Bibliography

One of the joys of our time away was rediscovering the joy of reading. After reading text books, computer screens and journals all day at work the last thing I would want to do in the evening would be to get stuck into a good book. With no TV or other distractions around and plenty of time sat waiting for transport to leave or some other event there was no excuse. A good book it was any while there were many trashy novels consumed for want of anything better, we did manage to pick up many good reads. We ended up with a fair few classics due to the fact that they were often half the price of a modern day effort. In a rough order, the better ones were:

• Soul Maountain - Gau Xingjian
• The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain - Mark Twain
• Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
• Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
• Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
• Kim - Rudyard Kipling
• No Full Stops for India - Mark Tully
• to Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
• Animal Farm - George Orwell
• Untouchable - Mulk Raj Anand
• White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
• Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
• Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
  

Bloody Gilbert and the Exploding Van

Working life "started" with a bit of an anticlimax. Despite our phone calls and our applications being marked as urgent (as vets are on the long term skills shortage list) our visas failed to materialise by the Monday morning and after popping into the surgery there was little we could do so we just went home. It was also Amy's birthday so despite our continued unemployment we still went to the pub for a meal and a few bevvies. The week ticked on, time was easily filled registering with the library, finding furniture, organising utilities and other such exciting things. By Thursday we welcomed the phone call from immigration however it was definitely a case of good and bad news. Amy was issued with her visa but because of my so called irrelevant abnormality my application needed to be referred to the medical department for assessment. Having not been to the doctor for anything other than vaccinations since leaving school this was a little annoying to say the least especially when I was told that the process could take up to 8 weeks and at that point further tests may still be needed. I had also done a little bit of self research and thought that it was most likely that I was suffering from the harmless Gilbert's Syndrome which is found in 5-10% of the population. Mum had asked a doctor at home who also suggested this and even the lady who took my blood for a recheck suggested this without prompting. At least it meant that we would have money to pay the rent but I was worried about the possibility of developing cabin fever trapped in Ashburton. What made it worse was that our boxes from the UK with the laptop had not yet been delivered and so I could not use the time to go through the previous 6 months photos and the temporary India camera fix had failed just before heading to the Fiordlands and I had dropped the camera off at the Ashburton shop for hopeful repair. Just how could I cheaply spend my time? The first week however passed quickly enough and we completed our first overnight tramp at the weekend, heading up to the Arrowsmith mountains and overnighting at Cameron hut. The trip up the valley was a long 7 hours made worse by the fact that the track was impossible to follow in places and once you were off the route it was a case of bashing through thick, spiky undergrowth. The final stretch up a boulder and gravel river bed wore us out completely and so we were pleased to find the hut a cosy place to spent the night with just 2 other people turning up later. The trip back was the same route and with fewer wrong turns and the gradient downhill we were not quite so tired once we arrived back at the van. Week 2 started much the same, visiting the library to catch up on reading all of the Amateur Photographer magazine that I had missed since leaving the UK and they had on the shelf, going to the supermarket and even going for the odd run. The surf forecast for Timaru looked good for the Wednesday and so on Tuesday evening I tootled on down the coast to be there for sunrise when the swell hit and the tide was right. Sunrise was great and I joined 4 or 5 other guys out in the water at Patti Point. The set waved became a solid 5 foot and hollow with a pretty dicey takeoff, at least from my point of view having been out the water for so long. I caught a few of the smaller ones but did not like the look of a trip over the falls onto a reef cushioned by a mass of kelp. This was even more the case after the best guy in the lineup took a tumble and joked about getting caught up in all the weed before surfacing! The weather then closed in a bit and swell dropped so rather than hang around to see if there would be anything for an afternoon session I decided to head for home. They say bad things happen in threes and sure enough, having been refused a visa and my camera breaking something else was inevitable. Half way to home the van lost power. Pulling over, the engine seemed very hot and so after letting it cool I thought it could be nursed the final 50kms left before then taking it to the garage. 5kms later a knocking started, power was lost and just as I pulled into a lay-by the engine cut out completely. We had breakdown cover and after being towed to Geraldine the mechanic tried to gently break it to me ("It's not good news I'm afraid mate") that the engine was dead, new one needed. Amy came to the rescue and towed us home and having a few new friends over for dinner helped lighten the mood but come the morning I was ready to head back to the UK. I could not imagine another 6 weeks stuck without wheels and unemployed. Thank goodness then that the call came saying that my visa had been approved that afternoon, the confirmation email having been carbon copied to the registrar of the New Zealand Vet Council who I had recruited to help pester immigration to speed things up. And so it was that 3 weeks behind schedule and on a Friday that I started working at last, 240 days after leaving Belmont House.