From "Guy Fawkes Day" To Pre-Christmas: Northwest Coast and Golden Bay

We returned from the States to New Zealand the end of September, where the spring is gradually changing to summer. If you have a smart phone app to check the weather in both Timaru, NZ and Fort Bragg, CA, it is amazing how frequently the two are nearly identical; same temperature, same chance of rain or sun, etc. The major difference is the days are getting progressively longer here and shorter there.
The Kiwis don't officially admit to celebrating Halloween, claiming they are celebrating Guy Fawkes Day, commemorating the night of November 5, 1605 when Mr. Fawkes was arrested for trying to blow up the House of Lords.However, the evening of October 31 we saw plenty of children in costumes collecting candy at the annual event for the Timaru Boys School. Hummmm. Sound familiar? They do use it as an excuse to sell and set off fireworks to honor Guy's attempt to restore the papacy to Britain.

Springtime in Caroline Bay, Timaru

One of the joys of small-town rural life is to partake of the local festivals, such as nearby Pleasant Point's annual "Get to the Point Day" November 8, accurately described in their literature as "A fun filled day brimming with community spirit for young and old alike". This included the sausage-eating contest, featuring a variety of rare (as in not fully cooked) meat products, the tug-of-war, and the sheep-shearing competition, scattered amid bounce-houses and food and craft booths.

Sausages

Tug-of-War

Men rapidly denuding sheep

In our time in New Zealand, we have driven almost all of the major roads on both the North and South Islands with one exception: the upper northwest corner of the South Island. I took a few days off in late November to tick that box.

Our path led us across Arthur's Pass to the West Coast. The pass is known for spectacular landscapes, wet weather, and cheeky keas, the native Alpine Parrot.

Kea perched on my rear-view mirror

First on the list of new places to see was Punakaiki, better know as Pancake Rocks, in Paparoa National Park. The limestone rocks were subjected to a process geologists call stylobedding, when pressure, time, and erosion form thin layers of rock. These "stacks" really don't look like pancakes to me, maybe baklava.

Punakaiki

Close-up of rocks

Underneath these formations are sea caves and tunnels which cause impressive blow holes.

Further north is Cape Foulwind, aptly named by the ubiquitous Captain James Cook. There is a large colony of kekeno, the New Zealand fur seal. Once nearly hunted to extinction, the seals (more acurately sea lions) are rebounding nicely.

Cape Foulwind

Kekeno relaxing

In the same neighborhood, Westport, NZ lies at the mouth of the Buller River. The Kiwi town is reputedly the only Westport in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of 26 proud members of the organization "Westports of the World". (I could not confirm if the unincorporated Westport, CA is in this group.) The whole West Coast is isolated, known for rough weather, waning coal and gold mining, and some agriculture. There are a few well-preserved art deco buildings from the 1930's and some surprisingly good restaurants. It reminds me of West Virginia but with better food.

Westport Municipal Chambers

Nearby on a plateau up a very steep hill is the mostly abandoned coal town of Denniston. For 88 years is was serviced by an ingenious and dangerous 45⁰ gravity-powered tramway. It was quite an amazing engineering feat for the time. Visiting these foggy ghostly remains at dusk is unsettling.

The road to the northwest goes up through the Gorge of the Buller River past the site of the ruined gold-mining town of Lyell, where you can take a trail through the regenerating forests and streams.

A bit further upstream, you can cross the 110 meter Buller Gorge Swingbridge, the longest pedestrian swingbridge in NZ.

B. G. S.

Motoring through rural New Zealand is a true pleasure of one scenic vista after another. My pictures only hint at this. Think of the landscape you most enjoy (rivers, lakes, mountains, seashore, forests, etc.): it is all here in abundance, and we were so lucky to have a dry, sunny day for the drive.

Southern Alps around Nelson Lakes NP

View from Hawkes Lookout, Takaka Hill

Crossing Takaka Hill and entering the Golden Bay area completed a trip started in September, 2010 with my sister Angela. We made it to Able Tasman National Park, but time, distance, and inclement weather stopped us short, so she was much on my mind this trip (The link to my old blog-post is here.)

Takaka town is very alternative, arty, and Mendocinoid, with friendly people and an outstanding German bakery. Te Waikoropupu Springs is just out of town, and is not to be missed. Sacred to local Maori, it is one of the largest springs in the world and the water clarity is amazing. As fresh water wells up continuously from multiple vents, it is a kaleidoscope of colors and dancing sands. 

aka: Pupu Springs

As a curious traveler, the thin-fingered 32 km-long Farewell Spit intrigued me. Named by (who else) Captain Cook, the spit is a protected nature reserve that can only be visited via a 6.5 hour escorted tour out of Collingwood. (BTW, for a town of 250, it has a remarkable chocolatier, Rosy Glow Chocolates. Highly recommended! If you are ever in town, do pop in.)
The first stop of the tour is Cape Farewell, the northernmost point of the South island.

