Starting to Get My Research Groove On

So, without further ado, let me give you the last few days and catch everyone up entirely on my goings on.  I finally started to meet with people and I have some very promising appointments coming up in the next few days as well, which I am super excited about.  Thanks to everyone for the warm wishes so far (I can use all the warmth I can get, haha).

Monday, May 17th


Woke up a bit early today (8 am) in order to make it over to the Welly Visitor's Center (and also because I haven't fully adjusted to the time zone differential yet) in time to catch a tour of the city.   I waited at the center for about five minutes before a man in a van pulled up and said he was the tour guide.  As I was expecting more of a bus than a van, I was a bit skeptical, but it all turned out to be legitimate.  As it was a Monday in the winter in Wellington, I was the only one on the tour, which afforded me the awesome opportunity to have a chauffeur take me around the city.  His name happened to be Nathan, and we had some very interesting discussions about the differences between New Zealand and the US during some of the dead space in the tour (hint: there are a of differences, especially when it comes to health care).  Of particular interest was New Zealand's ACC, or accident insurance system, which provides care and wages during recovery from unintentional injuries, and thus severely cuts down on the number of litigations.  We also spoke for a while about New Zealand's energy policies, and how they are trying to incorporate more wind and wave energy into their infrastructure, while remaining a nuclear-free country.

The tour started off with a drive south of the city to Mount Victoria, which is the highest point within the city limits.  As such, it affords some great views of the city and the harbour, as well as the mountains and ocean in the distance.  A recurring theme throughout the day turned out to be the proximity of amazing nature vistas to the urban center of Wellington.  This is all possible because Wellington, despite being the capital of New Zealand, is only about 400,000 people strong.  After Mt. Victoria, we drove to Newtown, which is ironically enough the oldest part of Wellington, the idea being that it was new when named.  It is now a bit run down, but is seeing some revival as the city tries to rescue the colonial Victorian architecture that is only present there.  All the buildings are made of wood, just like Old St. Paul's, thanks to the constant threat of earthquakes.

From there we drove out to the coastal roads, which hug the rugged shore.  The coast looked very similar to that of Northern California, with lots of rocky outcroppings, although there were some sandy beaches.  We stepped out of the car and walked around for a bit, and the sea air was even more incredible on this side of the mountains.  There is a strong belief in keeping the coast natural in Wellington, so very little of the shoreline is developed.   This means that wildlife still frequent it, as evidenced by the penguin crossing sign we came across.  The area quite frequently gets Orca whales as well, although not on this day, unfortunately.

Following the coastal roads, we made our way to Miramar Peninsula, which had been an island until the city decided to fill in the swampland separating it from the mainland.  There we went to the suburb of Seatoun, which is one of the wealthier districts in Wellington.  Even here, in an almost entirely Pakeha (read: European descent) neighborhood, there was a school taught completely in Maori.  How's that for progressive policy?  Also there was Peter Jackson's house, although I didn't take any pictures because the tour guide noted, "We don't do paparazzi and we don't bother Peter Jackson at his home."  The man has a rather reverential following in this country.

After that we went on to tour the various buildings associated with the making of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  They were all remarkably small and modest, but apparently also very high tech and modern on the inside.  The Weta Cave, which handled all the special effects, was a really cool place to visit, as they had some of their props out on display.  We came back into town along Oriental Way, which is the only section of the coast on which high rise buildings are allowed, mostly because they were already there by the time nature preservation became a national issue.  Back in town, we drove by Parliament, where a bomb scare had just been dealt with while the Chinese had some top diplomats visiting.  I noted the big difference in security between the Premier House (where the NZ Prime Minister lives) and the UK High Commission.  The lack of security in NZ is kind of encouraging, to be honest.

