Abe and Erin’s travels

Mary was kind enough to set me up for a visit with Trish and the Ladies at The Pharmacy House in Wellington.  It was a wonderful day with many discussions and sharing of ideas about pharmacy practice and pharmacy education.  The program here for CE made me reconsider/realize that our system is strictly regulated by knowledge based qualificaitons – the ability to interact is not assessed by our regulating bodies.  Pretty eye opening for me that the pharmaceutical Soceity of NZ assesses new pharmacist’s clinical abilities before they are allowed to become licensed.

Everyone was so friendly and welcoming – I enjoyed the visit.

Back to Wakefield – it is wonderful to see Brent and Mary!

Missing Erin and my family and friends back home.

The plan today was to go for a scuba dive off of Island bay with the dive club associated with Splash Gordon Dive Shop.  Unfortunatly, the time changed from noon to 9am and I was out of the loop!  The guy was nice and offered to take me out on the weekday if the conditions were good – o well.  Time seems to be running short – and I havn’t spent nearly enough in the ocean!  More reason to return!

I love Saturdays!  We slept in, and went to a favorite cafe, where I had the salmon eggs benidict. 

Rashmi took us to a Hindu Temple, which was very beautiful.  Inside the temple are different statues representing some of the Hindu Gods.  Outside of the temple, but in the building was the busy preparations for an Indian wedding.  Flowers and all kinds of symbols adorned the center area of the building – I wish I could be a fly on the wall for the actual ceremony (it would be cool to see all the traditions and festivities).

We changed gears big time and piled onto a crowded bus that was heading into town for the Rugby game.  The Wellington Hurricains versus the Chiefs.  A very nice High Schooler chatted with us and tried to answer our questions about the game.  We were a little nervous about finding out where the stadium was, but it really was as simple as following the huge mass of people. 

Here are some shots of the stadium going into the game and comming out:

Carrie and Rashmi scored some great seats – we were 1st row right on the mid line.  You could hear the pop as these beohmiths collided with each other.  Gotta love the brutality of rugby! 

I quickly bought the “4 beer max per person” carrier and proceded to chow on a stale hamburger and tastey chips. Carrie wasnt far behind and we were soon ooohing and aaahing with the crowd with gusto.  I ended up badgering the poor guy behind me and asking what was going on.  Admittatily, I have no further understanding of how Rugby is played then before the game – but I had a hell of a time!!

One thing that was radically different than the usual American football or baseball game is the complete lack of announcer commentary in the stadium.  The stadium gets hushed waiting for a play to happen and erupts in noise when something does happen (if you blink you could miss a big play).  Those moments of quite intent in a stadium full of people is different that what I am accustomed to.  It was cool.

THe Hurricains handed the Chief’s asses to them – the game was a blow out.  On the bus ride back I was sitting with a group of Chief’s fans (face paint and Tui sombraro’s to boot).  Their mood was festive and everyone was pretty loose and having a good time.  The Hurricaine and Chief’s fans were giving one another a hard time (I was asked who I was for and had to commit to the Hurricaines – incurring a large amount of razzing from the last 2 rows Chiefs fans on the bus). 

On a side note: I got called a “stupid American” by one of the drunk Chiefs fans (much to the embarassment of some of her friends and the small group of folks sitting around us).  It was the first time since being here that I had been generalized as just another narrow minded stupid American (this happened when I traveled Eruope in 1998).  I was more suprized at the other people’s response in the bus – they were genuinly embarassed.  I know that American’s reputations abroad have deterioated in the last 6 years, and I expected to recieve more anti-american prejeduce than just the one comment in over 6 weeks.

I certianly hope that I have been the kind of traveler that is open minded and welcoming of new experiences that a different culture/nation has to offer.  I think I am that kind of traveler – If not I’d like to know. I’m just thinking the most simple solution is the most likely – she was probably just pissed that the Chiefs lost so bad!!

I finished up with Hutt hospital today – I really enjoyed meeting the folks at the hospital.  They are the nicest group of people! 

Richard and Robyn took me out to dinner with a group of health care workers (some retired some still working).  We had a great time and drank many bottles of wine.  Mae tought me some Scottish: apparently Wendy was being a “Bad Lasse!” I needed Mae to translate because I thought she was saying she wanted a Mango Lusse.