Cape farewell

The micro-bus went all the way out to the now unmanned lighthouse, where we had hot tea and biscuits.

Farewell Spit Lighthouse

Unfortunately, many whales get confused and have beached on the spit.

The highlight of the visit is always the wild-life.I created this collage, and will do my best to correctly identify the creatures.

Clockwise from the Upper Left: a shag,NZ fur seal, Eastern godwit, Caspian terns, gannet, seal. C: Oystercatcher

The Best New Zealand Thanksgiving Ever (with one abstention)®

Dr. Hemlock with Tom, the guest of honor

Next, we had to scurry back to Timaru. Most Americans here agree that as much as we like it, we do miss the Thanksgiving holiday. This year, I did some research with a fellow Yank colleague, Dr. Camille Hemlock, and we decided to order a 22 lb. turkey (hard to find here), and suggest our weekly Tuesday night dinner be shifted to Thursday November 27. Things sort of snow-balled, and we ended up with 25 or so people pot-lucking, a mixture of Americans missing the celebration, and others from around the world (even some kids) partaking in their first observance. One young Californian GP even found Libby's canned pumpkin in the gourmet foreign food section of an Oamaru market. I baked a pecan pie, which sadly looked much better than it was (the filling didn't set properly). There was lots of great food and fellowship, and we were even spared trying to watch the 49er game, since it was still Wednesday in the US (I personally am denying that it ever happened). It was almost unanimous: TBNZTE!

Just as it is back home, the end of November heralds the opening of the Christmas season. I'll be here working through December 29th, then back to California for several weeks. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, and we hope to see many of you soon!

Stafford Street Timaru Christmas Decorations

Home and Abroad (or is it Abroad and Home?)

Daybreak Auckland Airport September 2014

There comes a point when you travel frequently when getting your bearings is a challenge. Is it day or night? Which airport/country/hemisphere is this? Our September trip back to the States had  such moments.It was our second return since January, and as in June, the agenda was full.
Top priority is to spend time with the family, and especially the rapidly evolving grandchildren.

Center-At the Nestlers. From Noon clockwise: 1)Relaxing 2) Kimarra flexing 3) Mommy&Daughter 4)@ the A's game 5) Outside the condo in Richmond 6) Isaiah- 2032 All Black star?

The biggest news of during our stay involved our son-in-law Marquise, who decided to leave the USAF. He started his new job at Google, and just as in the movie "The Internship", began his orientation as a new employee (aka "Noogler"), complete with propellered beanie.

After an overnight in the Bay Area, we headed North to Fort Bragg, having time for a pop-in with sister Margaret,
 
and a pastry-laden rendezvous with Terry K in Santa Rosa.

Editor's Note: Most of the pastry in the case was gone before we arrived.

We timed our trip to the North Coast to be able to attend Winesong 2014, the 30th annual bacchanal and major fundraiser for Mendocino Coast District Hospital. Start with the lovely Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, add tastings of noted nearby wineries, season with delicious food from local restaurants and musicians playing in small clearings, and finally invite 1,800 guests = Winesong!

Lots of people milling around, eating and drinking.

The major money-generator is the lavish auction featuring rare lots of elite wines and fabulous exotic vacation packages. I am not allowed to raise my paddle as we sit amongst wealthy philanthropists. I don't know the final total raised, but it was several hundreds of thousands dollars.
Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend in Fort Bragg, but we were introduced to a charming family-run country French bistro in the Anderson Valley, LeCoq au Vin, where we dined with friends Christine and Doug.

One of our biggest regrets in being abroad is leaving our faithful cat Saturday behind. She has been well-cared for by others in our stead, but we noted she was a bit slower and thinner than even in June. In mid-October after returning to NZ, she took a serious turn for the worse, and we decided to put her down. We miss her very much, and were lucky to have such a sweet-souled creature in our lives.

Saturday (L), new friend Loki (R)

Saturday (Middle) with two friends

Multitasking is essential to an efficient trip, and so I headed to LA for an exhausting Review of Geriatric Medicine. UCLA sponsors a yearly Continuing Medical Education program, from which I got a quality learning experience covered by funds from my contract with my employers, th South Canterbury District Health Board (SCDHB). It was conveniently held at the Marriott at the LAX Airport. 