I had Nathan drop me off by the entrance to the Wellington Cable Car, which travels from the city up a steep incline to Kelburn.  From there, I walked back down to the city through the botanical gardens.  There were a lot of very neat exhibits, and even a novice like myself could enjoy the sights and smells of so many different trees and flowers.  There were exhibits of native plants, Australian plants, succulents, endangered native plants, and even a huge rose garden.  The lower portion of the pathway back to town went through an old cemetery, where I quickly found the old Jewish section (lots of stones littered the ground out of respect).  Back in town, I took a quick look about the National Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Supreme Court Building.  Both of them are very new and modern.  Cooked myself some dinner and prepped for my first interview, with Dr. Lis Ellison-Loschmann at Massey University, tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, May 18th


I woke up pretty nervous about my meeting with Dr. Ellison-Loschmann.  I was prepared, but you always feel nervous about these sort of things, especially the first one.  I walked up Kent Terrace and the hill it lies on before coming to a small cricket ground.  From there, I took a right to the National War Memorial, and then straight back onto the main campus of Massey University.  I wandered around campus, lost, for a while, before a nice lady at the reception desk pointed me in the right direction.  It turned out her office wasn't on the main campus, but in the Research Building, which was in a light industrial area nearby on Adelaide Road.  I went to the 2nd floor of the building, where another very nice lady got me some water and asked me to wait.  After a while, we both realized that Dr. Ellison-Loschmann was not going to make it.  I later learned that she had been tied up in another appointment out of town, and we rescheduled our meeting for Friday.

I then walked down Cuba Street and got some amazing fish and chips, or as the locals would say fush end chups.  They were excellent, greasy, and seemingly never ending.  From there I went to the New Zealand Olympic Museum, right on the waterfront.  It was small and quirky, but interesting nonetheless, especially given all the torches, uniforms, and medals on display.  Right next door was the Museum of Wellington, so I visited there as well.  The museum is in the old building used for holding goods before their duty had been paid, as well as home to the former Wellington Harbour Board.  On the first floor of the museum was an exhibit which highlighted one interesting event from each of the last 100 years in the city.  On the next floor was an exhibit about shipping in Wellington and the Wahine ferry disaster.  On the final floor was a display about Maori in the region, with a holographic show about Maori storytelling.

Wednesday, May 19th


Today my research began in earnest.  I woke up early, shaved, got very smartly dressed, and went on my way for a 9:00 am meeting the Honourable Peter Dunne, who is, among many things, a Member of the New Zealand Parliament, the leader and sole representative of the United Future Party, the Minister of Revenue, and the Assoc. Minister of Health.  I got to Bowen House, where his office is located, and was directed to the 19th floor.

After a brief wait in the lobby of his office, which takes up half of the floor, I was invited into his personal office.  We sat down and began to discuss the matter at hand almost immediately.  He is a very friendly and inviting person, and I was very interested in what he had to say.  We discussed several topics, including the New Zealand health system, New Zealanders perceptions of the role of the state in health care, the public vs private hospital debate and the attempt to have the two sectors work more cohesively, the Maori and Pacific Islander challenges being faced by the government as pertains to different cultural norms, and especially new health policy aimed at closing disparities.  Of particular note was the Whanua Ora policy, which is just now coming into effect, and aims at having a more localized, decentralized health provider interface with the traditional Maori communities.  We also discussed his work with the United Future Party, which I was curious about as a Political Science student.  It was a very helpful meeting, to be sure.

Afterwards, I visited the National Arhives and saw an original copy of the Treaty of Waitangi, which serves as New Zealand's founding document.  It was not in great shape, but was being kept in a very sensitive environment to prevent further wear.  There was a basin of water outside of the exhibition room for Maori, so that they might remove bad effects from having such close contact with something related to the dead (as all the signatories of the Treaty certainly are by now).

I then made my way back to the YHA and worked on planning more appointments for my research.  Tomorrow, I have a meeting with officials at the Ministry of Health, here in Wellington.  On Friday, I will be meeting with Minister Ruth Dyson, Dr. Ellison-Loschmann, and Mr. G. Oliver Smart, who is a past president of the Circumnavigators Club and assisted in getting me a meeting with Min. Dunne.  I also set up a day in the field with a health worker in Gisborne, which is sure to be interesting.  All is looking well, I think.

That's it for now, more to come.