense of Food, though he definitely got a bit preachy in that one.  And it's true, food is definitely far more important that the calories and nutrients that it bring into our bodies.  So much of our lives, individually, and culture, as a collective, is occupied by food and the rituals that we build around it.  In medicine, more particular to my own situation, food is so often symbolic to people of life, vitality, and happiness.  One of the hardest things that there is for families to deal with, is when a loved one becomes so sick that they can't even eat...when, as part of the natural dying process, the body stops accepting or wanting food.  Food is so intrinsic to the human condition, that to see a love one not eating is almost to see them as not a person anymore, as already dead.  On the happier side, and on the side that is on my mind tonight, food is also quite often a gift.  And, despite often being that guy who tells people what not to eat, patients, not infrequently, bring me food (or as the case may be, alcohol...that's right Mom and Dad, you should probably stop reading about now). 

I mean, of course, come the holidays, there are lots of chocolates, etc... that show up at doctors' offices, like everywhere else.  And we quite often, as a hospital, have gracious patients send in sweets (you see, it is always the thing the we tell people not to eat that they send in...we can only assume because they are getting rid of those things at home) or something else nice, as a thank you.  But what I'm referring to, in particular, is the gifts that have been given to me by my patients.  I have never received a non-food gift.  It is always food.  And it is such a profound things.  This week, particularly, has been beneficial to my gastrointestinal tract, but I can remember each and every patient that this has happened with.

The first time that I ever received a gift from a patient, was a Christmas bottle of homemade wine from a patient while I was working as a medical assistant prior to medical school.  I had really done nothing to warrant a gift.  The wine was terrible (and my brother got mad at me for bring this gift home to my parents' house, which is always alcohol-free...though I'm not sure what else I was suppose to do with it).  But I can still remember that person who gave it to me.

The first time that I actually had taken care of a patient who gave me something, was an incredibly sick patient with leukemia, who battled his way though a gut-wrenching couple of week of chemo and post-chemo illness.  I was his intern...or became his intern, anyway.  He and his wife made their own wine...had the grapes grown for them in California, I think, and imported so that they could juice them, barrel them, ferment, and mix them.  He struggled so hard through those weeks, to get back to many things, wine-making being one of them...and that they shared a bottle of the passions of their labor with me, was so meaningful.  Unfortunately, they made Merlots, which I still haven't acquired a taste for, but I enjoyed every drop of it shared that same night with our friends Anh and Andrew in their home in Boston.  The patient made it through:-)

Another patient who I had the true privilege of sharing a difficult portion of his life with, had a brother who owned a fantastic little Asian restaurant.  We were just going to check it out (we are foodies after all), but on finding out that we were there, we had food lavished upon us in such abundance that we could not think to eat it all.  And though we tried to get the waiter to bring us a bill, it was not allowed by the brother.  It was a truly profound experience. 

This last couple of weeks, though, has truly been special.  A patient that I had previously seen in the hospital, and who had been so afraid that, because of their new condition, I was going to tell them they had to stop drinking wine (they only drank it occasionally, but they enjoyed it very much), and had been so overjoyed when I told her it was fine to drink that she had brought me in a bottle of wine then, was randomly at the hospital on my birthday last week, and found out it was my birthday (maybe it was the subtle "Happy Birthday" banner the nurses had strung across my office); she went home and brought me another bottle of wine (tell me that is not the most complex sentence you've ever read). 

On top of that, I had recently run into the head cook at our favorite pub, Howl at the Moon, in a work related capacity.  As some of you know, every Friday night since we've arrive in Gore has been pie night at The Moon.  Savory pies are AWESOME and clearly lacking from the standard American diet.  So nearly every Friday, we've gone to Howl at the Moon to eat pie...it is a ritual...or was until the menu changed about 2 months ago, much to my despair.  However, after discussing this problem with the head chef, pie magically appear in the freezer at The Moon...not on the menu, but waiting for Z and I to arrive and order them tonight.  FANTASTIC.  This on the same day that another patient, who has been distilling his own liquor for 15 years, brought me in a bottle of his moonshine...well, he's not blind and still has functioning kidneys, so it must be safe to drink, right?  We'll see, perhaps. 

So tonight, I sit home, typing a new blog entry with a belly full of pie, contented with life (I haven't worked up the nerve, though, to do more than sniff the whiskey).  I am blessed to work such a great job with such great people.  It reminds me that the job, just like food, is not just about trying to make people live, but letting them live well.

L'chaim!  To Life!

There and Back Again

Where to begin?

Well, Paul's parents came over to New Zealand to visit (or to have an awesome vacation in the country where their relatives happen to live as well:-p).  We saw Milford Sound again, Glowworms, acted as Southland tour guides, and then we took some time off as well and finally visited THE NORTH ISLAND.

Things are a little different on the North Island.  Instead of just kind of wandering around and finding beautiful things to look at, like we spend much of our time doing here, you tend to have to pay to see things, up North.  Beautiful things.  Things worth seeing.  But expensive things. 

We started out our trek, catching up to Paul's parent who drove our car all the way up the South Island and took the ferry across the straight.  We flew up the next day and met in Wellington.  Wellington is a city full of art and culture, famous for its interesting architecture and sculpture.  As well as being the capital of New Zealand (no, Auckland is not the capital), it is definitely the cultural center of the country as well, complete with a burgeoning film industry.  Our first stop in Wellington was Cuba street, which despite its name is a center of hippie-dom.  We hit the jackpot, finding street musicians and other dread-locked individuals.  Mmmmm...granola.  But the true reason we stayed in this city, was for the LORD OF THE RINGS tour.  Yay!


