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[Music]
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Dr inati the Ultramar doctor welcome to
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my podcast K well thank you thanks for
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having me mate I'm so pleased that we
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finally um uh connected and made this
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happen 2024 insane year for you yeah
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yeah pretty nuts actually really I
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didn't think it was going to be that
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that crazy but I probably didn't fact
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during all the travel time and recovery
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time and stuff but yeah it's pretty nuts
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yeah explain what you're doing um so I'm
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trying to run a self-supported
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multi-stage ultramarathon on every
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continent and uh I just took the piss a
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little bit and said oh New Zealand's its
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own continent so I started there so
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about halfway through now well I am
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halfway through done four so far yeah
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and for the uninitiated what are these
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races yeah so um typically they're on
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the same format as I guess the Maran TOS
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was the first the big one so for seven
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days typically six running stages um you
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carry all your own gear while you run as
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well so everything you need to eat and
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look after yourself for that seven days
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um and typically the organizers just
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provide you with a tent or something
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equivalent to sleep under and a water
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allowance each day so you're running
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with about a um 10 to 11 kg pack at the
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start and you just eat your way through
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it right and and um no the sleeping bag
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does that stay in the in the tent no no
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everything stays with you so they just
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give you a shter to sleep under if
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you're lucky it's a tent um and some
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races I've had to carry my own um
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hammock in that
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um yeah and you run about a marathon a
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day and then they'll have a long stage
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where you do about a double do about
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some around 80k or
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more and and um yeah because you you're
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carrying your food that you eat um I
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suppose the the the one good thing is
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the pet gets lighter and lighter as you
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get on um but just the logistics of each
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of these races like I mean you must have
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it down down pat now in terms of what to
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take but what what are you eating is it
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like radex meals or yeah so pretty much
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um yeah dehydrated meals makes up a lot
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of it CU obviously it's just lightweight
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and then I usually take um oh there's a
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couple of New Zealand companies of stuff
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though like real meals uh Manuka
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performance um curs and then typically I
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take a backup of two-minute noodles cuz
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I found that um if my gut shut down like
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if it's really really hot I can still
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for some reason eat just cheap old
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two-minute
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noodles they're very light as well
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they're very light you can squash the
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packet down to a really quite a small
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size and you know so you can fit a lot
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of two-minute noodles in your pack and
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um you you need to carry emergency gear
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or anything like that like a there's
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always a compulsory kind of gear like
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sometimes they make you carry um a GPS
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tracker um but there's always like
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emergency survival gear compasses all
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that sort of stuff as well and they'll
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typically have a set um clothing as well
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in terms of warm kit cuz otherwise
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Runners being Runners You' just take
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like one set of undies and one set of
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shorts and that' be it you know unless
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they said hey you need two pairs of
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socks you just take one and just rough
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it which is generally what I try to do
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yeah why um you you're going to be if
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you if you manage to get this done which
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um at at the time we're recording this
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it's July and you're halfway through and
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you are on track you'll be the first
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person in the world yep so no one else
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has done it there's been a few people
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that have said they've run a self
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supporter race on every continent most
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of them don't um get the distinguish the
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idea that like New Zealand's not part of
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Australia so they bugger it up that way
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and none of them have done it in a year
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they've always done like 2 to three
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years I think yeah two years might be
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the shortest so far yeah so so where did
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the year run us through the year in the
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um the um yeah so it started off in I
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think it was March uh with the Southern
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Lakes Down South um then I went over to
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Namibia about five weeks after that um
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then it was a reasonably short
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turnaround I went off to the Jungle
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Ultra in Peru and then two weeks after
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that I was off in Mongolia and I got
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back from Mongolia about two weeks ago
