Annoyingly – we were right in a black hole
for both phone signal and wifi, so couldn’t really do any research on the
subject of treatment, travel insurance coverage – any kind of medicare for
travellers etc so when we arrived we were still at a loss. At this point, we
were both thinking the damage was muscular or tissue – given how she fell and
the lack of mobility in the joint. We were busy reading up on physiotherapists
and medical centres in the city – and also the New Zealand ACC scheme (whereby
all injuries and treatments are pretty much covered, provided you fill out the
right forms), when Lisa came across a health helpline – a government run
freecall advice line. Worth a shot, and we were right by a phonebox in the
carpark.
After a 15 minute or so conversation she
advised us to head straight for the local A&E department at Southland
Hospital as they would be the best people to see in the first instance, and she
didn’t mention anything about it being a problem we were just here temporarily.
It was closeby so we went straight there, filled out our forms and settled down
in the waiting room.
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| All the painkiller you need |
It was about an hour and a half before Lisa
got to go through – based on the forms and her answers to the initial
questions, it was directly off for an X-ray. Immediately we were both concerned
– both for the results, but also the cost given how much we knew those were
back in Australia. After that (Lisa said the experience was fairly traumatic –
mainly from the pain of undressing for it unaided) – it was more waiting, about
30 minutes before she was whisked backstage to speak to the specialists.
There were two – an American surgeon, and a
Kiwi bone doctor who had been called for a second opinion.
(Lisa) I had a bit of a horrible feeling
I’d done more than just pull a muscle when during the x-ray I’d overheard one
nurse say to the other ‘oooooooo, there it is…’ but they had introduced
themselves as students so part of me was hoping they were in the REALLY early
days of study and just referring to my shoulder…
The American surgeon confirmed my fears as
he flipped the computer screen so I could see it and said... ‘Well, yeah as far
as I can see it looks like you may have taken a small bone chip out of one side
when you fell…’ (okay, bone chip, that doesn’t sound too drastic…) ‘…and see
this dark line here across the bone, yeah that’s the break…’ (ah balls.)
Fortunately American surgeon was very nice,
Kiwi bone specialist left much to be desired with his bedside manner and pretty
much told me to cut my losses and save money by heading home early, as I was
likely to have ‘a very boring holiday’ from here on in… Having explained our
plans to travel Asia I was obviously a little bit upset at the news and I think
American surgeon picked up on it, because he waited for Kiwi bone specialist to
leave before saying ‘don’t listen to him, I’d go to Asia…you’ll be fine, what
more do you need than a pair of shorts?!’
[James] Lisa emerged from the ward sporting
a rather fetching new sling and clutching a handful of paperwork. Initially – I
just presumed the sling was to keep the sprain in place (ever the optimist, me)
so I said something like “aw…there’s my little trooper!” really loudly and she
immediately welled up with tears. I sensed the news was not about to be good.
We went back to the X-ray dept to pick up a
CD of the images to take to another hospital before we left NZ as it needs to
be checked out again before we leave western medicine in a few weeks – then
headed back to the reception area to see if we were done (fearing that this was
the point at which they would be presenting us with our bill) – but to our
pleasant surprise, none was forthcoming (thankyou NZ government!).
It was a small consolation on what had
otherwise been a pretty shitty day of travelling.
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| View from our haven |
After a stopoff at a pharmacy to pickup a
prescription and another stopoff at the liquor store for a bottle of Baileys –
we headed back to the Catlins, determined to see some more of it. The prospect
of another night in the van with Lisa’s injury wasn’t too appealing, so we
found a nice looking self contained unit overlooking Waikawa harbour, about 5
minutes away from the campsite the night before, and booked ourselves in.
On arrival – it was perfect. Warm, comfy
with a kitchen and awesome bathroom (compared to the laughable facilities at
the campsite at Curio Bay which consisted of outdoor toilets and a shower in
what looked like a tiny lighthouse, complete with rusty sliding metal doors),
so we cooked up a feast and got DRUNK watching English TV, before getting into
bed late and making the most of our electric blankets.