We started our tour off by mounting Aragorn...oh, I mean we got into a van called Aragorn.  Freudian slip on Paul's part there...awkward...  Anywho, Nathan, was our trusty tour guide, who, in his own mind, was a famous movie star (he was a background WARRIOR elf who held a flag in the Two Towers...and he held it straight!  Or so he says [don't see any Nathan in the credits]).  Anywho...he did know a lot of LOTR's trivia, which was cool.  We first went for a view of Wellington from Mt. Victoria.  Nothing to do with LOTR, but a cool view of the city, which is kind of like if San Francisco was the size of Grand Rapids.  We saw Miramar Pennisula, which is the Hollywood of New Zealand, where Weta Studio and Peter Jackson and so on and so forth are.  We next travelled to Mt Victoria park...a small strip of trees that runs through a section of the city...where a surprisingly large number of forest scene were shot, including the one where the hobbits find mushrooms and have to hide from the black rider on several occasions in the first movie (the famous scene of the 4 hobbits all huddled under the roots of a tree).  From there we travelled to a variety of different locations in the Wellington-area, including Rivendell (a park outside Wellington), Helm's Deep/Minas Tirith (a local stone quarry), and Isengard (another local park).  Best of all...pictures with elf ears on!  Bring on the dorkfest!  Hehehe.  The tour was worthwhile because most of the scene would take a lot of imagination to recreate on your own.  Peter Jackson used a lot of CGI and layering of scenes (Rivendell was also shot in Milford Sound to get background waterfalls).

After dorking it out, we went further North to our homebase for the next week in Turangi.  From here, we headed out for a broad variety of daytrips.

Our first venture out was to Taupo, a tourist trap a little North of Turangi.  After appropriately shelling out money for everything, we were able to "walk on the moon" at Craters of the Moon, a geothermal wonderland (one of many...), visit Lava Glass Gallery to look at  beautiful but VERY expensive glass art and eat AWESOME chocolate brownies (the first of many brownies to be eaten there), see Huka Falls (Huka means foamy, and Huka falls was a mass of blue bubbling magic), and visit the Huka Honey Hive where Manuka Honey (oddly believed by many New Zealanders to have nearly magical properties) is sold by the gallons.  Awesome. 

The true highlight of the day, however, was Wairakei Terrances for a traditional Maori experience.  Paul thought that this would probably be fairly cheesy, as these things tend to go, but he was very wrong.  First off, a chief was nominated from our group to represent our international tribe...it was Paul's dad.  Chief Bill was to lead us into the Maori village, answering their challange, making speeches on our behalf, and hopefully avoiding us being massacred and eaten.  He also had to dance, in front of everybody.  LOL!  Joking aside, this was a very informative experience with people who genuinely seemed to want to introduce us to their culture, which is rich and beautiful.  We had a tradtional hangi feast, which involved foods cooked under a large pile of earth and wood.  Zhiling thought it was delicious.  They entertained and educated us while we ate, even performing the war haka, which was pretty impressive.  Chief Bill also had to perform this, which was...not as impressive.  But, it was effective, as we nearly all died of laughter.  Good effort though...better than we could have done.  We would definitely recommend this particular tour to anyone. 

We had a subsequent cultural experience down the road at Te Puia in Rotorua, which had another beautiful geothermal area, but was a pretty standard cultural lecture.  On the plus side, Te Puia has Kiwis!  Though we weren't allowed to take pictures (as we weren't allowed to of any captive kiwis, as they are nocturnal).  We did get to see the wood carving school and weaving school, which were pretty cool. 

A little further away than Rotorua, we went to Matamata, which is better known as Hobbiton.  This is town where Peter Jackson turned a local farm into a genuine hobbit village.  It was AWESOME.  The farm itself was originally picked because of the well-placed tree near a pond, now famous as the Party Tree.  It also had the advantage of lacking any cityviews in a 360 degree radius.  The attention to detail was astounding  There were loads of oversized vegetables - purposefully grown to make the hobbits look smaller, miniture chimneys attached to hilltops, well-worn roads, mold made of sawdust and yogurt to make the fences look old, and even an entirely fake oak tree planted on top of Bag End to fit Tolkien's exact description of the house.  However, you can't see it, as we had to sign a legal document stating that we would not post pictures until at least 2013 after the second of the Hobbit films comes out, as it is still being used as a movie set.  If we did show you pictures, Peter Jackson would lock us in a New Zealand jail.   Zhiling has depicted Paul as a hobbit to the right.  The tour was definitely worth it and we apparently came at just the right time.  Prior to this year, the tour had consisted of looking at the hills with some plywood sets and images to show "what it looked like".  However, with the new films in production, it was exactly the same as the movie...and should be staying that way.  We also came at the perfect time that day as there were only about 10 people on the whole tour!

From there, we actually did some more of what we would typically do on the South Island, we found nature walks.  Tongariro Park was just down the road, and we spent the day tromping about the park that surrounds Mt. Doom.  It was a day full of waterfalls (Taranaki, Tawhai, Waitonga).  We trekked quite far to get back to Waitonga, and on arriving there to a beautiful waterfall, Paul's dad spent all his time taking pictures of a 10-15 foot tall like falls off to the side (seen to the left)...odd behavior.  He thought it was the most beautiful waterfall he had ever seen, even the pinnacle of his New Zealand experience...very odd behavior.  It was alright...