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and then I'm off to Romania and about
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another two
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weeks oh my God yeah yeah um I I follow
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you on Instagram Ultramar doctor is your
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handleing I'm an awe of what you do but
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these um these trps you're not [ __ ]
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around he you're on the plane you're
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over there you do the event and then
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you're basically straight back on the
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plane back home yeah I try to like at
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least have maybe one day or two days or
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something that I can at least see the
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local sites cuz it seems a bit of a
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waste otherwise but it all really comes
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down to work and leave um like I've used
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up all my annual leave leave that I had
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stored up when you couldn't go away over
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the co period and then um to get out of
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some shift I've just swapped with other
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people at work so if I've got a little
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bit extra time I'll try to stay but most
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of the times yeah it's literally run the
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race the next day you're on the plane
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and you're making your way back and
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you're flying I'm business class of
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course cuz you're you're an emergency
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doctor I don't think I've ever fown
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business I think the only time I ever
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flew business class is with the military
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every time it's just like the cheapest
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cattle class down the back with you know
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like Southern China Airlines or
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Malaysian it's just whatever whatever's
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going the better you 11 to 17 hour
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flight sitting in the back and when
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you're sore after a race and there's not
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much leg room it's lucky I'm a short
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fell you know if I had long legs like
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you I'd be bugged you'd be what what is
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what is wrong with how you're wired you
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you just love doing hard stuff he the
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harder the better no I just reing I'm
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old and slow like I tried doing marathin
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like about 10 years ago and I just feel
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like the fastest I could ever get I
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think was like 3 hours 30 five or
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something and I was never going to get
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it quicker cuz I'm just you know not
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built for it built for Comfort yeah you
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know what do they say bit more of a
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diesel engine than a petrol so I find I
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can go long distances and through like
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quite hard conditions and it doesn't
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bother me too much in fact I enjoy it
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and I just can't do that fast stuff so
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older and slower and and if you look at
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your results you seem to get better in
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these events as as the the time goes on
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like um a lot of your finishes you're
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sort of you the pointing into the field
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you're up the top 10 yeah I'm usually
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getting in there and I a bit of it's
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like experience like generally I do get
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a bit better like my body sort of warms
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into it and thinks oh you stupid [ __ ]
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you're doing this again um so it sort of
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just goes into that sort of mode and a
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bit of it is like you warn the
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especially the young comps and new ones
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like don't go out like the clappers in
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the first couple of days and none of
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them listen so typically you'll go up
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the pack because you're maybe getting a
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bit quicker and a lot of them have like
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burnt themselves and are dropping out or
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dropping back pack so yeah usually start
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out pretty slow and get better
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especially on the long day is typically
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when I sort of hit my strides you still
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get um nervous before these events or
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anxious with the pain that's ahead or
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have you done so many now that you sort
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of just know what to expect I get more
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nervous with the travel I hate it sounds
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I hate travel I hate airports I hate
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transfers I'm always worried that my
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Kit's not going to show up or something
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like that but once the race starts now
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I'm pretty pretty comfortable with it
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yeah could you not um could you not just
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take your like essential kit for the run
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as um carryon yeah I do try to fit as
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much as you can in your carryon like in
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your race pack um the only downside is a
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couple times you've shown up they've
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lost your bag and you've lost all your
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race food and stuff and some of the
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places you go you can't get like
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dehydrated food you'll be eating
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whatever the locals eat or oh it's very
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Niche isn't it yeah very Niche you'll be
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getting sick you know but yeah yeah yeah
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and and what about the scholarship um
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this is part of your your big goal for
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this year and um just before coming on
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today I looked at the give a little page
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and it's um a lot less than what it
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should be at the stage of the year um
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hopefully after a little push on the
