It's all about the sailing!

October 2013 has been memorable! Therefore I feel the need to share some of the amazing weekends I have been lucky to have in this month, which funnily enough both had sailing links. Now after seeing how seriously the Kiwi's regard sailing, and having literally no idea about sailing boats, (especially proper sailing with boats with sails and everything...) I was keen to take these opportunities!

Weekend one was down in the South Island, with my friend and fellow OT - Paula. After meeting her in the delightful town of Timaru, 2 hours south of Christchurch, we made the most of the weekend by meet ing her friend Tony, and heading to Lake Aviemore. Paula who is an all action kiwi lady, has her own boat! Yes quite a feat indeed, so as you can see from the photo below we drove the boat to the lake with her truck!

Taking the boat to Lake Aviemore

After making good time and being able to get the boat in the water before nightfall, we were able to spend Friday night on the boat. This meant that come Saturday morning, we woke to the following scenes... (joined by a few other boats belonging to members of the Otago and Timaru Yacht Club)...

Moorings at Lake Aviemore

Our particular spot had it's own particular features, including a submerging boarding platform , but absolutely gorgeous views...

After breakfast and some interesting chats with some of the other sailing club members, Paula led me and Tony out on the lake, and was fab with her instructions, and made me feel very safe, even as the winds began to pick up, and the boat really tilted during some 'tacking' maneuvers.

Tony & Paula keeping watch..

Enjoying a sail with Captain Paula...

Of course sailing wouldn't be sailing with out some seriously bad pirate impressions, and this patch (that just happened to be on board) did little to help with my awful impressions - I was no Captain Jack Sparrow....

Saturday's on-lake adventure was cut short by some pretty strong winds but that didn't stop our crew keeping up the fun activities with a spot of 'slack-lining', which is something I have never tried before, but have seen people doing around Wellington. It involves tying a line between two trees, posts or anything, and then trying to walk along the line without falling off.... it's not easy! Paula started off, and did a pretty good job....

I went next but was bloody awful, even though I thought my balance was half decent... I needed help, and lots of it...

Tony was just awesome, and it was amazing watching him regain his balance whilst balancing on this line...

Saturday night was the 'highlight' of this weekend, as the theme of the weekend was cowboys. Having never been shy to have a dress up, I got myself a half decent costume. Paula & Tony joined in the fun with the rest of the yacht club, see below...

I went for what I thought was a decent outfit, but most people who saw it seem to think it's a bit close to being like 'Woody' from Toy Story....

After a few beers, and some funny games of cards we spent another night on the boat, before I had a 4 hour drive back to Christchurch airport and a flight back to Wellington. Couldn't thank Paula enough for a great experience and for teaching me about the basics of sailing!

Weekend 2 - was up in Auckland (North Island) and involved boats of a much bigger kind. The 'Tall Ship Regatta' is a World wide race, that has several legs. This leg was from Sydney to Auckland (across the Tasman sea). The reason for heading up to Auckland to see some of the boats, was to catch up with friends, and return the car of a friend back to her family home - which meant a 10 hour drive from Wellington to Auckland! Quite randomly this led to a chance encounter to meet my mate Bez in Taupo who happened to be staying there that weekend.
Another reason for heading to Auckland was because I knew someone (Kylie) who was actually on one of the boats - The Tecla - a Dutch boat that actually came 2nd in this race. The weather was amazing in Auckland as you can see, and the view over the harbour as perfect for seeing the boats...

Tall ships by the 'Cloud' building...

One of the biggest and most popular ships you could look around was the 'Spirit of New Zealand', and as you can see from the photo's it was pretty popular!

As I said, my friend's boat the Tecla, cam second and was one of the smaller boats in the Regatta. It was moored in a great spot, with a backdrop of the city behind it. Kylie was able to get me on board to have a look around and show me the living quarters that she and the rest of the friendly crew had endured for the past few weeks.  The crew would take shifts through the day and night, and somehow managed to sleep in-between!

Views of the Tecla, with City Backdrop

Auckland back drop...