We subsequently returned to Huka Falls, this time by boat.  It was, once again, a mass of blue bubbling magic, but by boat this time.  We went with a river cruise, while Jetboats screamed by us, ignoring the beautiful wild life (birds) in favor of a rollercoaster experience.  WE saw the kingfishers and black swans:-)  Just a side note...black swans are actually hunted in New Zealand, as they are a pest with no natural predators there.  Hmmm.

On our final day on the North Island we returned to Wellington after stopping on the road on the way to look at sheepskin rugs and such.  In Wellington, we made our way to Miramar Pennisula where we got to encounter the magical mystery that is Weta Caves.  This is a small museum and store showcasing many movie props and novelties, including from such films as: LOTR's, Avatar, Tin Tin, Meet the Feebles (awesome), District 9, The Frighteners, The Narnia series, King Kong, The Last Samurai, etc..  (that's right, New Zealand is going to eventually displace Hollywood).  There were several lifesize models, including Lurtz, Gollum, and Sauron's armour.  There were also a broad variety of exquisite art collectibles made by the original artists.  Cool.

We finally left the North Island and returned to the better island;-)  We may be biased.

We decided to drive down the West Coast, as we hadn't previously been there.  We arrived in the Greymouth late Sunday evening, after Paul made his parents ill by driving quickly around a curvy road though the mountains.  The West Coast remains largely unexplored by us, as we didn't have a lot of time, but we did get to go to Hokitika to peruse the jade stores, and wander out to the Hokitika Gorge to see brilliant blue waters (somewhat clouded by the masses of sandflies).  As well, we visited the National Kiwi Centre, to see some kiwis in action...or more like sleeping.  But besides kiwis, there are also a lot of other cool creatures there, like Axolotls, Wetas, Lobsters, Turtles, and a giant pool of Longfin Eels, up to 100 years old and scary long.  We got to feed them...people.  not really, but we did get to feed strips of beef to them and watch them swarm towards the feeding hand.  Gross.

We also went North along the coastal drive to Punakaiki to see the "pancake rocks", an interesting geologic formation in limestone that is very thinly layered and not quite explainable.  And on the way home, we briefly stopped to see Franz Josef Glacier, which was pretty cool.  We'll be back (the Wild Foods Festival is coming up next month...).

Despite what Paul's parents say, Paul and Zhiling did NOT get sick of them:-)  Though the beef content of our diet did rise dramatically during their stay.  We've eaten nothing but vegetables since they left and we're still constipated:-)
















New Zealand Travel Tip #9: Even white guys can do the Haka (people just die of laughter instead of fear...sorry Dad). 

Ringing in the New Years, New Zealand Style

Keeping with the Harry Potter theme from our last entry, P and Z decided to have a Harry Potter movie marathon.  We stayed at home during Christmas and rented all eight movies at our local video store..but why stop there?  We decided to have an all out Very Harry Potter Christmas, complete with costumes (Paul was Voldemort, in a black hoodie; Zhiling was Harry Potter), Zhiling's homemade butterbeer, Paul's fire-whiskey, penlights for wands, and a proper British meal to eat (Cornish pasties).  Basically, it was a nerdfest.  We lit up the Christmas tree (generously provided off of one of the nurse's farms) and set up camp next to the television.  We meant to start out early on Saturday with the Sorcerer's Stone (or Philosopher's Stone, in countries outside of the US)...but we got a little impatient and started on Wednesday or Thursday instead...  Nonetheless, the marathon proceded to encompass all of Saturday, in a mind-numbing blitz of teenage angst and magic, and into Sunday, finishing the series with the second half of "The Deathly Hallows"...oh Snape, you were so wronged in life...  So we finished up earlier on Sunday than we anticipated and spent the day wandering about Gore taking pictures as the Southern Hemisphere is quite in the middle of Summer during Christmas.


For our holiday weekend, we decided to go back to the Caitlins.  We were in search of hector dolphins and penguins again.  We drove out to Cathedral Caverns to see large caves next to the beach.  We had to go at a particular time due to the rising and falling of the tide, as the ocean water would completely fill these caverns at high tide.  Paul got some very nice photos, which necessitated patiently waiting for Japanese tourists to get out of his frame of view to get a full shot of the cavern walls.  The caverns are well worthwhile and beautiful.  We felt like there should have been pirate treasure in the back.

From there we went to Kaka point (no laughing) but did not see any penguins there after wandering around on some rocks for about half and hour.  So we returned to the reliable Curio Bay.  It was about early evening by the time we reached the petrified beach.  And there standing before us in the distance was a lone yellow-eyed penguin. And he just stood there quite contented, obviously not feeling the need to entertain.  We stared at the penguin for quite a long while, then drove up to a hillside opposite of where we had been standing and watched several penguins come in from the sea!  We could also hear little penguins nearby squawking in the bushes.  Paul got several shots of little waddling blobs on the rocks.

