Typhoon Lagoon

Whangarei Hospital on the side of my office, note weather is Seattle like with grey skies and misty rain.
Whangarei Hospital from the inpatient side and Emergency room side, note better weather a few MINUTES later. Viv, my friend, mentor and lab manager is seated and Judy, blood bank director is smiling behind the door.

My office which I currently share with David, lab director, and Geoff, point of care testing manager. There are 3 desks and we confer with eachother way too much for us to be efficient. For my coworkers in the US, Melissa and Jim, our morning coffee break with LB is termed "morning tea" and the hospital here practically shuts down at 10:30 for it.

We have had a busy week here in New Zealand. Remember, the kids are still in school with only the 2 week break since we have been here. They are really enjoying an afterschool program that is offered at Phillip's school. The other 3 ride a bus over there for the afternoons when I need to put more work hours in. I have seen many an activity when I pick them up: woodworking, model clay, dancing of all sorts, and more. Whangarei Heads school's entry level (Kindergarten) class was moved up to a new teacher this term in order to make room for the continual inpouring of new 5 year olds. The twins have a new teacher who is a Kiwi but also has lived and taught in Korea. They made the ornate paper structures this week (Is origamy the name?). Andrew has had fever all week and weekend and missed some of the fun. Lynn has been at a sleep medicine conference at a resort on Rotorua where the hot pools and other thermal features are. He said the meeting was VERY helpful for sleep practice both in New Zealand and America as the face of sleep medicine is moving away from center based sleep studies to some role for sleep studies at home. Of course it is cheaper at home so that is practically all New Zealand does. Lynn said it was a strange feeling to cross that young practitioner and expert divide realizing he has been in practice long enough to be more an expert. He thought it was good for his morale because general inpatient medicine wards here is really stretching his memory bank from long ago training. In America we have a specialized system where if you are in the hospital your general hospitalist has access to consults from a cardiologist if you have a heart problem, a nephrologist if you have a kidney problem, Lynn if you have a lung problem, etc. Here the system has a lot more emphasis on ONE doctor who takes care of everything. It has its benefits but for Lynn it is a strain to be all things to all people. He has set the limit in the clinic to only lung patients and sleep patients. In addition, the working with medical students and residents has brought to light their own plight and grievances with the New Zealand system. He presses on and we continue to have each team of trainees over for a get to know you dinner. My work has gotten much busier as the director of the department started full time this month. We are busy doing audits, restructuring the lab based on accreditation recommendations, commisioning newer equipment, adding needed lab tests, and getting out there to meet the other doctors in the hospital and in the community. I am getting to learn more about the running of a lab and hospital administration. I included some pics of my friend and lab manager Viv and the workplace.

Oh by the way, in the midst of this we have had a Category I hurricane (worst storm of the decade) yesterday, power outages, busted water heater, I mentioned sickness, flooded basement, etc. One VALUABLE lesson I am learning here is not to get upset with challenges but laugh at them and work it out. My blood pressure is just not going up anymore when the boat starts rocking. It's the kiwi phrase, "She'll be allright." Indeed, the situation usually is in a few days. My dad was always great about not getting upset when bad things happen. It's a peace giving principle. Lynn's coworker Debra put a blog comment that said the key to patience is acceptance and faith. I think that is profound.....accepting the bad circumstances and having faith that it will work out and God will make use of it some how in the great scheme of our life. I am also learning that I value people and experiences much more than things which flood, break, fade, and go out of fashion. Cleaning out the "stuff" of my life and living more simply has made me see how much more you all back home mean to me and how much more interesting new people and experiences can be compared to building a material based lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I also appreciate things more and would love someone to send me some graham crackers and dryer sheets!

Saturday Drive

(Dawn) We took a family day outing last Saturday. We started with a glow worm cave where we were unfortunately not allowed to take photos. For our Mountain Ridge church friends who remember the caves below Gettysview, it was a similar spring fed cavern but had a wooden walkway above the water through the cave. The worms are tiny (like a speck) glowing larvae on the cave roof. They rest in a spider web type hammock and extend about 4 cms of thread like material similar to a fishing line to catch flying bugs attracted to the light at night. They reel the bug in for a nocturnal meal. After some months of this they form a cocoon, hatch a small fly, mate and die. It was fascinating to see the geology of the cave and the unique chemiluminescence of this larvae poop. Our tour guide was the maori great great great great grandson of the guy who discovered the cave and his family owns the property. There was also a Marai there (maori meeting place where they sleep communally and have services on the weekends. The maori were preparing a meal in the adjacent dining building and lots of barefoot maori kids were playing about. We then drove further north crossing a car ferry to the old historic town of Russell where much of New Zealand's early Maori and English wars were fought and treaties were forged. There was a beautiful overlook with a 360 view on a hilltop which had been fought on many times over an English flagpost. It was raining so sorry not photos this time. We then drove the long way home along the Pacific coast and saw the beautiful overlooks I put on the blog below.

Russell is an old town and this is the oldest operational christian church in New Zealand

Beautiful Anna and huge camellias in the old Russell Church Cemetary

Phillip saved a starfish at Russell. Claire is always the teacher.
Beaches here are rocky and sandy The kids enjoyed the swing someone had put on this beach.