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podcast we can um get a few more dollars
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in there but this is this is really
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Noble of you the scholarship idea yes I
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think it just came to the part of my
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life where I'm sort of a bit more
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comfortable with work and where I am and
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I've really wanted just to sort of
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um yeah give back a little bit but give
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other people opportunities to do things
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and so we started up the scholarship um
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myself and Vicki my partner called K
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kior and we're just looking at getting
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um final year or you know close to final
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year students at school um who possibly
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haven't had the opportunity to like you
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know Express themselves or show what
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they worth um the opportunity to develop
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and that through running ultramarathons
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so we will you know fund them look after
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them train them and sort of mentor them
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and hopefully not only get them to do
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something like this but to help develop
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velop them further to go off and pursue
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whatever they want cuz um I mean I found
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when I was growing up um I was lucky I
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had to support a family but School
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wasn't that supportive and you know
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people were quite negative to you when
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you're a student and sometimes when
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you're young that's quite you know it's
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quite bad for the rest of your life
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that's detrimental Yeah Yeah you sort of
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start putting yourself in a little box
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of what you think you can do um well if
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you hear something often enough you
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start to believe it don't you yeah so I
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mean if you're a teacher or somebody
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body in your life just keeps on telling
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you you're worthless and you can't do
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things then you'll put yourself in that
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box that you can't whereas everyone you
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T to that's done like a multi-stage race
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wherever they've come from and people
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come from pretty diverse backgrounds the
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one thing they find out about themselves
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at the end is like you know [ __ ] I've
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just achieved something I never thought
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I could do in my life and a lot of them
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go on to change other aspects of their
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lives as well I mean I've done it since
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I've started running and um I think if
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you can get younger people to break out
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of that sort of self-imposed or Society
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P you know imposed restrictions at a
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young age then it'll change their
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direction for their lives and that's
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what we're aiming to do man oh that's so
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cool go there's um there's so many
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directions to go in just from that one
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answer um might stick on the running and
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poke around that for a while and then
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get into get into your childhood your
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early years and then and then your job
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and just how you fit everything in it's
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um you and I are about the same age I
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feel like a sack of
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[ __ ] I think about what I've done over
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the last 20 years and oh my God I feel
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lazy it's crazy what you're doing bro uh
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yeah you're just like you it's it's like
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um you're just like squeezing everything
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out of life well I'm trying to now I
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think
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I yeah like like I said coming out of
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school I probably wasted a lot of years
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cuz I just didn't think I could do a lot
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of stuff stuff sorry like when I was at
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school my um exit interview with the
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Headmaster was like you know stay out of
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jail and I was just like it's pretty
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rich thing to say to a young person were
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you a bad kid no I don't think so like I
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you I was in the top academic stream at
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school I played for some of the top
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sports teams at school I just probably
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suffered a lot from um a you know being
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harassed for being a Mal at mostly Park
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our school I suppose back in those days
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but um and that would get turned you
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know to arguments and violence and other
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stuff but um I don't think I was a bad
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kid well why would why would a principal
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say that do you think do you think that
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was um casual racism as well
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yeah possibly that's a terrible thing to
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say been a terrible thing to say I
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understand if you were you were sitting
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in um sitting in a chair in the Dean's
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office every [ __ ] day but if you're a
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good kid what a that's a that's an
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appalling thing to say yeah I just don't
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think that anyone
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really really understood like what you
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were going through back in those days I
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mean it's a bit different now I guess
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with you know the days of smartphones
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and media and people video and things
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and people you know all those sort of