After returning to Gore for a three day work week (for shame!).  We had ANOTHER holiday weekend for New Year's.   This time Paul actually had 3 days off so we were more adventuresome.  We decided to go camping out in Glenorchy, a small former mining village near Queenstown, where multiple scenes were used for Lord of the Rings.  On the way up, we decide to drive through wine country, which connects from Alexandra to Queenstown.  We visited several wineries, including Blackridge Winery, which boasts being the Southern most winery in the world (by their report).  Here, the owner, who clearly loves his product, gave us a private tasting and really sat and explained his wine to us, and how to appreciate the bountiful bouquet of smells and flavours of each wine.  Unusually, he made both a Reisling and a Cabernet Sauvignon (our favourites)...unusual because these are uncommon in New Zealand, which is more well known for its Pinot Noirs and Pinot Gris (which Paul does not typically enjoy).  From here, we hit up Como Villa, which a younger winery with an interesting atmosphere of various 1860's memorabilia from a broad variety of region in the world.  The wines were so-so, but did teach us the utility of well-chilling a white or rose wine.  We also got to crack some walnuts in a large, barrel-top nut cracker.  Yay!  The final alcohol-related destination, though we didn't really drink there, was the Gibbston Valley Winery, which is a fantastic restaurant with truly gourmet dining.  Paul had Red Snapper, perfectly prepared, and Zhiling experienced her first rabbit dish!  Probably shouldn't have read "Watership Down" before that...Hazel, you taste so good!  They also had a decent cheese platter (though, on a side note, New Zealand has pretty poor taste in cheeses, particularly for a country with so much dairy).  Mmmmm.  Cheese and wine.  Moooo..oooooooooo.  (That was a drunk cow).

We, however, did not get drunk and continued on to our final destination; as we had miles to go before we sleep (someone get that reference, please).  The road, as when we previously traveled to Queenstown, was amazingly beautiful and Lake Wakatipu, a gorgeous sapphire blue.  We stayed at Glenorchy Holiday Park.  The campsite was a bit different from a typical American campsite, filled with a myriad of international travelers, early 20-somethings in tents, and families in pop-up campers.  There was basically just room enought to set-up your tent and park your car.  We saw several people stumbling around, as they had started celebrating fairly early on New Year's Eve.   This carried on into the night with loud singing and shooting off store bought fireworks.  Paul and Zhiling hid in their tent in the meanwhile and played the flag game on Paul's cell phone.  To top it all off, no one actually knew exactly when the New Year's started, so we actually heard several countdowns, accompanied by loud celebratory screaming of Happy New Year's over a several minute period......As we drifted off to sleep after midnight, we were serenaded by people singing (drunkenly screaming... more so) Auld Lang Syne.  Happy 2012!


The next day, we escaped fairly early while the rest of the campers attempted to sleep off their hangovers.  The area around Glenorchy is glorious and riddled with dozens of different hikes in all shapes and sizes.  The previous evening we had taken a small detour while exploring the town, and walked around Glenorchy Lagoon, which was beautiful and home to several families of black swans.  However beautiful that was, it paled in comparison to the to our next hike toward Lake Rere.  This hike lasted about 5-6 hours and every minute was wonderful.  It was definitely Zhiling's favourite hike...not just since coming to NZ, but period.  There were fields of flowers, steep mountains, deep valleys, pristine mountain lakes, waterfalls, and a stunning blue, calm river to swim in.  There was also a dead sheep's skull...awesome.  We didn't follow the Greenstone Track up further to see more LOTR's film locations, but contented ourselves by throwing ourselves into the icy cold Greenstone River on a hot day.  Nice.  After we had fought our way back up the winding road, fording several creeks in our Toyota Corolla (who needs as 4x4, when you have a 4 cylinder Toyota), we decided to hike ANOTHER beautiful hike to Sylvan Lake.  Also fantastic.  Glenorchy was definitely worthwhile, and we will be returning as we still have to kayak.  We also have to return to see more LOTR's filming sites, as we only saw one at Twelve Mile Delta (where Sam first sees Oliphants).  Cool.

So now, after another long weekend (that's right, New Zealand has 2 days of public holidays after BOTH Christmas and New Years), we have to put in a terrible 4 day work week (3 for Zhiling) prior to our next weekend.  Then 1 more week of work and we're off for our next vacation.  Paul's parents are also arriving on Thursday, so this coming weekend should be fun...returning to Milford Sound and going to see the Glowworm Cavern!

See you soon:-)

New Zealand Travel Tip #8: When in a camp full of drunken tourists celebrating New Years, remember to synchronize watches!

Harry Potter and The Missing Lamb Scrotum

So, Paul finally caved and started to read to fabled "Harry Potter" series.  One and a half weeks in, and book number 5 is started.  As expected, we've decided what characters we would be...Zhiling would be Harry Potter, and Paul is Dumbledore. 

On that line of thought, the funniest thing that Zhiling seems to think has happened of late, is a joke that Paul made up after reading wayyyyyyyy too much Harry Potter.  Are you ready for it?...

"What did Harry Potter say when he walked into the bar?"

Answer to follow...

Anyway, back in the real world, we actually had been very busy until...well, a week and a half ago.  Zhiling has completed her Family Medicine Boards!!!

This adventure (in Hawaii, where all good adventure are) comes complete with angsty lay-overs, mini-vacations in Sydney, sunny beaches, and ridiculous surfer dudes (wayyyyy, dude).

Zhiling flew out of New Zealand, managing, perhaps, the worst flight schedule in history...an eight hour lay-over in Christchurch, followed by a 10 hour lay-over in Sydney.  Luckily, Laura, our friend, lives just outside Sydney and a transit visa, apparently, can be obtained at the last moment.  So Zhiling, at least, got to see a friendly face, spend some time in a house full of children, and escape from the airport instead of slouching in a chair for 10 hours.  After this, she flew to Hawaii, took her boards, met a surfer dude who rented her a bike, offered a free energy drink (that he wandered out of his unmanned shop in front of her to go get), and had to be reminded to collect her money...by Zhiling.  Zhiling also managed to swim in the ocean and ate REAL AMERICAN pizza prior to returning to New Zealand.