The evening was full of good fun and great conversation – Richard indulged me by talking about politics late into the evening (something I love to do).  Robyn was getting over a cold, but was a trooper through the evening (thanks for being such a wonderful hostess).

I can only hope to be as accomidating to guests as Richard and Robyn, and the Hutt Pharmacy staff have been to me.  I hope to get the opprotunity to return the favor!

Uneventful day – work was good.  Just a mellow evening with pasta and internet!  The twins are at their first yoga class.  I pretty sore from running to Fisherman’s Table last night so I sat this one out.

I had my tatoo consult with Manu today.  He did a rough outline on my calf – the piece is going to be REALLY big!  I’m so pumped!

Rashmi jinxed us with the prediciton that because we had today off it would rain all day (yesterday was perfect).  And yes it has been raining all day.  I’ve had a chance to catch up on the blog and the Twins have been climbing the walls while I monopolize the computer. 

Rashmi built an Uno tower!

After work went to Little India for our favorites: Malai Kofta, Bengali Fish and scrumptious Naan.  We stopped by Espressoholic (were they serve beer too) and enjoyed some drinks and great conversation.

A trip to Wellington wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Copenhagen ice cream shop!

Richard was kind enough to pick us up and give us a indivdualized Kiwi tour of the Wiarapa!  We started at 9am and did a quick drive around Miramar.  Before we left Wellington we stopped by parliment and took some photos of the “Beehive” and the old parliment building (the 2nd largest wood buliding).  I guess that the higher your office is in the Beehive the more important you are, but the majority of work is done in a huge underground area.

We then went to Lower Hutt near the hospital and quickly drove around a Mauri community and took some photos of the local Mari.  We were too late in the month, but all new students and health care workers are welcomed by the local Mauri in the Mari with a welcoming ceromony (similar to the one we witnessed in Auckland).  I guess you can touch noses with the local Mauri and have a wonderful welcome to the community.  Maybe other CU pharmacy students can have this experience in the future.

Everything in the Mauri carvings has meaning – in the Mari the center post is the community’s lineage and history.  The arms extent down from the top and the ribs line the roof for the length of the building.  Richard pointed out the the statues on the top of the fence and the Mari structure all have 3 fingers – something unique to this area.

The Mari is a community meeting house – Richard said that it is part of the Mauri culture to never turn family away when they visit.  I guess that duing big events large numbers of extended family will stay in the Mari building.  In fact they will sometimes fill the entire hall with beds.

We started the drive to Martinburough and I had to stop to take pictures of the site where they filmed senes for Helm’s Deep for LOTR – it’s hard to tell  – but I GOT THE PICTURES! 

We continued to another stop at Rivendel: again the signs led us to the right place – otherwise it was just a beautiful park.  Located in Kaitoke Park.  

While at Rivndel – we went to a “small” suspension bridge.  Richard was just getting us ready for the real deal.

The Mountain pass.

We stopped at a local winary in Martinbourgh.  We had a wonderful bottle of wine and had a light lunch.  The weather was perfect and the views were fantastic.

   <-real picture!!! Nice one Carrie! We continued to drive to the hills (Wairarapa) in the distance and on the way the Twins tried to take some close up photos of sheep, but the sheep didn't want to coorperate!  

This is an astonomically correct replica of Stonehenge (for the southern hemisphere of course)  it blended so well into the enviornment that it is easy to miss. 

We made our way to the Waiohine Gorge just past Cannerton.  I don’t know what to say about this place, except that it was amazing!!  The pictures don’t do it justice.  We all crossed the single person suspension bridge (the longest swing bridge in the North Island)  (the other one was a sturdy 4 person bridge).  The foot steps are about 8 inches wide – and it’s really high up!

 I squealed like a little girl!

The area was this lush bush area with some pretty waterfalls that the pictures don’t do justice to. 

We came across a group of campers that were finishing up their 5 day tramp through the bush – I can’t wait to do something like this on our next trip out.

We made our way back in time for a quick dinner and a great night’s sleep!  Thanks so much to Richard for being such a wonderful and gracious host.