The next day we decided early that it was
faaaaar to comfortable in the unit to leave so we arranged another night. It
was costing about the same as our daily activity budget – but we weren’t really
planning on doing too much so didn’t mind! I’d already woken up at 6am all hot
from the electric blanket and fire which I’d left going all night (got too
excited about being warm for a change!) so crept out and enjoyed the sunrise,
leaving the wounded gazelle to snooze in late.
 |
| Sunrise over Waikawa Harbour |
After a leisurely morning we decided to go
and check out a few of the sights which were easy to do – starting with Slope
Point, the most Southerly Tip of the South Island of New Zealand. It was a
fairly epic journey (once again) but fortunately, once we arrived at the
parking area it was fairly easy going and we experienced no further casualties.
Afterwards we headed towards the Cathedral
Caves – which are on private land, only accessible 2 hours either side of low
tide and looked spectacular. After a 45 minute drive there – it was CLOSED. Perfect!
Fortunately, right next to that was our
backup plan of McLean Falls – also one of the featured spots in all the tourist
brochures for the Catlins, and also the awful DVD (made from an 80s video) we’d
watched at the unit last night. We turned around and headed into the day use
area – only to find the road blocked with cones and tape. CLOSED.
We were beginning to think that we had
offended the Catlins somehow, and were feeling rather defeated, deflated and
fed up. Fortunately we knew we had some penguin action to fall back on, and the
weather was looking pretty good so we headed back to Curio Bay so Lisa could
check them out up close. En route we stopped at “Niagara Falls” – which had a
rather small sign on the road, and an amusing write up in the LP. We immediately saw why – it was tiny! Apparently an early settler named it after
the famous falls as a joke – but it had stuck.
 |
| Bottom of the world (well, almost). |
Onwards we ventured to the penguin viewing
beach – we were about 30 minutes early, but the place was already packed.
Saturday, dammit! We strolled down to the beach and it was already pretty
busy - especially compared to the day
before yesterday when there was just 5 of us down there. There was one penguin
who’d already come up and was heading into his burrow – of course we only knew
that because there were 8 or so tourists standing 3 feet from him (again,
despite the HUGE – STAY 10 METRES FROM THE PENGUINS signs which even had a
diagram to spell it out). We picked out a rock out of the way and waited about
30 minutes before we got any action.
 |
| Epic. |
Unfortunately by this point – another
couple dozen people had arrived and were gathering in anticipation. As soon as
a little penguin emerged from the water – a Japanese guy saw it and immediately
started yelling to his group as loudly as possible to get their attention, then
ran over in front of it to take some pictures. It promptly disappeared back
into the water – but it was too late. Clearly everyone else on the beach heard
him and came over to where we were to see him – but not content with being 20,
or even 10 metres away – they all crowded around as close as possible, standing
in it’s way of getting back onto the beach to get pictures as he eventually
came back out.
It got us both REALLY angry – along with a
few other watchers who had just stayed where they were, but couldn’t see
anything for all the dickheads. Apparently in the summer busier periods, the
Dept of Conservation send down a ranger to keep the crowds behaving themselves
and out of the penguins way – but unfortunately it was only just starting and
it was a free-for-all. As the 25-30 crowd stalked the penguin up the rocks, we
decided to leave. My instinct was to go over and (not so) politely remind them
all of the signs they had passed on the way down, but it would’ve been a waste
of time. It’s a real shame, as it’ll end up with this beach being closed to the
public because of the actions of a few overexcited idiots harassing the first
penguin they see - despite the fact that another couple of dozen are just
waiting offshore to also come past if you are patient enough to just sit there
for an hour or so.
The only plus was seeing the 100 million
year old petrified forest on the shoreline – created when a volcano eruption and
subsequent lava flow and fire engulfed the area, but kind of preserved the
trees in rock form. At first you don’t really notice, it all just seems like
rocks and not out of place. But when you peer a bit closer, you can make out
the bark and wood grain from trees but is now completely solidified, it was
pretty cool.
Again, defeated but slightly angrier than
before we headed back to the unit for another quiet night – we were planning on
getting up early to head towards the mountain regions of the South West which
looked like a long drive.
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