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aspects of stuff whereas back in the old
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old days I think there's a lot of stuff
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that sort of slipped under the radar in
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terms of you know when we were at school
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what kids would do to each other or sort
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of you know the harassment and stuff
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that was going on and I think obviously
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like you know being young and and dumb
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and not a fully developed brain back
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then you did deal with things probably a
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little bit differently than you would
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now you I've heard that this is um like
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I suppose during um secondary school
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this is where you sort of gravitated
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towards running just to sort of um like
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regulate your emotions or let bit of
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steam what if you want however you want
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to phrase it yeah well I used to um go
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out and run just when I felt like I
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needed to burn off some energy and stuff
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like that rather than you know getting
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in a a fight or getting in a
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confrontation with people and the school
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caught me doing it and then they
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basically just said you're allowed to do
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it so the um the chaplain at the time
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would sort of supervis things and if I
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needed to you go talk to him but I was
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pretty much allowed to go out for a run
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after hours because they knew I was just
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going for a run whenever I sort of
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really felt like it and next probably
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how I sort of got into running back in
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the day you know it was just burning off
00:13:04
all that sort of excess energy and yeah
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what's it what's s the distances I never
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really I know I think actually looking
00:13:11
back at the Loop Le used to run R score
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I think it was around about 7even or 8ks
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I sort of had this Loop that I just go
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out and blast through and then sometimes
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there'd be um like you know proper
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Runners from the running club at school
00:13:23
and you areas yeah you try to like hold
00:13:25
on with them when they went for the sort
00:13:26
of longer stuff you know like the 10 to
00:13:28
15 and the week weekends you know you'd
00:13:30
hold on to about the last couple of CAS
00:13:32
and then they'll just drop you in the
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bit Yeah so um so so for these um desert
00:13:36
Ultras like what sort of um like what's
00:13:38
what sort of training goes into it and
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how do how do you fit it in with all
00:13:41
your work well there thing I I can't fit
00:13:43
in as much as I really want to I guess
00:13:45
with work and timetable but I did most
00:13:48
of it last year so I put a year of um
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distance running in when I could like if
00:13:53
you got a weekend off I'd do sort of
00:13:54
backto back uh mid to longest runs in
00:13:57
the bush what's that like four was yeah
00:13:59
so like anything depending on how rough
00:14:01
the terrain was from 20 to 40ks and do
00:14:03
back to back and then maybe I'd get one
00:14:06
sort of shorter run with a run Club in
00:14:07
during the week but I spend a lot of
00:14:09
time at the gym um just putting on
00:14:11
weight and trying to put a bit of muscle
00:14:13
back on in your old age because the one
00:14:15
thing that happens with these events is
00:14:17
regardless of how much you eat or how
00:14:20
fit you are you can't eat enough so your
00:14:23
body just choose for your own muscle
00:14:24
stores for energy so if you haven't put
00:14:26
on some weight then there's no way
00:14:29
you'd get through like you know the aim
00:14:31
of getting through eight races in the
00:14:32
year I mean I've dropped 10 kilograms
00:14:34
this year already from putting on weight
00:14:37
on purpose is that right yeah so I
00:14:39
started off the year ' 87 um I came back
00:14:41
from the last race um to be fair
00:14:44
dehydrated so 75 back up to 77 a couple
00:14:47
days later and then um thanks to the
00:14:49
In-laws I managed to Pig myself back up
00:14:51
to about 80 within a week and a
00:14:54
half I'm still fixated on the um on uh
00:14:58
your your training schedule so you you
00:14:59
don't have a coach or anything no I
00:15:01
don't have you just sort of run as you
00:15:02
as you can yeah I've tried having a
00:15:04
coach before and they just wrote like
00:15:05
these ridiculous things that You' have
00:15:07
to do for what they said to be able to
00:15:10
do Ultram marathin but I could never fit
00:15:11
in with work you know so I just sto
00:15:15
paying a coach and just run how I feel
00:15:16
really so so the longest what would your
00:15:19
longest week be like 50
00:15:21
60k um or when I'm not racing yeah
00:15:24
probably um you'd be lucky to get yeah
00:15:26
50 50 60k yeah you'd be lucky I never
00:15:28
get up 100K week never no no no one
00:15:31
would advise that right no I mean I see
00:15:33
people coming into people come into the
00:15:35
races and they they sort of like
00:15:37
advertise their their running scheme you
00:15:39
know what they've been doing on St yeah
00:15:43
you know the race Facebook pages and
00:15:44
stuff and they be like I've been running
00:15:45
100K weeks with a pack on and stuff
00:15:47
you're like [ __ ] this guy's going to
00:15:48
take it out and you get there and they
00:15:50
don't but it's just well you know
00:15:52
they're doing way more
00:15:53
training that's um so um so it's just
00:15:57
like mental toughness and resilience in
00:15:59
a way you're just getting through on
00:16:00
just like grit in a way um there's
00:16:04
experience like there's what to know and
00:16:06
what to expect that's a huge aspect you
00:16:08
know like having your kit and everything
00:16:10
down packed you know a lot of people
00:16:12
pull out for like a few reasons like
00:16:15
true injuries are rare most people pull
00:16:17
out for blisters rashes or they
00:16:20
basically their bowels give up and they
00:16:21
[ __ ] themselves or something stupid like
00:16:23
that you know and those are the most
00:16:24
common things but with experience you
00:16:27
know like you know how to keep your
00:16:29
Bells good how to prevent blisters how
00:16:31
to prevent R all those sort of things
00:16:33
and muscle aches that people complain
00:16:34
about you learn that with experience and
00:16:37
then the other side of it is just that
00:16:39
um mental aspect a bit like you've done
00:16:41
it before your Bo your brain knows that
00:16:43
your body's done it before and it sort
00:16:45
of accepts that level of pain and
00:16:48
discomfort whereas some other people if
00:16:50
they've never done it before they'll be
00:16:51
like you know [ __ ] I'm sore and I'm in
00:16:53
pain I'm going to stop whereas for a lot
00:16:55
of us that's just part of it and your
00:16:57
body knows it's just part of it so you
00:16:59
just get on with it yeah it's like
00:17:00
messaging from your brain a telling you
00:17:02
that you should give up because you're
00:17:04
in danger when really you're not yeah
00:17:06
and that's when people have never pushed
00:17:07
their limits in life you know if you've
00:17:09
never pushed yourself to your limit you
00:17:11
don't realize that it's actually not
00:17:12
your true limit you know do you think
00:17:14
you've come close to pushing yourself to
00:17:16
your limits yeah I have come in One race
00:17:19
I was probably close to blacking out or
00:17:21
passing out that's probably yeah like I
00:17:25
got that classic when you look back at
00:17:27
it you know when your vision starts to
00:17:29
narrow um your hearing still pretty good
00:17:32
and I was sort of like I just pushed
00:17:34
through this age station I just lied to
00:17:36
these people they you know I knew they
00:17:37
were going to pull me if they knew how
00:17:38
bad I was I just sweet good just kept on
00:17:41
going um had about oh 10 or so Cas to go
00:17:44
Vision started going you know started