After a fun night out with the crew drinking beers, and listening to all kinds of funny stories and tales from this friendly bunch, on Sunday we took the time to explore a few of the other ships, including the 'Spirit of New Zealand'. It was an awesome ship, with a mini lecture theatre build under the deck, and could hold a significant number of recruits. 

Kylie on the 'Spirit of NZ'

Wet weather gear!

So in just 2-3 weeks I had found myself on boats; on a small sail boat in Lake Aviemore in the South  of the South Island, and a large sail ship in the North of the North Island - both times with friends who could teach me about the skills of sailing. I have definitely appreciated some of the finer points of sailing and have begun to understand why this activity is so popular and part of the culture of New Zealand.  These experiences were not possible without the support of these friends, and it's yet more fantastic memories to add to an already amazing year!  

An unexpected journey, conflicts of interests in the workplace and what a moment of realisation!

Hey everybody! It's been a funny old weekend, with a collection of lots of different activities with lots of different people. I've even managed to complete my 'extreme ironing' tonight in time to sit and wrote this blog, (and maybe catch the episode of 'Miranda' on TV shortly.

The pictures from this post are all from last weekend's Auckland Adventure ( a trip to see the the theatre production of 'Wicked' - which was indeed a wicked show! 

At 'Wicked' Auckland

The adventure though began after the afternoon show, as we missed our flight (from Auckland to Wellington), which left us with the choice of a very expensive flight, an excruciating 11 hour bus journey, or a 10 hour car drive split between two of us! Of course there was only one real option - a one day, ten hour drive from top to bottom of the North Island. Stops included the magnificent Lake Taupo, the coastal town of Napier, and the black hole of the Wairarapa, (Masterton).  My Auckland adventure was shared with my good friend and fellow OT Soo-Yin, and her sister  

Pre show excitement!

The journey started out about 08:30, and took in some great sights, and we came across a few unexpected sights along the way, including these 'Superloos' in Cambridge. Now as our traveling party included 2 OT's and a Physiotherapist, we just couldn't resist the photo opportunity!

NZ has 'superloos'

There are some pretty unique small towns along the way, but the winner had to be this place, which had a serious fetish for corrugated iron structures. Even the local church got in on the act with a shepherd!

Corrugated iron town!

 Visiting NAPIER was a new experience for me, and even though we stopped for all of 1 hour, the place had a lovely vibe to it, tempting me to head back there for a weekend some time in the future. It's only about 5 hours drive from Wellington.

Napier gardens

Napier Gardens

Excited Dan at Napier beach

Chilling in the Napier tree...

Napier Flowers...

REFLECTING ON WORK:

I've had a few quite significant events / experiences with clients over the past few weeks, which have certainly tested a number of my organisational, conflict resolution, and time management skills, along with needing to use my physical health experience in this mental health role. I certainly feel confident and competent in the few occasions where some of my mental health clients have become physically unwell. I think having a generic view (and experience) allows me to support clients in their dealings with the physical health system, and what can be quite a traumatic experience. I think at time I may have supported my clients in areas of their lives which may be perceived to be outside of my 'current job scope', and thinking about this led me to start thinking about how my role as both a Case Manager and an Occupational Therapist may conflict with each other. 

An event this week really had me questioning a conflict between my roles. As OT's we often talk about being client-centred, advocating for clients, and facilitating opportunities to empower and engage in meaningful occupations. As a Case Manager, I found myself being asked (within a legal framework) to write a report from my perspective about the use of the mental health act for my client. My client's wish's were quite different from the ideas put forward by myself, and having to then justify these ideas not only in front of my client, but in front of a judge in the mental health court was not a pleasant experience. Discussing differences of opinion with clients is something I'm quite used to doing, and it's so important to be honest and transparent, however advocating for something that goes directly against my client's wishes, is something quite new to me. How will this event effect the therapeutic relationship and trust? Time will tell. These kind of situations raise some good ethical, moral and professional questions about the effectiveness and 'rightness' of OT's working in generic role. Is it a good or bad thing to work within two roles in the same job? That I hope to figure out!

Regards from New Zealand,
Dan 

NZ Occupational Therapy Clinical Workshops 2013 - when life comes full circle!

The Powhiri

Well hello everybody!

