I (Heart) Timaru.....and random Kiwiana

The big news here and around the world this week has been the tragic Christchurch earthquake. I won't say much about it now except that we are fine, Timaru was unharmed, but everyone here  has friends and/or family there. The loss of of life is staggering, the devastation to a unique city is heart-breaking. It is like New Zealand's combination of 911 and Katrina- it will never be the same. I am glad we got to visit before the destruction. It is another reminder of the fragility of life, and the need to life each day fully.

This is my unapologetic love letter to Timaru, South Canterbury, New Zealand. Today is my last day here after ten months working and playing here, and everything exceeded my expectations by far. I knew nothing about this place before signing up, I just guessed it was a better fit than Hamilton (too large) or Invercargill (too cold). Here are just a few things love about Timaru.
1) Location, location, location. The heart of the South Island, with the spectacular view of the Southern Alps and Mount Cook lurking in the background, as viewed from the hospital.

Mt. Cook/Aoraki peeks from above the four-windowed building in the center

2) Our home, across the street from the cenotaph.

3) Also across the street from the hospital and the Botanic garden. Taking daily walks in the garden as the seasons pass greatly enhances the quality of one's life, much like having a room with a view.


4) Caroline Bay, in the center of town.

5) Tuesday night dinners with the other medical consultants, a tradition started by Bernhard Kuepper to build camaraderie, and made weekly by Camille Hemlock.

Drs. Glowienka, Hemlock, and Kuepper

6) All the great and fun house surgeons and medical students I got to work with/mentor, especially my current crew, Florry O'Connell and the Irish contingent.

At a farewell dinner

[A brief side-bar: at the dinner, I was asked when I met Fayne. When I responded "1973", there was a collective pause, I guess for everyone else there to calculate how many years before their birth this was, followed by incredulous questions about those ancient days. Q-"How long was your hair?", and "Did you wear flairs?"...(bell-bottoms to us). A-"Shoulder-length", and "Yes of course, everyone did".]

Haley, Florry, and me

6) Mid-morning tea with the gang and Kirsha from Pharmacy.
7) The great, hardworking secretaries that made feel at home

Helen Lithgow and Joan Robinson

8) And all the wonderful nurses, therapists, other MDs, etc. I worked with, like Maree the Medical Ward clerk.

9) The great people and patients of South Canterbury, much like the good folks of Fort Bragg.

It seems only a few days ago that we arrived here on May Day.

May 1,2010

We couldn't image how comfortable and at home we would come to feel. Thank you all so much for making this one of the best years of my life.

There are a few other random, Kiwi-related thoughts.

Kiwis are great people, but they must realize their accent and the strange things they do with vowel sounds are the subject of bemused derision from the rest of the English-speaking peoples (even the Aussies).

We have better holidays in the USA. Sure, we WAY overdo and over-commercialize everything, but I haven't seen anything here to compete with Thanksgiving or the Forth of July. Recently they "celebrated" Waitangi Day, honoring the treaty between the British and the Maoris which established the country. There were no parades, no fireworks. I realized it is in some ways the opposite of Independence Day. This is the day the Maori ceded (or may have, depending on who you believe) sovereignty to the Crown. Instead of uniting people, to date it seems to bring up some resentment and grievances on both sides. On holiday here is the Queen's Birthday, which is not actually her birthday, and is not even celebrated in the UK.

I have been puzzled and/or amused by many items in the paper, especially in the Police Notebook, to wit:
"A Timaru man, 18,was arrested for a historic assault."
"A 17-year-old woman and 24-year-old man were caught eating lollies from the bulk bins at Pak 'n Save. They were warned and trespass notices were issued."
"A 22 year-old Timaru was arrested on a warrant"
"A 33 year-old Timaru man was arrested for misusing a phone and possessing an offensive weapon."

There have been photo ops with two very prestigious trophies, the Melbourne Cup for horse racing, and the Webb Ellis Trophy for the Rugby World Cup, to be hosted by NZ later this year

M.C.

W.E.C.

I thought of playing a game matching the auto-makers with the models. We saw new names daily, as if they named each one individually. Try matching these:
A)Suzuki  B) Toyota  C)Nissan  D)Daihatsu  E)Mazda  F)Holden- with
1)Sirion  2)Lucida  3)Astra 4)Bluebird  5)Swift 6)Tribute
(Answers below).

One last Timaru panorama

One final random shout-out to my sister Athena. Like everyone, sometimes she will drive you crazy. But she has one trump card that is hard to ignore: "Yeah, but she gave her best friend her kidney". A former roommate of her daughter Emily wrote an article for the Northwestern on-line paper in honor of National Donors Day. Check it out here.

Answers: A-5,B-2,C-4,D-1,E-6,F-3