00:17:47
wobbling around the place but made it
00:17:50
made it for the end what was it was it
00:17:52
um what time of day was it was it like
00:17:54
desk or we was it was coming into dark
00:17:56
yeah so it was a long day stage and it
00:17:58
was in a race in China yeah but but was
00:18:02
it like temporary blindness though
00:18:03
didn't go completely blind got pretty
00:18:06
close um you're you're a doctor what
00:18:09
would you tell your patient oh You' be
00:18:11
right it's only it's only it's called
00:18:14
temporary blindness for reason it's only
00:18:17
temporary you'll be right oh jeez no I
00:18:21
wouldn't do what I do at times but it
00:18:23
all depends on how much you want it what
00:18:25
you prepared to to put up with or the
00:18:27
risk you're prepared to take but was
00:18:29
probably yeah that was probably cutting
00:18:30
it but fine one yeah have you ever had a
00:18:34
dnf uh and any of these races no touch
00:18:37
wood
00:18:40
no wow what at the worst Ines oh and
00:18:43
what does it do to your body afterwards
00:18:45
like when you when you're flying back
00:18:46
home are you are you pissing blood or
00:18:47
anything or no I have um had a little
00:18:50
bit of blood in my pee once or twice but
00:18:52
um that's usually just normal I mean
00:18:54
sounds funny this normal traumatic stuff
00:18:56
you know it's just from breaking up your
00:18:58
red blood cells quite often um people
00:19:00
from like you know heel striking or your
00:19:02
feet and other bits and pieces it's not
00:19:04
that uncommon but as long as you're
00:19:06
rehydrate usually okay um typically when
00:19:09
I finish you're sort of on that sort of
00:19:11
run as high for about a week or so and
00:19:14
um like I said I just did two races and
00:19:16
they're only two weeks apart and I felt
00:19:18
sort of high and good sort of most of
00:19:21
the time between and it wasn't until
00:19:23
like I've been back in New Zealand for a
00:19:24
week and a half and your body starts to
00:19:26
relax that everything starts to hurt
00:19:28
it's
00:19:29
your body goes from that sort of I guess
00:19:30
you know that fun survival High mode
00:19:33
just to recovery mode and it's just like
00:19:35
yep now you're going to pay for it so
00:19:37
I've been pretty sore for the past week
00:19:39
have you really yeah yeah waking up in
00:19:41
the morning is pretty stuff and pretty
00:19:42
sore trying to catch up with mates at
00:19:44
run clubs and stuff and you'll be doing
00:19:46
like a 5 to a 10k run and afterwards
00:19:48
you're like yeah you're a little bit of
00:19:49
a [ __ ] yeah
00:19:52
[ __ ] yeah yeah I mean I mean you're only
00:19:55
doing this as a like a onee thing like a
00:19:57
special thing all the continents one
00:19:58
year but um yeah it's probably not
00:20:01
advisable eh oh I don't
00:20:04
know if you really want to do it why not
00:20:08
for sure people do crazier things in
00:20:09
their lives I think I'd advise people
00:20:11
toit be probably be a bit more prepared
00:20:13
than I am um like in terms of the
00:20:15
training or yeah cuz it's hard you got
00:20:18
to balance your life I mean I've always
00:20:20
told you I could be a better Runner or
00:20:22
better at these things if I didn't have
00:20:23
to work but then I could probably be a
00:20:25
better doctor in terms of you know being
00:20:27
well read and maybe a little not more
00:20:29
knowledgeable if I didn't spend my other
00:20:31
time doing these things it's a life
00:20:32
balance you know yeah you just seem like
00:20:35
a dude that wants to do everything yeah
00:20:37
before I get much older well you can do
00:20:39
it do it yeah absolutely um also it's
00:20:42
worth pointing out in 2014 you were the
00:20:43
first and I believe to this point still
00:20:45
the only kiwi to complete the four
00:20:47
desert Grand Slam yeah so any anyone
00:20:50
else done it or yeah there's a couple
00:20:51
other kiwis who have done the four
00:20:53
deserts but um all the races but it's
00:20:55
taken them a few years so to do the
00:20:57
grand Stam you got to do it in one year
00:20:59
so so far even though I've been trying
00:21:01
to get other people to do it no one else
00:21:02
has um you know bitten the bullet and
00:21:05
done it yet and part of that I guess is
00:21:07
a you know the time commitment to do it
00:21:09
and the cost and stuff as well you know
00:21:12
I'd love to see somebody else do it and
00:21:13
do it hell of a lot quicker than
00:21:16
me yeah you're your partner fiance y
00:21:20
fiance fiance she she sitting in the
00:21:22
room I know her very well like she's um
00:21:24
she's Kanye's vet um he hates her but
00:21:27
she's she's wonderful she she must she's
00:21:30
she's on board with all this she she was
00:21:32
like working as your PA teeing up this
00:21:34
Podcast chat um she does your social
00:21:36
media she helps the logistics of the
00:21:39
travel yeah pretty much how did you how
00:21:43
did you find a unicorn um yeah so I
00:21:45
found her well I was looking for a
00:21:48
dog like I finally got my own place and
00:21:50
I was mve up C I thought oh it's time to
00:21:52
get a dog I was looking for a dog and I
00:21:54
ended up getting a dog in a vet so it's
00:21:55
great so two dogss in a vet now which
00:21:57
does help but she does most she helps
00:22:00
most of Social Media stuff CU I'm just
00:22:01
old and a smartphone to me is like a bit
00:22:04
of magic technology so I struggle with
00:22:06
that stuff but yeah it's good to have
00:22:08
someone on board that can do all that
00:22:09
logistic stuff cuz like I said I hate
00:22:12
traveling so I like it when she comes on
00:22:14
the trips you can just be that um what
00:22:16
do they call it that travel Princess
00:22:17
where you just hand over all your stuff
00:22:19
and just show up and like you know in
00:22:20
the background just follow along yeah
00:22:22
like be a rock star isn't it with
00:22:24
someone else organizing what gate you
00:22:25
have to be at yeah cuz some of those
00:22:26
flights like to get to what's involved
00:22:28
in getting to say I don't know what's
00:22:30
the what's the most far flung place
00:22:32
would it be namia or somewhere else
00:22:33
namia was the worst one I think it was
00:22:35
probably because we tried to go super
00:22:37
budget cuz everything's been pretty hard
00:22:39
on the old pocket so we took a flight
00:22:41
from like Oakland to Dubai which was
00:22:44
like 7 that 17h hour one plane and then
00:22:47
I had to have like a layover for a night
00:22:49
in Dubai flew another 10 hours down to
00:22:54
um jetersburg and then had another
00:22:56
overnight and then another you know four
00:22:58
or five hours or whatever it was to
00:23:00
Namibia I was literally spent more time
00:23:01
traveling than I actually spent
00:23:03
physically running in that race so that
00:23:05
was pretty horrible but it was cheaper
00:23:07
than flying like to Australia and then
00:23:09
across yeah although next time I'd
00:23:11
probably pay the money yeah well this is
00:23:13
um this is like super super in inspiring
00:23:16
and and invigorating CU I think um like
00:23:19
for first of all most people would never
00:23:21
attempt one of these one of these runs
00:23:22
at all not even as a bucket list thing
00:23:25
but um for anyone that was interested in
00:23:27
it I think one of the things that would
00:23:28
off would be just the amount of like
00:23:29
pre-work involved but you know you you
00:23:32
got to show that if you've got mental
00:23:33
toughness you can get by on just three
00:23:35
runs a week well I've always I've also
00:23:38
said to people like so the rule of tens
00:23:40
you know if you can run a kilometer easy
00:23:43
like completely pay free no niggles
00:23:45
whatever you could run 10ks you could do
00:23:47
a 10k race could you you know it's the
00:23:49
same with this if you can run 10ks
00:23:52
completely painf free and comfortably
00:23:53
you can run a 100K race you're just not
00:23:55
going to enjoy it but you can do it if
00:23:57
you put you your mind to it and it's the
00:23:59
same with these you know a lot of
00:24:01
people you know they can go out and they
00:24:04
you know they can run a marathon you can
00:24:05
do one of these you just got to adjust
00:24:08
your sort of set of what you think your
00:24:10
performance going to be like each day
00:24:12
and enjoy the fact that like at the end
00:24:14
of it you're not going to have a hot
00:24:15
shower and a foot rub and a you know
00:24:17
nice feed in that you just got to get up
00:24:19
and do it again the next day yeah I Reon
00:24:21
that's the thing that puts me off just
00:24:22
the you know just you're finishing a
00:24:24
long run and just like then being in a
00:24:26
tent and then doing it all over again
00:24:27
yep and the same clothes for seven days
00:24:29
yeah yeah that's Grim I I feel like you
00:24:31
froth on that though you love it I love
00:24:33
that side of it I've always liked that
00:24:34
side of it though like I love like
00:24:36
tramping and stuff at at at school and I
00:24:38
love the stuff even when you got on with
00:24:40
the military as a doctor I hated being a
00:24:42
doctor in the military but I loved all
00:24:43
that outdoor stuff you know it's just
00:24:46
great I love that like living rough and
00:24:48
just like like a little kid that hates
00:24:49
showers yeah pretty much yeah don't want
00:24:52
to have a shower you know the colder the
00:24:54
weather the dirtier the better it's all
00:24:56
good fun when you work in a in a
00:24:57
hospital or an office you know yeah um
00:25:00
and what of what of these runs told you
00:25:01
about resilience that and and mental
00:25:03
toughness that you can you know transfer
00:25:05
and use in day-to-day life if anything
00:25:07