My sessions went on all day, but even a brief stay in Los Angeles reminded me of many aspects of life there: heavy traffic, endless broad avenues with random strip malls, and even disruption on my floor of the hotel for filming of a movie, provisionally entitled "Straight Outta Compton".

Meanwhile Fayne used those few days for a trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to meet up with her sister and brother-in-law to see her niece Laura Fayne. Sister Mary thankfully supplied blog-worthy photos, starting with the whole shy silhouetted group,

and the stunning Milwaukee Art Museum,

and a visit to Miller Park to catch the home-town Brewers face the Chicago Cubs. The ballpark features the Race of the Giant Sausages, where the Bratwurst, Polish, Italian, Frankfurter, and the Chorizo compete for supremacy.

You will also see the slightly more manageable offerings, such as the aptly named "Beast".

I defer to Carol Deptolla, Dining Critic for the  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"The Beast: Leading the pack in the dude-food genre of meat, meat and more meat, and fried if possible, is the Beast, new this year: a wedge of hot dog is stuffed into a footlong bratwurst, all wrapped in bacon and topped with kraut and cooked onions. It's swaddled in an excellent pretzel bun and drizzled with grainy mustard and Stadium Sauce."
 
Foreigners think that the USA is the land of Super-sized food and people. I wonder why?

Cupcakes from Mahkayla"s wedding (Best Wishes!). Note the bacon one in the upper left corner

Mr. Pickle with an admiring fan

Speaking of food, it was great to drive down to Watsonville to have diner with the Nestlers, among my dearest life-long friends. Emma Nestler (my surrogate mother) found enough time to bake a cake.

Emma, me, Isaiah, Kimarra, Fayne, Rick, Connie, & Sofia

And to prove California is not a complete barbarian wasteland, there is a friendly Kiwi/rugby themed pub in Point Richmond, the Up and Under, where on Tuesdays you can play the Pub Quiz (we finished third).

Continuing the whirlwind tour of my past lives, we headed over to the Dixon/Davis area, where we enjoyed the hospitality of my Best Man from years ago, one David N., with the added bonus of in-house watch repair.

Through some seriously convoluted violation of the space-time continuum, the Fayne and John universes have collided to produce the symbiotic(?) pairing of David with World-Famous in Kazakhstan author Heather F., also in Davis.

FML & HJF

The main reason I headed over there was to attend the Dixon High School Class of 1968 (and 1969 and 1970) reunion. When you come from a small school and years pass, it is common to combine the groups for a more robust turnout. I had reservations at first, but I saw many people I hadn't seen in years, shared some memories, and I was glad I went.

Dick Rossi, Bill Fairfield, JTW, Nancy Madden, Dennis Finney, Steve O'Neill

There was time for one final gathering in Mill Valley at sister Cheryl's new place September 23 on what would have been our sister Angela's 65th birthday. It was great to have everyone together, and I still can't believe she has left us.

Back row: Cheryl, Xania, Emily, Athena, Margaret, Marquise, Kimarra, Isaiah,Sofia,  David N.

Three whirlwind weeks, then back to Timaru for the hesitant emerging of spring in the Antipodes.The gardens are in bloom.

The ASB Tennis Centre is open with the new swim/rec centre in the distance, and the walk around the harbour can be delightful.

Fishermen Memorial

But the weather changes quickly here. We were caught by surprise by this intense hailstorm as seen in our backyard.

November is nigh, and before the next post we may do some further touring around the South Island, and try to arrange a proper American Thanksgiving here in New Zealand. Stay tuned!

A New Flat, Twenty-one Films, & a Passle of Primates

Early Morning Caroline Bay, Timaru

The first challenge we faced on returning to NZ in July was an unexpected move. Our then landlady had rented her house to us with the stated plan of living in a caravan with her elderly mother throughout New Zealand for two years. Can you spot the potential flaw in this concept? The property manager told us the owner was back in town, and after only three months she would like to re-occupy her house if we could find another place. We had only signed a six-month lease, so we would have to vacate no later than late September. It was our good fortune that the long-time Diabetic Nurse Specialist at the hospital (Pat A.) had a downstairs furnished flat becoming vacant, so we grabbed it while we could.
Pat and her husband John are great people, and the flat is below their house, facing the small back yard.

There is a large living/dining/kitchen area....

an ample master BR and adequate second guest BR....

Master BR

Guest BR

and most pleasantly for Fayne, our first bathtub here in NZ!

