The Beautiful mountains of the Tongariro National Park
Tawhai falls, my most recent addition the the river back catalougeSo here's my last NZ and long overdue update to the blog and there's a lot to squeeze in.
When I left you last I was moaning about the cooling of the sea and the air and the shortening of the days. (how very British of me). But it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Whilst the temperature dropped I watched the BBC weather religiously and was pleased to see that even though it was a cool 15-18C in the mount it was only a mild 18-20C summer back home. (gloat). The swell died off completely and there was no surfing to be had in the mount at all. No big deal really the mountain was open and every weekend I was down at Mount Ruapehu to make the most of the snow.
The second weekend was the Ruapehu Mardi Gras in Ohakune. This turned out to be a piss up of the highest order outside in the cold night listening to live music and drinking a monthly allowance of booze to keep warm. This was followed by one of the most hilarious escapades on snow I have seen. 
The slopes were packed with most of New Zealand following the Mardi Gras, most of whom had no idea how to ski. All the slopes led to a single cat track about 10feet wide to exit the mountain and at the end of the day as every inept skier south of the equator still wasted from the preceding nights revelling headed to this bottle neck there was the most horrendous carnage i have witnessed on snow. bodies were strewn across the track, the snow stained red in places whilst people collided with each other at break neck speed (literally in one case i believe) almost every second. On one trip down i saw two people out cold, a girl broke her arm on one of my friends and several people left the cat track completely coming to an abrupt stop upon rocks. Although worrying one could not help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. 
Other weekends were more sedate and usually consisted of a few friends in a rented apartment drinking and playing cranium at night and snowboarding during the day. The slopes were bigger than Scotland and the snow more reliable and when we hiked to do some backcountry stuff I had some of the best runs i've had in a long time, if not then ever. Back in the mount my rota turned sour and I spent most weekends through July and August working, but my days off were midweek and if i could convince someone to come then we'd have the mountain to ourselves.Jon and Fiona, a couple from Scotland joined the hospital around this time having just sailed in a beautiful 48 foot yacht from Mexico to live in it at the mount, when we weren't at the mountain my time was largely spent out on the boat fishing or just hanging around on it drinking rum, feeling like a pirate. My fishing was largely unsuccessful except on one day when I caught a whopping 2kg snapper which once filleted fed 3 of us till we felt sick then some. John and I also went diving for crayfish and bagged a few but most of them were pregnant and needed to be thrown back. Dave joined us from Auckland for the fishing and managed to secure a massive baracuda which had to be thrown back as they all have worms.
And so it was in the mount for the winter chilled back and laid out, sporting to be had but not quite so much and enough drinking to put me off it for a while.
Come August whilst in the depths of winter I transferred out of the mount to become an ethnic minority amongst the Maori's in Whakatane - a small town an hour down the coast from the mount. I worked in the Emergency Department here as well but now it was a bit scarier - outside the normal working hours I was the most qualified doctor in the hospital and I was the airway management for all arrests in the hospital. Luckily nothing too scary happened and in 7 weeks I don't think anyone came off any worse than if somebody appropriately qualified had been doing the job. The hospital put me up in a B&B just out of town in a beach village with a lovely little beach
but there was nothing happening and my days off were spent back in the mount or up the mountain.It was around this time that the Samoan tsunami struck, which made me stop and think a bit. In New Zealand there was a general alert and the beaches were evacuated, this didn't stop everyone though. The beaches were lined with expectant on lookers eager for a glimpse of disaster and a few surfers grabbed their boards ready to ride the tidal wave. The news teams interviewed the disappointed populace when the tsunami appeared to have lost momentum in the south pacific and only arrived as a 40cm wave indiscernible from the usual ebb and flow of the tides, who remarked how it was all a bit of a "fizzer" and wanted to see something more impressive. The surfers went home without any joy. I was gob smacked at the stories and the human race in general, or maybe just the kiwis as i sat and thought "what? you would rather have had all you homes pulverised by a wall of water, your family lost and your livelihoods ruined just like in samoa?" and the surfers did they honestly think - "yeah this wave will be sweet, it wont be a messy 10foot wall of death which will carry me up the beach to either be drowned or impailed on a tree?" nutters. As regards to the Samoa disaster I watched the news as they interviewed the man who served me drinks talk about the family he'd lost in front of the beach where the fales where I slept once stood under palm trees like a little blue village on the sea front and now none of it was left - the huts the trees - the concrete structures all reduced to a muddy pile of rubble and sticks. Makes you think.
On a lighter note my time of work came to an end and it was time to live the unemployed, no fixed abode dream.
First stop was Queenstown for an advanced wilderness medicine life support course.
A brilliant course of lectures and practicals in the mountains surrounding the town where we learnt about everything from avalanches to snake bites and more. I stayed with Billy and met up with Pete for the first time in an age, had barbecues and fires hit the town with my course buddies and had a round of golf. I am not good at golf.The flight from QT to wellington was amazing and I saw all the sights i'd visited a year earlier with Dave and Emma in the van.
A brief stop over in Wellington to pick up Dan and my surf board and it was off to Oz with Billy.
We headed over to Coolangatta for the legendary reliable surf that the area has to offer. We were sorely disappointed. The swells were small but we still mananged to get a few good rides in, but for the most part it was good enough to just enjoy doing nothing. Lots of beach cricket was played and Dan demonstrated that he was a natural bowler, ahem. Some of the best surfing was actually the body surfing in the shore break where we spent many an hour just jumping around in the shallows. None of us were eaten by a shark, none of us were stung by deadly jellyfish or biten by snakes. We did however encounter the potentially most harmful of things in australia - the aussie. When in NZ people would say why are you going to Australia? its full of Australians. Now dont get me wrong most of the people in oz were very nice and friendly but when in the pub there was invariably the one piss head who came over to be abrasive, offensive and loud which eventually got tiring but did provide much amusement as well. After ten days of doing less than most students it was time to head back to NZ.I stayed a couple of days in Wellington to say bye to Emma who moved there when I moved to Whakatane and to beat Dan on his xbox. Current reigning ISS champion. Yesterday I drove to Napier where I am just now - saying bye to simon who was in Samoa with me. Another year another whirlwind farewell tour - next stop Auckland. I'll head back to the mount to say cheerio once and for all and then back to blighty. If I get time i may head north to see the last bit of NZ I've left unexplored. Dave Wrag arrives in a couple of days in time for his birthday so will post photos up of that if any of hem are decent enough for public perusal.
Looking forward to seeing everyone back home again, you've all been missed, looking forward to a proper breakfast roll and all that new music I've missed over here. Back in November, till then
peace.
p.s have now travelled up to auckland and the d to the g Dave wragg has joined us out here for a breif spell before my return. Had an enormous night out on friday with the two daves and another guy from glasgow - 4scots on the booze tore auckland apart, was massive think the photo of dave says it all, if anything could be said at all.
Me and DW just got back from a trip up north - orcas, more bloody dolphins and a pimpin sailing boat were the order of the day. Fishing tomorrow in the mount and before you know it i'll be back on home turf. till then...