you I think the main thing that has
00:25:10
taught me is like I was saying before is
00:25:13
a lot of people have these PR perceived
00:25:14
limits of what you can achieve and
00:25:17
literally if you give something like
00:25:18
this a go and just you'll find that if
00:25:21
you if you really want it you can stick
00:25:23
through it and you can do it and you can
00:25:25
just that builds up that sort of mental
00:25:28
toughness it just shows you that hey
00:25:31
other things in life that you think are
00:25:32
a little bit difficult really aren't
00:25:34
that difficult CU you've done hard of
00:25:36
stuff in your life you know you can just
00:25:39
push through if you really want
00:25:41
to to a to a limit a limit to a limit we
00:25:45
just haven't found your limit yet yeah
00:25:47
not yet I've been close I was hoping
00:25:49
there's a few things that would make me
00:25:50
find my limit but there's a lot tougher
00:25:53
races out there as well in the end of
00:25:54
the day I mean I'm doing a lot this year
00:25:56
and there's always the risk that one of
00:25:58
these will break me which will be I
00:25:59
suppose bad for what I'm trying to
00:26:01
achieve but will be quite enjoyable to
00:26:03
find out what's that one um well you
00:26:06
know if like something goes wrong this
00:26:07
year and like you know I can't finish
00:26:09
that'll be you know bad on one side good
00:26:11
on the other side you know cuz you found
00:26:13
something but there's all those massive
00:26:15
races up in you know Alaska and the
00:26:17
Arctic Circle where they pull sleds and
00:26:19
pucks for like you know 500 to 1,000 K
00:26:22
and all that sort of stuff I've heard
00:26:24
about them yeah you've got to like P in
00:26:25
a bag and take your take your feces away
00:26:27
with you yeah I mean poing in a bag's
00:26:29
not a big deal
00:26:30
do yeah you on your social media yeah
00:26:33
there there's a lot of poo chat a ton of
00:26:36
poo chat it's funny CU I think it's one
00:26:38
thing that people Overlook and they get
00:26:39
surprised when they come to these races
00:26:41
is is the pooing aspect and it's also a
00:26:43
lot of things that people enjoy
00:26:44
everybody likes talking about a good
00:26:45
[ __ ] or or more likely a bad [ __ ] you
00:26:48
know well no I find some people are
00:26:50
really quite sort of prudish about it
00:26:52
like some people will find it really off
00:26:54
pointing that we're talking about it
00:26:55
here but it's like [ __ ] everyone does it
00:26:57
it is the most natural bodily function
00:27:00
imaginable well there's nothing worse
00:27:01
than showing up to a race like the one
00:27:03
we just did in Mongolia and finding that
00:27:05
literally you know somebody digs like a
00:27:07
little trench in the ground you got to
00:27:08
you know squat and planks either side
00:27:10
where there's literally just sort of
00:27:11
like a hesy and Sack curtain up to about
00:27:14
your shoulder height so you can see the
00:27:15
person next door and they find out that
00:27:18
that's the toilet for the week you know
00:27:20
and they're already there and they're
00:27:21
looking at you a bit it's like yep you
00:27:23
know get used to it how good um yeah
00:27:27
we're about the same age there was like
00:27:29
when we were in our 20s there were no
00:27:30
events like this it's just amazing the
00:27:31
explosion I think back then there was
00:27:33
probably like like marathons were as far
00:27:35
as it went and then sort of Ultras came
00:27:37
along and now there's backyard Ultras
00:27:39
and there desert stage races what
00:27:41
whatever whatever you can think of
00:27:43
really there's an event for it these
00:27:44
days yeah it's definitely a huge
00:27:46
explosion in the past you know 10 20
00:27:48
years and I think it's probably just
00:27:49
that you know people have found that
00:27:52
organize these events that there's a lot
00:27:54
of people out there that really want to
00:27:56
push themselves a bit and you find the
00:27:58
the average age or the most um
00:28:01
competitive age group is usually that um
00:28:04
40 to 50 sort of age group and it's
00:28:07
probably because it's our generational
00:28:09
you know that have maybe now achieved
00:28:12
that sort of level of life where they
00:28:13
can afford to do these things but
00:28:14
they're also wanting to find out you
00:28:17
know where they're at or push their
00:28:18
limits and yeah yeah there's plenty a
00:28:21
number of reasons for that maybe it's
00:28:22
like a almost like a midlife crisis
00:28:24
aspect as well where you you realize
00:28:26
that time is finite and you're not
00:28:27
getting any younger and you know your
00:28:29
your physical capacity to do these
00:28:31
things might might not you know last
00:28:33
forever like you think it is in your 20s
00:28:35
um I've heard I heard you on another
00:28:37
podcast talking about um type two fun
00:28:40
yeah well that's the sort of stuff I'm
00:28:41
really into like yeah so type two fun is
00:28:43
stuff that you typically hate while
00:28:45
you're doing it but you look back and
00:28:47
you really enjoy it um and that's sort
00:28:49
of the stuff that's the key that's the
00:28:51
stuff I like when it starts slipping
00:28:53
into type three that's generally when
00:28:54
you uh when you hate it at the time and
00:28:57
you still hate it after
00:28:59
have you have you done any type
00:29:01
three uh oh I suppose there was some
00:29:03
stuff that I did with the military that
00:29:05
you hated at the time and you look back
00:29:06
at your your time and Wu and stuff and
00:29:08
you still hate it now you're not in a
00:29:10
great hurry to go back and do that but
00:29:12
then again occasionally it sort of slips
00:29:14
in your memory back to type two and
00:29:15
you'd probably give it a go again yeah I
00:29:18
I I love that so much cuz I think life's
00:29:20
got so comfortable these days like you
00:29:21
know you're almost looking for ways to
00:29:23
put yourself into some Force discomfort
00:29:25
yeah so like my job and stuff like
00:29:27
physically it's not taxing you know
00:29:29
mentally I suppose and I suppose like
00:29:31
you know mentally fatiguing and all the
00:29:33
rest of it it's quite taxing but
00:29:34
physically on your body it's quite soft
00:29:37
you know you get up every day you have a
00:29:38
cup of coffee you know you're quite
00:29:40
comfortable you go to work you go home
00:29:42
there's none of that sort of real big
00:29:44
physical challenge so you know my body
00:29:47
craves doing stuff like that and I just
00:29:48
got to go out and find it where I can
00:29:51
yeah somebody rang up this evening said
00:29:52
hey bro you know it's pussing down with
00:29:54
rain let's go out and run over the night
00:29:56
for 40ks or something yeah I'm tired and
00:29:58
sore but I'd probably say yes if they're
00:30:02
Keen you got to give it a go oh my God
00:30:06
by the way um yeah you just I I just
00:30:07
want to pick on this before we move on
00:30:09
you know you mentioned your work's
00:30:10
pretty easy and comfortable or whatever
00:30:12
but um we will get to that but I think a
00:30:14
lot of people disagree like you're
00:30:15
you're an um an A&E doctor um which for
00:30:19
most people is like anything but
00:30:20
cruising and relaxing I guess yeah when
00:30:22
I say comt I mean like physically yeah
00:30:25
um like in terms of your stress levels
00:30:27
and your mental you know side of it it's
00:30:30
you know it's it's horrendous to be
00:30:33
honest and um I'm glad that hopefully
00:30:35
I've already got about 15 more years
00:30:37
before I retire I think is
00:30:39
it just not a positive way of looking
00:30:42
hey um oh by the way this podcast is sp
00:30:43
sponsored by um generate the Kiwi saers
00:30:45
scheme have you got your kiwi saers
00:30:47
ordered I feel like you're you're not
00:30:48
going to have much money when you
00:30:50
retire I'm actually I I do have some
00:30:53
kiwi saver and I'm lucky that I did all
00:30:55
that sort of stuff really early on and
00:30:56
just keep chipping in
00:30:58
I'm not saving any money doing what I'm
00:31:00
doing okay I worry about you you get to
00:31:02
65 like I don't know where all the money
00:31:04
went I know exactly where it went six
00:31:06
overseas trips a year okay let's go back
00:31:08
to the um the real early years what what
00:31:10
so you're from um tanaki yes I'm from
00:31:12
tanaki but never really lived there U
00:31:16
went back and worked there when I was a
00:31:17
doctor for a couple of years but we
00:31:19
moved around a lot so Dad um worked for
00:31:22
the Anglican marry Mission so I counted
00:31:24
back when I was 16 I'd lived in 13
00:31:27
different places
00:31:28
so we would just pretty much put in
00:31:29
boarding schools to keep the education
00:31:31
consistent right was it what was it like
00:31:34
a minister or something yeah Anglican
00:31:35
Minister for the mar Mission so we just
00:31:37
moved a lot a lot you know so sometimes
00:31:39
you go to boarding school you'd leave
00:31:41
from one place you'd finish your
00:31:43
semester come out and you Mo and you
00:31:44
were somewhere
00:31:45
else [ __ ] that's tough yeah I actually
00:31:48
preferred to stay at school I mean it
00:31:50
sounds rough it's not because I didn't
00:31:51
want to go home was just because the
00:31:53
consistency yeah and you had you had
00:31:55
mates at school or you had people that
00:31:57
you go out like you could do Sports of
00:31:59
you go running you could do whatever you
00:32:00
go home in the holidays you knew no one
00:32:02
you know and you might be in some really
00:32:04
sort of either rough places or shitty
00:32:05
little places around New Zealand where
00:32:08
you know unless you knew someone there's