This place is farther from the hospital, about a 40 minute walk that takes me through Caroline Bay park (see the pictures at the top and below) and over the railroad tracks, just before dawn now (as it is still winter here). It is quite a lovely way to start most work days.

Margriet Windhausen's "Face of Peace" sculpture, Caroline Bay

Cabbage Trees

Crossing the RR Overpass

So how do we spend our time here? Well for me, there is work. I am finding ways to add to my usefulness besides attending on the medical wards and twice a week outpatient clinics. This job includes a position with the University of Otago School of Medicine teaching medical students, which also includes a responsibility to stay current myself. A few other US docs here are working along with me to meet all the new requirements to keep the American Board of Internal Medicine happy.
The longer I am here, the more I find areas that can use sprucing up, from developing useful clinical protocols, to chart audits and review of complications and deaths.My challenge is to find the "sweet spot" of projects that are simple enough to actually be fruitful and not spend time and energy on larger, more long-standing and complex systemic issues unlikely to change in my work life-span. Entrenched bureaucracy seems universal.

There is still time for plenty of extracurricular activities beyond regular Tuesday night dinners with fellow Senior Medical Officers and spirited Wednesday Pub Quiz (ie: trivia) challenges at the Sail & Anchor, such as going over to Geraldine Winter Lights Festival last month. The name is somewhat grandiose for a quintessentially quirky and charming small town event. There were strings of colored lights, very modest fireworks, local food, crafts, music, and dance to enjoy in frosty weather, dining on bales of hay: in short, our kind of thing.

Geraldine's Morris Dance Troupe celebrating winter, or perhaps a Druid god?

Another preoccupation in August was the New Zealand International Film Festival, a celebration of cinema from all over. Although centered in Auckland, many of the films are shown throughout the country. We caught up with a butt-numbing 21 films over a four-week span, some in Dunedin, and some here in Timaru. If you have ever attended a film festival and read the program notes, every film sounds FANTASTIC! When you see them in a festival setting, everyone is primed to love the films. That being noted, I will make a few capsule recommendations for films worth seeking out. This link will have more detailed descriptions of each film.
The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet : A fable set in Montana (filmed in Alberta, Canada)- the most beautiful and magical use of 3D I have ever seen, and a very good family film.
Frank : If you are into movies, you will have read about this (currently in US theaters), an quirky indie film notable for Michael Fassbender in a large paper mache head. Don't think of it as a Fassbender film, think of it as a slyly humorous and surprisingly moving tale of the trials and tribulations of being in a band, fame vs. art, and mental health and illness.
In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) : Norwegian with subtitles (wait, wait, don't leave yet!) with Stellan Skarsgård as the revenge-seeking father in the icy north, Bruno Ganz as an Albanian gangster, and the best pony-tailed, vegan villain called "the Count" you will ever seen. Think Fargo in Norwegian with giant snow-blowers. Bloody fun.
Locke : Again, well-reviewed but hardly seen in the states (now on DVD). One guy in a car (Tom Hardy), driving to London while his life is falling apart, told in a very gripping fashion. His performance is not to be missed, and the voice actors for his en route mobile calls are excellent.
Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed : A small Spanish road film inspired by a real incident of a school teacher trying to meet John Lennon when he was filming How I Won the War in 1966, featuring a beautiful young actress, Natalia de Molina.
Faith Connections : Indian documentary weaving three stories from the Kumbh Mela, the inconceivably immense sacred Hindu pilgrimage which occurs every three years. Estimates are up to 100 million people arrive in six weeks and maybe 80 million people came on one day, February 14, 2013. It will take you to a world far removed from what most of us will ever experienced.
Particle Fever : This dazzling and suspenseful chronicle of Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider and the search for the Higgs boson (AKA "God Particle") is dramatically and clearly told.

Two weekends of the NZIFF 2014 were spent in Dunedin, and between flicks we were able to enjoy more of the city.

Hillside View Across Dunedin

Salvation Army Spire...

guarded by bronze penguin.

Old Dunedin Graveyard

Instillation Alongside Otago Harbour: Harbour Mouth Molars

P.S.- Having nothing to do with me or New Zealand directly, I thought I would share some primate-related photos.
A fellow physician here, Camille, just returned from two weeks of "shoveling orangutang poo" as a volunteer at a sanctuary on Borneo.

Camille's new friend

Also, a friend of the family Amanda is following her passion and studying baboons in Botswana. Here are some beautiful photos she took, and here is the link to her blog if you want to see more.

Botswana Sunset (Sunrise?)

(We will be back Stateside again in just a few days!)