As Zhiling was returning home, Paul was leaving it.  Paul was given the opportunity to work at a hospital down the road where some of our friends work, to cover Tracey while her family came to visit.  The hospital down the road is...well, different.  The doctors are ALL Americans, and so it's a much more American enviroment to work in...unfortunately.  The doctors also do shifts, working without another doctor around, so you're truly by yourself, medically speaking.  It's also a far less happy place to work...the management definitely is not as in touch with the staff, which makes everyone much more angsty...ah, reminds me of medicine back in the States:-)  The last day there was Thanksgiving day, and the experience was a good way to remember that we should be thankful that we managed, with out first offer, to get great locum positions.

As for Thanksgiving, we had it on Friday...as that would be Thursday in the States, where it really matters.  Zhiling made a roast chicken, stuffing, shrimp and broccoli, green beans, and Paul made mashed potatos...w/ extra butter and 2 eggs in it (Andrei's secret recipe).  For dessert we had bread pudding...a very British dish, which, unfortunately, Paul knew, even prior to coming to NZ, that he did not like.  Zhiling thinks he's soooooo picky.

The next weekend, we finally saw some New Zealand wildlife.  We had previously gone to the Otago Pennisula a couple of months ago.  We saw NZ's only castle there, but only made it out to the Albatross Reserve late in the day, and didn't want to pay for a rushed tour.  This time, we got out there in the morning...and a very windy morning it was, indeed.  Perfect for Albratri...Albatrosses??...Albatrices?  Albatross.  Albatross love wind...just gliding on it.  They have a 3 meter (6 foot) wingspan and use it to float on a streams of air.  On the Northend of the Otago Pennisula happens to be the only mainland colony of Albatross in the world, and you can go and watch these magnificent birds soaring about.  You can also see them nesting on the ground all about you. 

Right down the road, you can also go to see other rare birds.  This time, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin.  A reserve that they have there, has an extensive trench system dug into the beach and surrounding hills so that tourists can stealthily meander amoung nests of birds on this reserved land.  We saw several penguins, mostly Juveniles, but some adults nesting.  However, the highlight was definitely a juvenile male that was very curious and wander into the trenches behind us.  Our paranoid guide, slowly, slowly let us work closer and closer to the bird to take pictures.  We eventually had to become more aggressive in order to make the penguin move out of the trench so that we could escape.  After escaping the trenches, we slow crept our way, off the trail, to avoid startling the stupid bird.  We then went further along, where we saw seals and Blue Penguins (the world smallest penguin), though the Blue Penguins are primarily noctural, so we only saw them in their nests.

This road trip was also exciting for us because Paul located a recycling facility while he was in Balclutha working.  So 3+ months of tin cans, plastic, paper, cardboard, and glass finally got taken out of our garage and recycled.  Thank goodness.

This last weekend, we had a more Southland focus weekend...even a another Southland experience, perhaps.  We started the weekend at the Southern Fete, a gathering of Southern Island arts, food, culture, and a LOT OF VENDORS.  We got Steampunk Earrings for Zhiling and tasty cheese for Paul.  We also finally had opportunity to hear The Heartleys, a New Zealand Country act (nominated for best new Country duo or group in 2010) composed of 2 fellow Gorites, including our own Kayla, one of the nurses at the hospital.  We got their autographs...oh yeah.  Paul also waited 40 minutes for a nasty satay chicken burger.  Mmmmm.  And Zhiling rubbed Emu oils on her hands, testing their magnificent claims of greatness...

After absorbing that much Southland culture, we decided to go all the way and returned to the Keri's sheep farm.  This time was not nearly so cute...

So newborn lambs are adorable.  And birthing new lambs is cute.  Tailing lambs, giving them Vitamin B12 injections, vaccinating them for scabbies [a flesh-rotting disease...seriously, we saw a nose fall off...not exaggerating...it fell off], and adding both an eartag and and ear-marker (clipping part of the eartip off) are not cute or adorable...  First, someone grabs a lamb (getting heavy by this point in the year) from a manure-filled, crowded pen where a mixture of lambs and ewes have been corraled.  They you place them, baaa'ing and kicking the whole time, onto their backs in a a rolling conveyer where they are injected, clipped, tailed (the males also have their scrotum bound with a tight rubberband, so it will fall off...

...sorry, I'm back...had to throw up after typing that), sprayed for scabies and pink-eye, and scratched with a live vaccine.  They are generally bleeding from somewhere by this point and you are covered with blood and sheep shit.  Mmmmm.  Paul also got to run around herding sheep and had to grab a poor little blind lamb that couldn't be herded and lost its way.  Now there's your cute for the day...if you forget about the blood, shit, and lost testicles.

...Sorry, had to go throw up again...

So now, we're back to work...almost like normal again (Victor has been away, and the hospital side of things is still a little off balance without him).  Dr. Basta and his wife, Margaret, who were our phone contacts regarding Gore prior to leaving the States, as they are from the US and have worked here prior, finally made it out to Gore again.  They seem pretty awesome.  They have worked back and forth between here and the States for awhile and seem to know EVERYTHING about NZ.  Bob also does vasectomies and is going to let us watch and learn...again with the surgical sterilization...  Bob doesn't seem to be as good at fixing garage doors, as Paul and him spent a fair bit of time trying to fix our dysfunctional door, but failed.  They did manage, however, to get it to open so at least we can park the car outside now and use it.  Success!


New Zealand Travel Tip #7: Use cold water and pre-washing to remove even the toughest lambs blood and sheep shit stains.

So...what did Harry Potter say when he walked into the bar?

The Answer: Expecto Corona!