00:32:09
not much to do so yeah and when you
00:32:11
reflect back on back on that now like
00:32:13
what do you what do you
00:32:14
think um you know it is what it is um
00:32:19
Dad was away a lot and he he did a lot
00:32:21
of things for the mar miss that was his
00:32:22
job and I can understand that but I
00:32:24
don't think it's something that I'd do
00:32:25
with my kids we have some yeah it's just
00:32:28
it's yeah it's was a bit difficult but
00:32:30
we were just I guess you know just
00:32:32
accepted that was part of it yeah they
00:32:35
both passed now your parents te Tiki and
00:32:36
Wilmer right yeah TI and Wilmer dad
00:32:38
passed away about four or five years ago
00:32:40
mom's still alive she's living down on
00:32:42
the farm quite sort of stoically
00:32:44
independent refuses to go into come up
00:32:47
to Oakland or to go into sort of any
00:32:49
gear facility she just like staying on
00:32:50
the farm of her dogs how old is she like
00:32:53
late 70s she's like 81 now actually 80
00:32:57
oh God I'm going to get it wrong don't
00:32:59
listen to this mom somewhere in the '
00:33:00
80s and what were your what were your
00:33:03
biggest lessons from them like you
00:33:04
mottos that you live by or anything like
00:33:06
that um I think it was just like you
00:33:08
know it always seemed like um hard work
00:33:11
was just what was expected you know um
00:33:16
you know we didn't you know we lived a
00:33:19
pretty you starkly sort of you know
00:33:21
tough life I guess you know we didn't
00:33:23
have a lot we had what we needed but you
00:33:25
didn't have a lot there wasn't a lot of
00:33:26
like you know
00:33:28
put it way we W well off but we went you
00:33:32
I wouldn't say we were poor we just you
00:33:33
know just made use of what you had and
00:33:37
um the old man was always a hard worker
00:33:40
you know even just being a a being a
00:33:42
minister he's always sort of very
00:33:43
physical person and did a lot of stuff
00:33:45
for himself you know so it was just part
00:33:48
of you know cracking on and getting
00:33:49
things done yeah and he he died of um
00:33:52
pancreatic cancer in 2018 yeah so it was
00:33:55
one of those things that I look back at
00:33:57
it still a little bit disappointed um I
00:34:00
was quite busy with work at time and
00:34:03
trying to um help set up some other
00:34:06
policies and M Health policies for the
00:34:09
Emergency college and things and I
00:34:11
didn't realize dad was getting sick and
00:34:12
be and you know he still wouldn't
00:34:13
complain about things when he was old
00:34:16
and no one in the family s to let you
00:34:17
know and I came back home and I saw him
00:34:19
and I hadn't seen him for about 6 months
00:34:20
and he lost a lot of weight I was like
00:34:22
you know [ __ ] this ain't right and um
00:34:25
members of the extended family sort of
00:34:27
been hiding a few things and it just
00:34:29
turned out yeah like a uh I suppose a
00:34:31
lot of Mai follows from his Generation
00:34:34
Um they think it was pancreatic canas
00:34:36
the time he got found you know there was
00:34:37
other stuff probably in his bow and
00:34:39
things and there was just nothing you
00:34:41
could do about it so we just took him
00:34:43
home you by the sound of things you guys
00:34:46
had like a really good relationship like
00:34:47
he was your support crew and some of
00:34:48
these runs early on yes we had um I
00:34:52
guess we started to reconnect with
00:34:53
running later on in life because you
00:34:55
know Dad working so much when we younger
00:34:57
and then after that University period
00:35:00
and sort of moving back to tanaki we
00:35:01
sort of I started running again and dad
00:35:04
started coming along to events and he
00:35:06
was my support crew for Ultra marathons
00:35:08
when I first started you know like 100k
00:35:09
events and things worst support crew in
00:35:11
the world but he used to come along you
00:35:14
know well he was always Keen to come
00:35:16
along cuz he got off the farm and
00:35:18
without Mom there he could eat whatever
00:35:20
he wanted to cuz you know he had
00:35:22
diabetes and gout and heart disease in
00:35:24
old age and wasn't allowed you know
00:35:28
bad food but he'd come along and he like
00:35:30
hey should we have a pizza yeah so
00:35:31
before every race we used to have a
00:35:32
pizza and a beer neither which he's
00:35:35
allowed and then during the events he'd
00:35:38
just help himself to the eight stations
00:35:40
like you know the snake
00:35:41
Lolly he'd be like oh you seen all these
00:35:44
things and he'd be eating them and I was
00:35:45
like I was like Dad that's for the
00:35:47
runners that's for you're not running
00:35:49
he's like oh they won't miss a few you
00:35:51
just help himself but um if you came to
00:35:54
an a station you're supposed to be there
00:35:55
and you wanted something he'd never be
00:35:56
there he'd be off having a feed or
00:35:58
talking to
00:36:00
someone yeah so not the most reliable
00:36:03
but he enjoyed it and I enjoyed having
00:36:04
him along it was good fun well and you
00:36:06
must have had a really good um
00:36:08
relationship by by by the time his life
00:36:11
came to an end because um you even
00:36:13
stopped running for a while after that
00:36:16
yeah it it did hit pretty hard I I'll
00:36:18
admit and I think part of it was I felt
00:36:21
that I'd uh let the family down let Dad
00:36:24
down a bit because I hadn't sort of
00:36:26
picked up on and being un well earli
00:36:28
you know you're the F you're the doctor
00:36:30
and the family and you know you sort of
00:36:31
feel that that's your sort of role and
00:36:33
then by the time I realized what was
00:36:35
going on and you get him into to see the
00:36:37
the medical system and then you look
00:36:39
back for his notes and you see how the
00:36:40
medical system has actually probably L
00:36:42
him down a little bit because they
00:36:43
should have been picking up on tests and
00:36:45
stuff earlier then you feel bad from
00:36:47
that side of it you know and like like
00:36:51
an element of guilt in away yeah I want
00:36:52
to guilt and then you know we used to go
00:36:55
to the running vents you know that was
00:36:57
what we did you know we'd catch up and
00:36:59
you know I'd take him away to these
00:37:00
events and we'd hang out and do this
00:37:02
sort of stuff so when the young man
00:37:04
passed away I wasn't really interested
00:37:05
in going out and running and I was I was
00:37:08
running with um some of the guys from
00:37:10
dirt church at the time and stuff and I
00:37:12
tried to go for runs and like you didn't
00:37:13
want to talk to people you didn't want
00:37:15
to so I just stopped running actually
00:37:17
for quite a long time all
00:37:20
together yeah CU I found this photo
00:37:22
online of him sh he looks like a fun
00:37:24
dude yeah hey he looks it's quite funny
00:37:29
cuz look at that photo and the the man
00:37:31
that you described just a second ago you
00:37:32
know uh I can see it he seems like very
00:37:35
checky very Charming very he was a very
00:37:37
cheeky v um he yeah he did like to um
00:37:41
rack people up a little bit it was a
00:37:43
great past time of his it was always in
00:37:45
a good natured sort of sort of way but
00:37:47
um yeah he was always good for a bit of
00:37:50
a bit of a laugh he had to take the old
00:37:52
man with a grain of salt most people
00:37:54
that know him would would uh would
00:37:56
comment on that yeah can you remember
00:37:58
your last
00:37:59
conversation
00:38:00
uh probably not really you know towards
00:38:04
the end you know there was uh you know
00:38:07
there was a lot of drugs and other stuff
00:38:08
going on on board you know so yeah I
00:38:10
think he was still trying to pass on um
00:38:13
as that generation would do like
00:38:14
knowledge and stuff you know all through
00:38:16
the you know he knew things were coming
00:38:18
to an end and he was just wanting to
00:38:19
pass on history and knowledge and stuff
00:38:22
yeah yeah yeah well thanks for sharing
00:38:24
that stuff um yeah just well you you got
00:38:28
back into the running with um more
00:38:29
enthusiasm than previously didn't you
00:38:31
you've done a hell of a lot since then
00:38:34
yes I I I did I've been thinking about
00:38:36
doing this thing that I'm doing this
00:38:37
year for quite some time and then I just
00:38:39
only really I suppose you know got the
00:38:42
the kick from um viy to crack on and do
00:38:44
it you know you really what did say well
00:38:49
cuz you can only do this attempt this
00:38:50
every two years cuz there's only a race
00:38:52
down on Antarctic every two years so
00:38:54
you've got to if I didn't do it this
00:38:56
year I'd be another two years M and if I
00:38:58
didn't you know and I've been talking
00:38:59
about doing it and I've been talking
00:39:01
about doing the scholarship and spending
00:39:04
more time with um like young students
00:39:07
and stuff coming through and trying to
00:39:08
encourage people and things she's just
00:39:10
like well you're not getting any young
00:39:12
so your mouths and get into it now yeah
00:39:15
well that's what that's what you get
00:39:16
when you get an Asian partner isn't it
00:39:18
yeah but physically um like you've got
00:39:21
the the capability I think I mean no one
00:39:23
knows what the future holds but um I
00:39:25
mean I'd suggest like looking at you now
00:39:27
Bally like you know you You' be doing
00:39:28
this in 10 years time why not well I
00:39:30
hope so like I just think like every 10
00:39:32
years I usually try to do something like
00:39:34
I did that grand slam when I was turning
00:39:36
40 I'm doing this one turning 50 just
00:39:38
trying to think of now what I'm going to
00:39:40