Claire on the beach
We drove north and took a car ferry to Russell and kept on driving
The two of us on this black sand beach
A cove and a minute of glorious sunshine
Phillip on the beach at sunset- Pink to Blue sunset

Barbeque South African Style

(Dawn) So much is happening so fast that it is hard to keep up with all the people we are meeting and the fun things we are doing. Before we went to Australia we were invited to a fellow pathologist's lifestyle plot for a South African barbeque. Julian and Karen live on some acreage so Karen can keep her horses. They came to New Zealand to start a new life because of political instability in South Africa. There were 2 doctors and one dentist from South Africa there and we were interested in hearing about the political and social unrest in Africa. Most were Afrikaans and speak English but also a form of Dutch. One wife is English- South African. It is so fascinating to hear people's life stories of growing up, being educated and seeing their world change. I know we don't write about the people we are meeting much but we are having the most amazing conversations about God, the world political climate, social issues, books, America, democracy, history, dictators, government, and all these intellectually challenging topics. It really may sound dull to some but we are loving this lesson in sociology. Having a meal shared is like the TV show The View among people that like each other. I especially wish I had my American friends Carleen and Melissa here to chime in on all things thought provoking. Much is learned over an afternoon cup of tea or a post dinner glass of wine. It is everything that good conversation with good company hopes to be. Plus we are getting to do things we never imagined like feed Julian's new baby calf because they had slaughtered their ox for the barbeque. The ox was DELICIOUS! I don't want to think too much about that cute baby calf in about 2 years!

Australian images

A wild beach close to Noosa.
Australia Zoo.
Close encounter.
Sunrise over the Coral Sea from our room. aaaahhh.
Cool ozzie playground.

(Lynn)
What a nice break we had in Australia. I didn't realize how stressed and tired I'd been for the last several months. On about day 3 I cracked a joke and Dawn announced, "Daddy's back." In addition to a great family time and seeing a beautiful place- the time away helped me appreciate New Zealand more and think about the blessings in this country and not just see it for its deficiencies and challenges. I missed the lush green hills and ferns. I missed the laid back attitude of the Northland Kiwis. I was truly at ease and felt at home when we pulled back into our drive Sunday night. I'm sure I was much more pleasant to be around at work Monday morning.

Australia is "gorgeous" to quote Steve Irwin. They have endless beaches with pretty, nearby volcanic mountains. We went to an area similar to Orlando, Fl. called Gold Coast as well as a less developed area called Sunshine Coast. The kids loved the theme and water parks. Dawn and I loved the tennis courts, the sun, the beach and the hot tub. The strange thing about being there, though, is that it feels just like the US. That was very comforting and relaxing- but also a little odd to be so far away and feel like you're in California or Florida. It made me realize that New Zealand is unique and that I should appreciate the opportunity to live here for a season.

Speaking of opportunities- when are you going to take the opportunity to visit us in New Zealand? We promise comfortable accomodations, great fellowship and worship, good food and personalized tours to anyone who can make the flight. Remember, we're only a day away give or take a few hours. When's the next time you'll have friends or family in the South Pacific? My offer is really a selfish one because I'd give anything to see any of you here and just share a cup of coffee on the porch or something as simple as my drive to town past the sheep and the harbor.

For all my Christian and/or political friends out there I found a book in Australia that I think makes for very good reading during a presidential election year. The book is God,Actually by Roy Williams. Roy is a middle aged lawyer in Sydney who recently became a follower of Christ after many years as a near atheist. What I find so interesting is that he remains primarily a liberal when it comes to politics but goes into great detail about why Christianity does not fit neatly into any political party. He does a great job articulating the uncomfortable aspects of both the left and right as regards Christian faith. I think reading this book will help you to be more comfortable voting as your Spirit-led conscience leads you no matter which button you push in the voting booth. I am encouraged by his faith in democracy. He writes, "Democratic politics is never truly a contest between 'good and evil', but between two sets of people- good and bad and everything in between- who hold different opinions as to how best to go about realising the virtues (love, joy, peace, kindness, etc. from Galatians 5:22) in socio-political terms."

Queensland, Australia

at the water park
the Ginger Factory train
Beaching the rental boat

Sweet ride for Lynn, Claire and Phillip (look closely).

G'day, Mate!

We were able to pet koalas!
Watch crocs feed- and we saw Terri Irwin.
Steve Irwin's truck and boat.
We hopped around with the kangaroos!

CLAIRE'S BIRTHDAY

Claire writes-

Hello everyone. How are you? I haven't written in a long time. I had a great birthday party today but it wasn't as good without you! I had a swimming party with 5 friends from school (Chloe, Becky, Cora, Maddie SB, and Monique) and the Abascall family. I got lots of notebooks and pens for writing. I got a shell necklace and a book about identifying NZ shells. I got presents from both grandmaws but am waiting to open them up on Monday (my real birthday). It is wonderful to be going to Australia on my birthday!!! We will be in Australia for a week on vacation. We plan to go to at least 2 themeparks plus a waterpark and the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin/Crocodile Hunter). It is good to have a break from school for 2 weeks. I love and miss you so much. Claire