Milford Trek and Sound: A Tale of Water and Gravity

Paul and Zhiling made another attempt at being One with nature.  We finally got a little holiday time during our stay at Gore.  We decided to take on one of the Great Walks of New Zealand.  Nestled within the World Heritage Site, known as the Fiordlands National Park, the Milford Trek is known to be the "Finest Walk in the World."  We started our trip out driving to Te Anau and picking up a bus that took us to Te Anau Downs where we caught a ferry to the beginning of the trek at Glade Wharf.  To go with the theme for the whole walk, it was already raining.  Zhiling kept singing the theme song to Gilligan's Island... "The weather started getting rough.  The tiny ship was tossed.  If it wasn't for the fearless crew, the tiny ship would be lost." 

The first part of the trek was the shortest day, as we only had 5km to go to reach Clinton Hut.  We saw some wetlands that day and moss-covered forest.  We also began taking pictures of waterfalls, as we were as of yet unaware that these waterfalls would be EVERYWHERE in the next couple days.  We settled in at Clinton and got to meet our fellow trekkers there.  They included 2 New Zealanders, 1 German, 1 Australian, another American couple, and 5 young American college students travelling as a group.  That evening we had a ranger talk by Ranger Ross, who instructed us on the many ways of the Fiordlands and why the evils stoats had to all die (for those of you who are unaware they are weasel-like creatures that were accidentally introduced to New Zealand and kill all the predator-naive flightless native birds).  He also talked to us about glow worms (but not Teddy Ruxpin...tell me that somebody gets this reference, please), which happened to have a small colony just a little further down the trek.  We subsequently went to visit the glow worms and they were as cool if not cooler then fireflies.  They looked like LED lights that were stuck in the dirt.   Up close they resembled something like rice vermicelli.  Mmmmm.

Day #2 on the trail became more realistic of what our experience was going to be like.  We were planning to average 14-15km a day to get to each hut.  Day #2 also began and ended with rain, with rain in the middle as well.  Good for waterfalls.  Bad for staying dry.  The waterfalls were splendiforous and plentiful.  We walked through the "plains" area which was surrounded by high mountains, and you could easily view a dozen, thousand-foot tall waterfalls cascading down around us in one view.  When we arrived at Mintaro Hut, luckily a couple trekkers were ahead of us and had already started the wood stove fire.  As hikers arrived we all began to collect our wet socks, and boots to dry around the fire.  Paul and I munched on sausage and cheese, along with some tuna on chappati for our evening meal.  Ranger "Catie Pie" discussed with us the upcoming weather warnings for the next day or two.  There seemed to be a moderate to high avalanche risk for the next day along the trek through the mountain pass. So, as it was, a helicopter ride was likely in our near future.

Day #3, waiting... and watching lots of rain fall from the sky.  We arose early (7:30am) so we could sit around and wait for news about our upcoming ascent of the mountain.  We spent a lot of time nerding it out with the other trekkers as we discussed various sci-fi films and LOTR characters in front of the wood stove.  Around 11am, we finally got word that they had arranged helicopters to take us to the peak of the mountain pass.  As we got into to the chopper, high winds were blowing all through Mackinnon Pass.  It tossed and turned our helicopter, and many were concerned about what a close view we were getting of the mountainside walls.  But we made it to the peak.  Our gear, however, did get rather saturated as it was hauled up in the final run by the helicopter and was actually air dropped to us at the top of the pass.  Downwards we went from there, having to tramp through a couple snowy passages.  Zhiling felt like the wind was going to blow her over the steep cliffs a couple times, so she held on dearly to her walking sticks.  Paul continued to romp down the mountains in goat-like fashion, until his right knee began to throb and make him want to die...   Besides that there were some beautiful scenery, with alpine flowers, moss covered trees, and plentiful mountain streams.  The streams indeed became quite rain-engorged, and there were many parts of the trail that involved basically plunging ankle deep into them and following them down their course.   Our wool socks (as well as the rest of us) certainly got soaked that day.  We finally staggered our way into Dumpling Hut and collapsed.  We did however get to see our first flightless bird, the Kea. 

 Day #4, we once again hurried up to wait, as we had been warned of HEAVY rain for the day...though certainly we felt like we had already been hiking through HEAVY rain for the last 3 days.  There had been pictures on the Department of Conservation (DOC) website about people having to wade through waist-deep waters at certain parts of the trail, and today could be one of those days.   Ranger Amanda seemed to delight in telling us that we should be enjoying the rain, as the Fiordlands receive rain 280 days out of the calender year.  We were finally allowed to leave the hut at close to 9:00am, leaving us 5hrs to do the 18km of the last day.  We were to follow Ranger Amanda for the first part of the trek towards Boat Shed where we would assess the water level.  Paul told me that he would inflate his pants (Bear Grylls style) and allow me to float on his back should the water get too high.  When we arrived at Boat Shed, we had to ford through, at most, ankle-deep water.  So our guided tour ended, and we were again allowed to depart on our own.  A little more down trail we got to explore MacKay Falls and Bell Rock.  Bell Rock was this large boulder that had been hollowed out by some sort of natural process, and you could crawl under it and then stand up inside.  Paul had a rave party in there with his red head lamp.  Then back on to the trail we went...trying to go at full speed, with Paul's bad knee and Zhiling's painful feet.  Zhiling did however make a wise choice at the beginning of the day by setting aside her hiking boots (which were not properly broken in as she unfortunately found out on this trek) and wearing her sandals instead.  It was quite exhilarating to stick one's feet in cold stream water but her feet did get a bit torn up (and bloodied)...but at least there were no soppy socks to deal with (which Paul wished he could say).  