It's a week on from the 2013 Clinical Workshops, and it's been quite an amazing couple of years since attending the previous Clinical Workshops - an event that has changed the course of my life, and  ended up setting off a chain of events that brought me to be living and working on the other side of the world.

Living in NZ, the 'land of the long white cloud', has definitely has an affect on the way I've viewed many aspects of my professional and personal life. So the opportunity to go back to these workshops and share that journey with new colleagues, other professionals, and most importantly some good friends, was fantastic. 

NZ has a wonderful system where they alternate each year between a more standard 'Conference' setting, and 'Clinical Workshops'. This allows a variety of people to access a variety of research, clinical practice, and presentation styles, and for those of you that know me, it also allowed me to share a little of my own unique OT journey with the NZ OT's. 

DAY ONE HIGHLIGHTS:

After the traditional Powhiri, traditional greeting and welcoming address, including a speech from a prominent local politician ( an interesting choice indeed ), the first presentation session was indeed ou rown!

Our Presentation Team - Ros, Mordecai, Sarah & me!

I've always been passionate about not only share my own journey, but also to learn from other's journeys in a more relaxed setting, and also encourage others to do something similar. Therefore I was really excited to be joined for our presentation 'Around the OT world in 80 Mins' by 3 of my local colleagues from Wellington. After some brief introductions (you know how I can happily talk all day about this stuff), the next hour was spent with each of us sharing Case Studies from around the world of OT - Gibraltar, Zimbabwe, Australia and Vietnam - the session flew by, and we could have easily had another 90 minutes to develop the discussions shared by our wonderful participants! Thanks to all those wonderful people that contributed to a great start to the conference.

Me and Carolyn

After enjoying a delicious lunch and feeling far more relaxed, I headed to an afternoon discussion by Carolyn Simmons Carlsson (above) - entitled ' To SOAP or not to SOAP? - a thought provoking discussion about the use of Occupational Therapy language in medical notes, and how we as a profession we should promote our work through our language.

We celebrated with a little drink over dinner that night! 

DAY TWO:

Started with a truly brilliant, and wickedly funny workshop by the inspiring HUGH GAYWOOD, who described a process to 'BUILD A 3D DYNAMIC REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF' - basically building a 3D tree of your past, present, future with a view for future goals. The initial group activities focused on creating a web of connections between group participants, and Hugh's delivery was  first class and so engaging!

Hugh's workshop...

As you can see from the pictures it was a very interactive workshop and very 'OT'! The bottom of the tree represents childhood and youth, the middle section represents the present... and the top represents the future. Each side of the tree represents the self, family and the community. - I'm sure you get the idea...

Hugh's workshop...

Lunch was another great buffet, and left plenty of time for networking.....

Rachael, me & Sarah...

Mordecai, me and Sarah

....and a little time to look around the stalls, including getting some information for the 2015 APOTC  (Asia Pacific OT Conference) to be held here in New Zealand!

There were many OT's from my DHB (District Health Board) at the conference, and quite a few presenting too, and having such brilliant representation was a major boost for the Wellington region. We were able to round almost everyone up together for a group photo!

Wellington DHB OT's

The afternoon session was equally interactive with a rather oddly titled workshop - 'Bring back the Baskets and the Bunnies' - which looked at the benefits of maintaining creative activities, especially in a group format, in clinical practice. My personal highlight of this workshop was meeting a couple of very inspiring South African OT's who helped me with some of the practical tasks, and who later presented a great workshop. I also met a very inspiring honors OT student from Otago Polytechnic, who was later to end up dining with us at dinner!

The Gala Dinner (Murder Mystery with Italian Theme) 

Always a fun night, and this one was no exception with some interesting costumes, and a very entertaining murder mystery piece of acting from Andrew from the OT Board! The dinner was in a beautiful old house, with some gorgeous food! 

My good friends & Colleagues @ dinner!

Murder mystery continues!

Dinner!

Catching up with Cara!

Catching up with Andrew from the OT Board and fellow Northern Englishman!

