Westport

After a sunny morning stroll along the Island Bay waterfront with Linda we caught a flight from Wellington to Westport. Unfortunately we got nailed with a huge fee for our second bags, be really careful if you fly domestic flights here. We had a smooth flight and had our first view of the South Island West coast from

Westport was one of the smallest airports we have flown into though the welcome was great and the staff from the clinic who met us were wonderful. They gave us a brief tour of the town and then took us to our home, a second unit on a property on the banks of the estuary in town.

We had a wonderful meal at a local pub last night where we were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the local folks. We greatly look forward to getting to know them. Today we will do some more settling into our home and perhaps check out the rec center. Still a bit to get done before we start work tomorrow.

Our previous visit, 26 years ago!

We are returning to New Zealand after a 26 year hiatus. After Carolyn and I finished our residency in Family Medicine in 1986, we took a 6 week trip to Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. We had a wonderful whirlwind trip with one week on the North Island and one week on the South. The trip was outstanding and we always meant to go back, never expecting it would take so long. Just last week I was able to get some of our old slides from our trip transferred to digital and it has been fun looking at the highlights of that trip. We had no slide projector so we had not seen these photos in probably 20 years.

For those of you who know us, you can see how we have aged from these photos! You can also see why we were so determined to make it back to visit again! We are now in the final couple of weeks of preparation and I am rapidly reviewing the ACLS algorithms, crossing my fingers that I will have no need for them. At my going away Party at Clinica Campesina last night, Mary gave me some flies to use when stalking those New Zealand Browns and my hope is that they will be muhc more useful than the ACLS algorithms.