Exactly 5hrs later, with 18km behind us, at 2PM we arrived at Sandfly Point.  A boat waited there for us to take us back to Milford.  We had made it... 33.4 miles in 4 days (minus whatever we helicoptered over).  We were done....

But wait, there's more!  When we got to the Milford Wharf, we asked around about how to get to Milford Lodge, where we were staying that night.  Unfortunately the lodge was a 1km, or ANOTHER 20min, walk away...with our packs... in the rain.   Fantastic.   When we did finally get to Milford Lodge, our first order of business was a hot shower!  Our room REEKED as we aired out our various well-used supplies.   

The next day, we managed to haul our aching bodies out of bed in order to make the trek down to the Wharf again in time to catch our tour boat for Milford Sound.  Milford Sound may indeed be one of the most beautiful locations on the planet.  Any direction that you look, you can see something absolutely gorgeous.  The rain, by this point, had calmed to a steady drizzle...just enough to fuel a plethora of waterfalls that cascaded into the Sound all around us.  We had a more civilized viewing of nature this time, as we sat comfortably inside the warm boat sipping hot coffee.  We did, however, manage to get outside of the warm cabin for most of the trip, as the available photogenic material was fairly overwhelming.  Both Bowen and Sterling Falls (the 2 permanent waterfalls of the Sound) were amazing, and the boat traveled right up to the latter so that the spray would have soaked us were it not for the rain gear they provided.  We also were lucky enough to see seals, appropriately on "Seal Rock", and bottlenose dolphins.  We took nearly 200 photos of these and the perpetually mist-shrouded mountains around the Sound...all in the space of 2 hours.  This is a place of highly-condensed beauty:-)

From there, we traveled back East to have our first experience at the tourist-trap known as Queenstown.  A tourist-trap it may be, but there is a reason that people flock to this location.  Lake Wakatipu is a pristine, gorgeously blue lake set against emerald-green mountains.  There is also Mexican food;-)  Awesome.  We spent a leisurely day and a half wandering the streets of the off-season hub of tourism.  We shopped (i.e. Zhiling shopped...yay!).  We ate well.  We wine tasted...including from a $755 bottle of wine (which actually wasn't as good as the $29 bottle near it).  Paul, as directed by Zhiling so that she could shop unimpeded, went for a Thai massage, where he was bent like a preztel by a middle-aged Thai woman...marvelous.  Unfortunately, the revelry was cut short, as Zhiling and Paul were required back at work the next day...for 1 day, prior to the weekend.  So our rain-soaked holiday ended.

New Zealand Travel Tip #6: Even if the brochure shows only sunny scenes, with 280 days of rain out of the year, you had better bring your rain gear.

The Glorious All Blacks, Hollyford, and Horses

So for those of you who don't know (and how could you not), our home-team heroes, the All Blacks, have gloriously defeated all of their foes and won the Rugby World Cup.  This will be the first time the World Cup has come back to New Zealand in 24 years (it's an every 4 year event, like the Olympics).  The All Blacks won the original World Cup when the event began 24 years ago, but have not won it since...until now.  The All Blacks have come back from the brink and eeked by the feisty French to bring glory to a New Zealand in need of a good event (after earthquakes and other such tragedies that have crushed their spirits this year).  Yay, the French lost!  Oh yeah...the All Blacks won too:-)

Aside from New Zealand reveling this moment of Rugby satisfaction, we have also been having our own adventures...though primarily separately.  No, mom and dad, we're not finally sick of each other; it just worked out that way.

Zhiling has been spending ALL of her free time ATTEMPTING to study hard (she disagrees with the assessment of the situation) for her impending board exams.  This has left her, and Paul by extension, with little time for adventures.  However, Paul, by a mistake of scheduling, found himself obliged to go off trekking without Zhiling.

Paul found himself in the company of several of his co-workers trekking on the Hollyford trek, a beautiful trail through the Fiordlands in the West of the South Island.  While the entirety of this tramp would take far too long, we set ourselves on the more modest goal of making it to the first cabin of the trail, the Lake Alabaster Hut...only 20kms in.  So over the course of 2 days, we saw a variety of beautiful trails, gorgeous vistas, and splendiferous waterfalls, all while walking a mere 20km (12miles) per day...if that doesn't sound bad, trying doing it with a heavy pack on, uphill.  Nice!

While Paul was away spending bonding time with co-workers, Zhiling went to Pizza Hut and got herself a ham and pineapple pizza which Paul would have never eaten. Yum!  Then she unabashedly went to the video store next door and rented not one, not two, no.... six ultimate chick flicks to watch over the weekend.  These included such great movies as Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, Sisterhood of theTravelling Pants 2, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Nights in Rodanthe, Prozac Nation, and Bright Star. Now Zhiling was planning on studying very hard that weekend for her Boards, which she ultimately did.  Though there was always plenty of time to watch at least 3 movies an evening.   Later on, she did vacate the house and went to visit Claire on her mini farmlet, who gave her her first set of horse riding lessons on Claire's horse Milo.  She also got to watch sheep get sheared...how long did you think we'd be in NZ before that happened:-)

Aside from various distractions, work has continued on.  Paul got his first opportunity to push thrombolytics ("clot busters") for an ST-Elevation MI...or almost got the opportunity.  As the medication was being drawn up, the chest pain disappeared, and the EKG normalized...gotta love aspirin-naive people.  Instead of pushing a potentially dangerous medication to open up a clogged artery, Paul got to get in a fight with a cranky cardiologist about transferring a "stable" patient instead...well he wasn't having a heart attack RIGHT then...anymore.