One of the funny things of the dinner was noticing that the sponsors were a 'Bidet' Company... yes, A bidet company - sponsoring dinner! (Only in OT Land...) This led to some pretty poor toilet humour through the night and an interesting chat from the sponsor, as you can well imagine! 

DAY 3 (ALL ABOUT THE RACING)

So, the funny thing about NZ sports (in my experience) is that I haven't really seen lots of passion from the crowds, even the All Black (Rugby) games have had mellow crowds, so seeing the whole nation get excited and nervous about a sporting event was something I was waiting to experience. I was pretty surprised to find out that the entire country seemed obsessed with a Sailing competition - the reason I mention it, is because on Friday morning I woke up to find most of the workshop attendees sat in the hotel bar for breakfast huddled together to watch the America's Cup - with team NZ needing just 1 more win, to beat team USA.

Supporting Sailing!

More nervous times as NZ lose the first race...

I was surprised that anyone went to the first morning workshops, given the nerves in the bar over breakfast! I chose to attend 'NAVIGATING YOUR WAKA' A model of reflection by Esthe Davis. Another brilliant workshop on the need to eradicate the stigma of illness, 'by understanding that knowledge is the dawn of understanding, understanding is the first sign of tolerance and tolerance is the bright light of social harmony' - all from the perspective of Whanaungatanga (noun: relationship, kinship, sense of family connection - a relationship through shared experiences and working together which provides people with a sense of belonging. It develops as a result of kinship rights and obligations, which also serve to strengthen each member of the kin group. It also extends to others to whom one develops a close familial, friendship or reciprocal relationship.)

The final session of the day was presented by my good friend, and conference buddy Ros, who I first met at the Clinical Workshops two years ago. Ros is a pretty inspiring OT, who is also from the UK. Ros has been a great support to me during my time here, and shows what can be achieved when you put your mind to something. It was great to see some of the work she (and some of her colleagues) has been doing to highlight the issue of Elder abuse and Neglect, and the potential pivotal role that OT's can play in identifying this issue. 

Ros & Me

The final session and closing of the day included all the thanks, the final goodbyes and exchange of contact details. I was pretty frustrated at myself for forgetting my business cards! The session also included big thank you's going out to the organising committee who had done an fantastic job too! 

Organising committee! 

So as another Workshop came to a close, and old friendships had been renewed, and new friendships formed, my attention began to turn to the next challenge of speaking at the next WFOT (World) OT Conference in Japan next year. However, I began to reflect on the two years gone by, and the people that had helped shape my journey from one side of the world to the other... Merrolee Penman, Yvonne Browning, Ros Barham, and Cara just to name a few people. It's been an amazing journey and I start to understand the importance of how things, people, places and events are connected in a way that maybe I have never fully appreciated before...

The link between the Maori/NZ culture and the land, including a very deep respect and physical link to the land is something that has started to take a form in my life. This understanding of a physical link, crosses my professional and personal life and has really started to make me ask myself some very important question about what my links to the land, people and places in my life really are all about... This was not the kind of cultural learning I had expected when I discussed the idea of moving here two years ago...

...and now, on to Japan 2014 and the presentation of 2 abstracts in Japan:

1) Tall Poppy Syndrome: Friend or foe to clinical Intervention in NZ

2) The Hobb-OT: An Unexpected Journey, from Santiago to Yokohama via the Shires of England and NZ - What affects the development of OT Education / Practice around the world?

Thanks for reading, if you still are!

Regards from New Zealand.

Dan

A return to Nelson & Rabbit Island, (South Island) and Kayaking in Abel Tasman!

Hello everybody! Well it's been a pretty busy time here in Wellington (and in life generally), with the latest weekend adventure and this week's National OT Clinical Workshops / Conference, of which I will write a separate post about soon. I've also had the amazing news my abstracts have been accepted for next year's WFOT (World Federation Occupational Therapy) - IN JAPAN!!!!!

Of course life balances things out too, with some pretty difficult aspects of my work, including enforcing treatment under the Mental Health Act, which despite being in the best interests of clients, does not sit easily with my professional and personal ethics.

