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New Zealand Reports

Introduction

This section contains elective reports from New Zealand. Use the menu above to select a particular hospital/region.

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General Information

Getting around: Hiring a car is the easiest way to travel. Coaches are quite expensive, but cheaper if book online in advance. Can get cheap flights and ferries online. Other advice: Be respectful of Maori traditions, especially if on home visits. In peak seasons, may need to book hostels and trips in advance. If arranging elective through the universities, need to apply at least a year in advance as they get booked up really early.

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Wellington

Submitted by:	Kakali Pal
Date of visit:	May 2008

Destination contact: Dr Mark Huthwaite. Wellington School of Medicine, Wellington, New Zealand >mark.huthwaite@otago.ac.nz
The attachment was organised through Dr Mark Huthwaite, who was very helpful. He also arranged a homestay for us, which was much nicer and worked out cheaper than staying hostels for a month. (Rent was $30 per night including food and washing, etc). He was also quite relaxed and encouraged us to go sightseeing, so we were able to take time off and see quite a lot of the country!

The attachment - psychiatry
I spent 4 weeks in New Zealand at the Hutt Valley doing psychiatry. During the attachment I attended clinics, meetings and spent time on the wards of different psychiatry specialities such as old age psychiatry, general adult, maternal mental health and Maori mental health. Most of the services available were the same as this country, as was the pathology seen. The most interesting part was the Maori mental health services. Although the treatments used by the psychiatrist were the same, the Maori team had an even more holistic approach. They especially concentrated on family issues and were very respectful of the patients' family backgrounds and Maori cultural values. Often meetings would start and end in prayers and they had a spiritual leader as part of the team to help the patients deal with their illnesses. It was interesting to gain more experience of psychiatry, and learn more about the importance of cultural values and patients' background.

Places to visit:
In a word...lots!! North Island: Auckland, Rotorua (Very pretty geothermal pools, Hobbiton tours, zorbing, etc)Also Lake Taupo, Waitamo caves, Tongariro Crossing are meant to beautiful, but we didn't go there.

South Island: Certainly more stunning than the North. Abel Tasman National Park (very beautiful, and good for kayaking or canoeing if you like water stuff), Nelson, Bleinheim Wineries, Christchurch, Tranzalpine train through mountains, Fox and Franz-Joseph Glaciers, Punakaki rocks, Moeraki Boulders (very cool rocks, worth seeing if you're driving past them) Oamaru (for little penguins at dusk) and Queenstown (good for extreme sports eg bungee, skydiving, canyon swing, paragliding, and also jetboating, skiing & snowboarding in winter. You can also can do daytrips to Milford Sounds. Mount Cook is also meant to be quite cool.

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