Zhiling, on the otherside of the hospital-practice complex, has been exceedingly frustrated by a constant stream of blood coming from every patient's various orifices...mostly coming out in the urine.  New Zealanders, for some odd reason, seem to leak blood a lot...out of noses, has been the typical place, but over the last week, it has been out the urethra.  Endocrinologic problems (hormones) also seem to be the issue of the week, with a prolactinoma and some hyperthyroidism for fun.

And the adventure continues!  Tomorrow we begin our week of holiday.  We will be tramping on "the finest walk in the world", the Milford Trek.  This high altitude trail leads through the heart of the Fiordlands (the Hollyford Trek is in the valley below the Milford) and ends at Milford Sound, a scenic sea inlet surrounded by waterfalls.

New Zealand Travel Trip #5: Don't break in your new hiking boots on a 20km/day hike.

Who's Grant And Why Are We On His Nob?

So we have settled into life here in New Zealand.  Paul and I have been on a couple random adventures as of late.  Perhaps to start with the most bizarre; we recently saw the Red Hot Chili Piper's in concert.  No that was not a typo...  indeed the Pipers not Peppers.  Imagine Transiberian Orchestra, except with bagpipes.  Who knew a bunch of middle-aged men (with great calves) ... in kilts could really rock the house .. with bagpipes? Claire yet again lassoed us into another bizarre Scottish adventure.  When we asked who these guys were, she said "They're real good.  They play pipes, and drums, and sh*t."  That got us right away and we bought tickets.  These guys were the real deal.  The drummer was the fastest drummer in the world (he actually holds the current world record).  The guitarist played AC/DC... all with bagpipes!   Just to go over a couple of the songs in the RHCP set list, they played everything from Amazing Grace, to Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.  Though perhaps our favorite rendition was Queen's We Will Rock You.  There was a lot of disturbing hip gyration, which made me glad that the kilts were long enough, though just barely while they were on their knees doing solo's... with BAGPIPES!  It was a great show.

Aside from spending time with Tracey (the other American Locums) at the RHCP concert,  we also went over to her house for a welcome party for a second American locums coming to work in Balclutha (another hospital down the road).   Yasmin and her boyfriend were FOB (fresh off the boat) and we got a chance to ingrain them with our 2 months worth of extensive New Zealand knowledge.  We had a delicious homemade dinner made by Tracey and shared some local wines... and when we say share some local wines we mean watched several bottles consumed within a short period of time.  The fast disappearance of wine bottles may have strongly been attributed to a presence of an Irishman in our midst, Shamus.  We finally got to meet the famous Shamus, who we will soon get the pleasure to know better as he is starting to work at Gore.  More to follow...

On our own we have been a little less adventurous, communing in our NZ home.  We have continued to reap the joys of the indoor garden that we planted in the sun room.  Multiple heads of lettuce, rocket herb are now at an edible state.  Paul and I have also started growing peas, tomatoes, green beans, cilantro, and basil from seed.  These have started to sprout nicely, and with the weather improving we will soon be able to plant them outside.  However, all of our gardening has not been successful, as our worm compost is now devoid of worms as they all died.  Whoops!  Lesson learned.  The whole concept of wet to dry material one should take seriously.  We likely drowned our worms.  The ones left over probably got overheated after we left them in the sunroom.





We have managed to keep up with our exploring, we went to the Blossum Festival in Alexandra.  We saw our first parade in New Zealand.  It seems parade's in New Zealand largely consists of trucks.  Boy they like their trucks here.  The beginning of the procession consisted of about 10 mins of big rig trucks, one after the other, after the other, from EVERY local business.  There were also some floats that decided to show up.  And of course bagpipe bands, four to be precise.  The Scots are everywhere.  After that we were rained on by the unexpected (or should we say always expected) weather of New Zealand.  We dashed around and looked at arts and crafts stuff.  We watched big men chop wood with large axes... competitively.  Who knew there were that many ways to cut a log in half?  We ended the day going to Monteith Beer Company and munched on some fries and warmed ourselves up with some Ale, cheers!

And now to Grant's Nob.  And what a Nob it was.  Right near Dolomore Park which we have formerly blogged about, there is a large hill with a beautiful trek up the side.   After a steep incline over a short distance there is a wonderful view of the valley below where Gore is located.  We found a spot that we definitely will return to for picnic in the future.








As well, locally, Brown Trout season has opened.  And Gore is the Brown Trout capital of the world.  Paul went on a boys trip out fishing with Karl the CEO, and Victor (his Russian counterpart in the hospital).  He managed to catch nothing though Victor share from his bounty.  We had two brown trouts that we baked and ate.  They were pretty good.  We'll be out later fishing.

To end off our latest week, we spent a lazy Sunday at home, watching the All Blacks brutally pound the Australian Wallabye's (who's actually scared of a team called the wallabyes?)  in the semi-finals.  The World Cup madness is still raging here.  This will reach a fever pitch next week as the All Black's (our home team heroes) battle ?the French.  That's right the French got into the Finals.  Now if the French win, NZ will know eternal shame.   Side Note: I would also say the All Blacks won in the most number of bloody noses during this latest semi-finals game.  I have never seen so much blood in a professional sport since Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield's ear.

New Zealand Travel Tip #4:  Don't leave your worms in a warm sloppy mess in the sun room...even if they smell too bad to keep in the house.