All Along the Watertower

Today was another walking exploration of my neighborhood, in which I saw a few more interesting things:

A cute little babbling brook which leads to the Tasman sea.  Which was my next stop on my walk, and these guys were quite photogenic for me:

I took a further walk down the beach to some more rocky cliffs, and found this interesting fossil:

I spent part of the day getting a tutorial on the clinic's Electronic Medical Record.  For those of you that are curious, it's a wee bit easier (but way less powerful!) than NextGen.  I also borrowed a book like the PDR (Physician's Desk Reference for my nonmedical followers) to help learn the names of some medicines here that may be different.  The current doc here said that the amount of gout, eczema, and allergies he's been seeing is quite extreme.   But enough shoptalk, I don't start til Monday!  

After my training, I explored a bit more of town.   Visited King Edward's Park, a beautifully landscaped park that will for sure be even more beautiful when spring begins very very soon:

Below is what I think will be a rose garden... stay tuned for beautiful updated pics of this in a few months!

I also found a fiddlehead fern. 

Have you ever eaten one?  While they're fun and tasy to eat, many of them contain an enzyme that breaks down thiamine (Vitamin B1).  So don't eat too many or you'll end up with heart and nerve problems like alcoholics sometimes get due to vitamin B deficiency!   There's your medical lesson of the day :)

Then I did the main touristy thing in town-- climbed the Hawera Water Tower!

The town was orginially named "Te Hawera" which means "the burnt place", after an incident when one Maori tribe surprised another tribe in the middle of the night and burned down the entire town!  The town built up again in the 1880s, but in 1888 and 1912 two additional large fires reeked havoc on this poor town.  So insurance companies demanded a more reliable firefighting system in order to prevent sky-high insurance premiums.   Thus, the water tower was built!     52 meters tall (thats 168 feet for you, Geoff!), 215 steps to the top..... when full it can hold 680,000 litres (150,000 gallons!).  Here are some pics from the top, where you can get a feel for the size of the town of Hawera.

But my rural beach house is about a 10 min drive from all this "downtown" craziness :)

Speaking of which, as I was making dinner, I finally caught glimpse of the AMAZING Mount Egmont out my kitchen window!   

More details on Mount Egmont soon.  I have a hike planned there tomorrow!  In other good news, I am the proud holder of a ticket for a rugby match tomorrow night in New Plymouth!!    My local team, the Tenderlink Taranaki, are playing Tasman.  This match is part of the ITM Cup, the domestic professional league here in NZ.   I'm so excited!

The last excitment of the night involves the splendid sunset I saw front my front porch.  I have a feeling there are many more of these to come!

That's all for now!  More updates after my rugby/hiking adventures this weekend!