Saying Goodbye more pix

Saying Goodbye

Never having been one for goodbyes, these are made much easier by knowing we'll be back in a year. Michele landed in Auckland yesterday, purchased a minivan (with tinted glass and mag wheels and a racing muffler--don't know why someone would trick out a minivan, though I'm told this is not uncommon). Looking at pictures of it I realized the steering wheel is on the right hand side--forgot about that. First couple of weeks of driving should be interesting. It was recently imported from Japan so we'll have to try to get our hands on a geiger counter just to be on the safe side. She and her sister will drive down to Wellington to check out the high schools and hopefully find a furnished house to rent.

Had my last day of work--I'll really miss working with the fantastic team I work with. Leaving my patients is made much easier by knowing that they're in good hands and will be well cared for while I'm gone. Dr. Beard is now the lone token male in the department so please offer him support if you can. He needs someone to invite him over for beer and the ND-USC football game in the Fall.

Said goodbyes to many wonderful friends on Whidbey Island and had a party and got to see many for the last time for a while. Thanks for coming! The Diamond Knot IPA was great and we had a lot of fun so we may have to have another party when we come back.

In a week we'll say goodbye to our house and Buddy our dog who won't make the trip with us. Our renters will take care of him and our house so we're grateful to them.

Next post from Wellington where it's winter (though with our recent weather it won't be too much of a shock to the system).

Getting ready to go to New Zealand

With about a month to go, things are falling into place. My work granted me a one year sabbatical, I found a job at a clinic outside Wellington New Zealand in a town called Wainuiomata that serves ~80% Maori patients. I was accepted by the Medical Council of New Zealand and received a one year work visa.

We've found someone to rent the house (and take care of our dog for a year), sold a truck and various other things we didn't need, and got rid of a bunch of stuff.

Ben has finished his finals, James finishes school next week, and they're both excited to go, though neither one is excited about leaving their friends. They're also not excited about a short summer and then going to Winter in New Zealand and starting school August 1st. I keep reminding them their payback is a 6 week summer at Christmas time. It will be hard to leave friends and the long awaited summer here, though! We're going to have a going away party 4th of July weekend and hopefully will be able to say goodbye to many of our friends.