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wednesday 11/3/15
We arrived in Ohakune at 4pm, the bus trip took 6.5 hours and the views were pretty good :)
As soon as we got here we dumped our bags and walked to the estate agents. The lady who worked there was great and gave us a list of rentals and addresses we could go and look at on our own (from the outside). We made an appointment for the next day at 4pm to see any that we liked. I was surprised at the price of rentals, well within budget :) It was £500 for a 3 or 4 bedroom house per month. So although we wanted a place just big enough for us and any visitors from the uk, we'd end up with something with 3/4 bedrooms, none smaller are available.
We went to the supermarket, dumped off our shopping and walked round town. The very first house we looked at was the nicest one of 4 that we walked around and saw. Nice big red house with a huge garage and a nice private garden and pear trees.
We were then walking round town exploring it, when I heard someone shout my name. It was my area manager, with my operations manager who is his manager. They were out for a run in jogging gear and recognised me! I had my online interview with these two guys for the paramedic job here which Ive got xx So that was really cool, bumping into them and saying hi. I had been texting Mark as he'd rung me a few times just for updates. So we got invited to the ambulance station for a lunch and a meeting tomorrow. :) Fantastic to meet your future managers and they're so nice, great sense of humours and really down to earth. Love it!
So.. we went out for dinner at a really nice restaurant in town-and I cannot believe how nice the dining is! great restaurant, good price. They've got gluten free menu choices and great choice of food here x
thursday 12/3/15
We walked round to see the towns gym this morning, not bad, bit small but all the equipment is great and the price is the same as the uk.
we walked around the edge of town a bit by the river- there is absolutely tonnes of hiking and bike routes round here, aswell as kayaking, rafting and skiing, snowboarding etc. our hostel rents bikes at ten pound for hours.. might do that soon!
we went to the ambulance station, saw the ambulance ;) nice new one, 4 wheel drive for the snowy steep roads round here in winter. The ambulance station is new, very close by (can walk to work), has 3 bedrooms, nice shower room, meeting room. Also the ovens and microwave switch off when a job comes through, high tech! We had lunch, met area managers, given an itinerary and all the clinical practice guidelines for new zealand. Everyone was so friendly and great to talk to x one of them even went home to get their uniform for me to try on to get the right size ordered. funnily enough the uniform here has just changed and its now dark green-just like the uk. so no changes there!
one of them also drove us right to the top of the mountain by ohakune!! the road wasn't too bad but i could see that it could be really dangerous. right at the top was the helipad where some of my patients will be in the future..the medic centre there has X-ray facilities etc, i was told my patients to pick up there sometimes will have had great care before i even get there to take them to hospital.
later in the afternoon marc and me went to see the inside of some of the properties- the first house is still the favourite, the red house :) the bathroom is downstairs and is a bit old and not great, but everything else is really nice xx the master bedroom was pretty nice with views of the mountains x
the log burner should be nice too...
Im just spending my evening checking over my visa application- I got some paperwork from the ambulance station today that was the last stuff i needed. Posting it tomorrow X Its quite a lot of paperwork.. including my medical from auckland. Oh.. theres one thing missing. A letter from east of england ambulance service in england saying that i worked for them for x amount of time. Ive been waiting on that for a LOOONNGGGG TIME. Im actually going to risk sending off the visa application without it because I've given up on receiving it to be honest. (just one little moan: they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery).
I'm nervous about driving over here- I bought the New Zealand road codes book today to study so I know all the signs and the speed limits. Marc wants us to rent a car tomorrow and drive 4 hours to and from Palmerston North, the nearest visa immigration office. Not sure Im up for that! That'd be the first time in my whole life I feel too nervous to do something lol. Must be getting older!!
Still.. it would be less nerve wracking than driving the ambulance with lights and sirens for my first ever drive in new zealand. I'm going to drop by the station next week just to drive the ambulance around town lol. Which would take about 2 minutes. I have my three week induction though so actually its fine, I'll get some driving in then around these windy mountain roads and towns :)
Its 8pm here now and were tired lol x we haven't had jet lag really, we just went straight into a sleeping pattern of going to bed early, about 8.30/9pm, and getting up at about 6am. Its been handy.
so tomorrow hopefully my visa application is sent off by post.. and we say yes for definite to the red house :) pictures coming soon if we get it! I don't start my induction until the 22nd of march visa permitting (it can take up to 25 days so we'll see). Until then, we should do some hiking! and mountain biking.. we'll see :) xx
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