Where have I been since Thursday? Well, part of my time has been spent in a place with dodgy internet, so that explains some of my internet silence!

Spent the weekend at Ohope Beach, where I was for the few days before. Went to one of the other clinics belonging to the same vet group to see practice on Saturday morning - the clinic is in Whakatane while I’ve been at the clinic over in Edgecumbe. Bought myself a picnic in Whakatane and took it back to eat on the beach - that’s the sandiest Subway sandwich I’ve ever had. Had a lazy afternoon airing out the campervan and getting some laundry dried, and then went for a long walk on the beach at sunset (about 5.30pm) before settling in for an early night.

Sunday morning I had a nice lie in (seeing practice is tiring work - no time for naps!), then packed up Freddy the campervan and headed off for a drive around Ohiwa Harbour, which is the opposite side of the little peninsula to Ohope Beach. I stopped for fish and chips as Ohiwa Oyster Farm, and boy does New Zealand Tarahiki and chips beat Andrews hands down, although the sun and the sea helps the experience I guess! The weather was sunny and breezy this weekend - hoodie and jeans temperature but nice nevertheless.

Where did I go after that? Somewhere that justified the fact that the only place there was internet was the car park - Awakeri Hot Springs. Its a campsite with a 25 meter outdoor pool - kept at 38 degrees by naturally heated water - worth the internet blackspot, don’t you think? So that’s where I stayed Sunday and Monday nights, before the internet issue drove me onwards. Had a couple of very nice long soaks in the pool - even when it’s pretty chilly out, 38 degrees gets uncomfortably warm after a while. It took a bit of a ‘1,2,3 GO’ to get out of the pool and into the mercifully underfloor-heated changing rooms!

On Monday night I went to have supper with one of the younger vets and her fiance, who’s a farmer ‘only running about 3000 sheep at the moment’ - had a lovely home-killed heifer steak cooked outside on the barbeque - yummy! And then returned to my campervan to pass out again, because this morning I was meeting one of the vets at 7.30 am to help him vaccinate and pregnancy scan!

I’m still loving seeing practice - better not go into too much detail as I don’t want to be pulled up on confidentiality! Getting plenty of chance to practice my basic skills on the small animal side - injections, taking temperatures and the like. Hoping to get my hands in on some spay and castrates - but haven’t seen any of these yet - although I’ve seen plenty of interesting broken legs - very unusual! Been out on a few big farm jobs - teat sealing 100 heifers yesterday morning and vaccinating 450 cows this morning! Everything is on a much bigger scale out here! It’s been nice to get out with the vet and see some more scenery as well - everything out here in the Bay of Plenty is stunning!

Where am I now? At Thornton Beach Holiday Park for at least a couple of days - it seems really nice here but that’s a subject for tomorrow’s post, when it gets light and I can see the views!

Hope everyone’s well - comment me and let me know how you’re all doing - Nains especially!