Today's post will be more about this little trip with BEZ - who is a mate from the UK that has recently made a move out here to live and work, and Bez was also a volunteer in Romania for the same charity that I volunteered for (Volunteers for mental health - www.vfmh.org.uk )

JOURNEY OVER THE COOK STRAIGHTS (North - South Island) 

Another sunny & beautiful Saturday morning allowed for some great picture taking, and allowed me to have my favourite view of Wellington again - from the water! I loved how as the boat set off, you could really see how there are houses just dotted around these huge hills overlooking the city...

Leaving Wellington...

As the skies were so clear, we had barely 'turned the corner' from Wellington Harbour before being greeted with one of the best views of the South Island Alps that I've seen all the way from the North Island.

As we approached the Northern tip of the South Island, and the port of 'Picton' through the stunning Marlborough Sounds, the colours of the hills and ocean became more and more vibrant, and almost everybody on board was out on the deck enjoying the stunning views on offer!

Through the Marlborough Sounds

Picton Port

Having had a dream crossing, and Bez's forward thinking to book a rental car ahead of time, we were quickly on our way towards Nelson. A few random people I had spoken with since leaving my flat that morning (including a man at the bus stop, that I shared a cab ride with, and a teacher on the ferry who was having a little break from work, by driving pretty much from North to South), had advised us to take the scenic route to Nelson - via Queen Charlotte's Pass.... and so we did - and oh we were glad we took that advice... 

These next few pictures are from the 90 minute drive through the Pass...

Bez overlooking Picton

It was an empty swing and with this background I couldn't resist! 

Dan 'on the rocks'

Now that's what I call a camping spot!

Like a scene from a sci-fi movie... invasion of the nosey cows!

Through Queen's Charlotte's pass...

Once I had stopped requesting Bez stop the car every 5 minutes for me to take more pictures, we finally arrived in Nelson, found our backpacker accommodation and considered out options! There was still some decent sunlight , and with that night's All Blacks vs South Africa rugby game approaching in a couple of hours we set off for the nearby area known as Rabbit Island. (I loved this place when I had visited once before, and I was not disappointed on my return)! I could talk about the amazing beach, views, forest - but the pictures will describe the place more emphatically than I ever could...

Me on Rabbit Island 

Bez seems to be enjoying the place!

Possibly my favorite beach in NZ so far! - Rabbit Island

Views through the trees Rabbit Island

Reflecting on Nature, Rabbit Island

Some beers, food and a pretty exciting, and controversial rugby match followed this little excursion, but not before some pretty decent sun set colours! 

Nelson Sunset

SUNDAY - ABEL TASMAN

Abel Tasman national park, one of the 'must see' sites on a NZ tour and a place that almost every tour of NZ will visit. Vast areas of forest, hills, mountains and ocean, leading to the usual array of activities, including trekking, paragliding, kayaking etc... Being just an hour from Nelson, and having a late ferry back that evening, we decided to drive to this spectacular place and see what we could find... an hour or so later we had the 'last point of civilisation' and a very helpful lady at the tourist information centre. 

Abel Tasman

Despite most tour operators being busy, we were told to drive down the road (2 mins) and see if we could spot anyone at a particular kayaking centre. It looked a little deserted, but we found a pretty funny worker, who was happy to give us a quite comical safety talk, and tell us about his marital disputes with his wife (who apparently wanted him to get a 'proper job' with a second child on the way). He towed us out to the ocean in his tractor, and so a 3 hour kayaking journey began. The weather was ok, but with a wind picking up, we spent what felt like an hour just getting away from the shore line! Obviously it's hard to take photos from a kayak, but we did stop on a deserted little beach to take a few shots! 

Bez with our 'Waka' ...

Lunch on a deserted beach in Abel Tasman

Signs of life... ah no, just my life jacket - better not forget that! 

The journey back to the beach was half the time, with wind assistance, though we had some quite comical moments with the tide in, and getting beached on a couple of sand banks, before eventually navigating our way to shore! 

After eventually getting dry (and warm), a return drive to Picton followed, and a late ferry departure meant our return to Wellington was delayed until after 11pm! A stint in the $2 massage chair in the ferry terminal helped me to relax further! 

Now I was ready for the upcoming presentations at the OT conference! 

Regards from New Zealand.

Dan