do when I turn 60 but um there's you see
00:39:43
people in these events who are in the
00:39:45
60s and there's even um the last one
00:39:47
there was a lady in his 70s from the
00:39:48
states who finished you know so I mean
00:39:51
you know [ __ ] that's inspirational if
00:39:53
they can do it I'm going to do it well
00:39:55
the thing that you're doing this stuff
00:39:56
now with the bare minimal training
00:39:58
imaginable like a dangerously low level
00:40:00
of training you imagine when you're
00:40:02
retired if you got a bit more time to
00:40:03
train yeah well the way I look at it as
00:40:05
long as you start these things injury
00:40:07
free or relative injury free it's always
00:40:09
a good start you run yourself
00:40:11
fit after time yeah do do you find that
00:40:14
you find you get better and fitter as
00:40:15
you go along on these events yeah to a
00:40:17
certain degree yeah if you're doing like
00:40:19
one or two a year I think you'll find
00:40:20
yourself getting fitter um obviously if
00:40:22
you're doing a lot then there'll just be
00:40:24
that um cumulative sort of muscle
00:40:26
fatigue and you won't be getting fitter
00:40:29
yeah yeah your brain might be getting a
00:40:31
bit fitter but the your body generally
00:40:34
won't until you have a decent rest yeah
00:40:36
right yeah so um okay so you finish up
00:40:39
at school um you're a smart student at
00:40:42
then the principal sees for your future
00:40:44
just stay out of jail um so incredibly
00:40:47
low expectations then you got to Oto and
00:40:50
uh study physio yes so I went to
00:40:52
University probably because everybody
00:40:54
else was and I didn't really have
00:40:58
I didn't know what to do with myself so
00:40:59
the other guys that I knew were going
00:41:01
down to University and my brother was at
00:41:03
otago and he'd gone to University and my
00:41:05
sister had gone to otaga University so I
00:41:07
thought oh that's what you did when you
00:41:08
leave school just go to university did
00:41:11
it did at that time it otaga felt like a
00:41:13
wrer passage didn't it yeah and you'd
00:41:15
never been down south so it was like
00:41:16
you're literally it was almost like
00:41:17
going to another country you know so I
00:41:21
went down and it was probably a bad move
00:41:24
I mean I wasn't set up to study I think
00:41:27
and just basically what just age and
00:41:29
stage in life or yeah looking back I
00:41:32
probably would have been better to take
00:41:33
a year off and work or something or do
00:41:34
something else first rather than just
00:41:36
follow the crowd and go down cuz me I
00:41:39
got into physiotherapy I didn't even
00:41:40
know what physios did like I thought it
00:41:42
was just the uh the guy or girl that ran
00:41:44
onto the Rugby field you know during the
00:41:45
footy I was like oh that looks like a
00:41:47
sweet job I'll just do that and you get
00:41:50
down there and you find out there's all
00:41:51
this they're teaching all the stuff in
00:41:52
the hospital about working with stroke
00:41:54
patients and doing all other stuff I was
00:41:55
like well that's not what I rehab yeah
00:41:58
so rehabs I was like oh jeez I didn't
00:41:59
really sign up for
00:42:01
that so how long how long do you study
00:42:03
to become a physio a year more than I
00:42:05
should have um yeah so five years it
00:42:09
took me it's supposed to be four years
00:42:10
took me five yeah oh my God that's such
00:42:13
a long CH Chun of your life so then you
00:42:15
complete that and you work as a physio
00:42:17
for yeah I work physio for about six
00:42:20
months that was probably the the worst
00:42:23
Phio ever no well worst Phio ever I'm
00:42:26
sure there's somebody out there
00:42:27
somebody there worse than me um I just
00:42:30
really wasn't into it like I got a job
00:42:32
um at a private physio Clinic physio pay
00:42:35
back then was really [ __ ] and we're just
00:42:38
seeing like you know sweaty Sports
00:42:39
people's ankles and other stuff and just
00:42:41
common injuries throughout the thing and
00:42:43
decided this wasn't for me so was just
00:42:46
mentioning it to the old man and somehow
00:42:48
i' mentioned medical school and what the
00:42:50
med students look like and they seem to
00:42:52
always have the better clothes and the
00:42:54
better food and better off and he said
00:42:57
well go back to medical school and it
00:43:00
was always him that sort of makes stuff
00:43:01
snowball and it just snowballed after
00:43:03
that so he planted the SE yeah you got
00:43:06
some um yeah there some like medical
00:43:08
history in the family like like doctors
00:43:10
from previous generations yeah so yeah
00:43:11
so um all the um first doctors come from
00:43:16
um tanaki the first Mario doctor to
00:43:18
train overseas the first Mario doctor to
00:43:20
train in New Zealand they all come from
00:43:22
you know tiwa down in Tanuki so and I
00:43:24
didn't know any of this when I was
00:43:26
applying for Med medical school you know
00:43:28
I'd never looked into it never thought
00:43:31
about it you know so he was actually
00:43:34
quite Keen for me to go to medical
00:43:35
school yeah as as someone that didn't go
00:43:37
to
00:43:38
university like I'm just thinking about
00:43:40
the physio thing like studying for 5
00:43:42
years and then having a job and
00:43:43
realizing it's not for you would there
00:43:45
be a lot of people that feel that way
00:43:47
and they just stick with it cuz they're
00:43:48
like [ __ ] I've done the work this is my
00:43:50
lot yeah even when I got out of medical
00:43:52
school like the stats for medical school
00:43:54
are quite interesting like you know if I
00:43:57
don't know how many they're putting out
00:43:58
now but I think it was like you know
00:44:00
they took 120 back in when I was in
00:44:02
maybe
00:44:03
105 or something would finish a large
00:44:06
percentage of those relatively would
00:44:08
either uh never work as a doctor they
00:44:10
just wanted to finish so they you they
00:44:12
got their degree and they'd go off and
00:44:13
do other things or they wouldn't work in
00:44:14
clinical medicine they'd go and work
00:44:16
into some branch of medical it um or
00:44:20
they' just leave and go
00:44:22
overseas so it's just one of those
00:44:24
things I guess I got towards the end of
00:44:26
phys I knew I didn't really want to do
00:44:27
it but it's like you know [ __ ] you've
00:44:29
invested you know three years of your
00:44:32
life it seems a bit of a waste not to
00:44:35
finish you're over halfway yeah so you
00:44:37
just finish it and you just hope that
00:44:39
you never know once you start working
00:44:41
you might enjoy it yeah so so you apply
00:44:43
for Mid school then um you you don't get
00:44:45
in straight away you get in thir I got I
00:44:47
got turned out a it yeah I laugh about
00:44:49
it now I to say like most you the most
00:44:52
turned down person ever I got turned
00:44:53
down about three times before I finally
00:44:56
got in so
00:44:57
is there like an intake at the beginning
00:44:58
of each year or is it each term or yeah
00:45:01
it been beginning of each year so I
00:45:03
applied um for direct entry when I quit
00:45:07
Physio and to be fair they turned me
00:45:09
down I can understand I mean my physio
00:45:11
grades were pretty rough um you know oh
00:45:14
SE get degrees bro it was it was fully
00:45:17
there like know I knew I was it was the
00:45:19
thing yeah I knew I didn't want to be a
00:45:20
fizzy I wasn't really interested in
00:45:21
study I just passed it you know so I can
00:45:24
understand they turned me down um and
00:45:26
then I got told hey Health Science was
00:45:29
coming and do the first year Health
00:45:30
Science degree and then um apply for
00:45:34
second year medical school and I
00:45:36
approached the um Mai and Pacific Island
00:45:38
admission scheme at the time and they
00:45:39
said hey if you get the grades required
00:45:41
we'll take you I was like okay so I
00:45:45
worked couple of jobs part time did the
00:45:47
first year got the grades required went
00:45:50
back to them and they said oh no we're
00:45:52
full we've got the people we want for
00:45:55
this year apply for the general ad
00:45:57
Mission
00:45:57
scheme so I apply for the general
00:45:59
admission scheme as well after get
00:46:01
turned down by them and then got turned
00:46:03
down again and I was sitting there going
00:46:04
like [ __ ] what am I going to do now I've
00:46:06
just gone back to University for another
00:46:08
year spent another like you know 15 20
00:46:10
grand of studying even though I was
00:46:13
working I'm piling up debt here and um
00:46:17
luckily about a week before the medical
00:46:19
school started for second year I got a
00:46:22
phone call and a letter in the mail and
00:46:24
got it and um it's still a little bit
00:46:27
suspect how that came about I'm not too
00:46:29
sure actually um whether it might have
00:46:32
been they say it was because I was like
00:46:34
third on the waiting list and three
00:46:36
people had deferred which could be the
00:46:38
truth but it was also um there was a um
00:46:42
a Mali doctor and and government at the
00:46:44
time working the political SE was Dr
00:46:47
Tony who was quite upset that I hadn't
00:46:50
gotten and thought I was bit hard done
00:46:53
by and I think he may have exerted some
00:46:55
pressure as well so
00:46:57
I've always like thanked him and assumed
00:46:59
that he was part of it um but I really
00:47:03
don't know how in the end it may have
00:47:05
been I was just on the waiting list it's
00:47:06
a big mystery yeah cuz you must have
00:47:08
been a so say 100 medical students how
00:47:10
many moldy in the class um oh back then
00:47:14
um there was funny state there was more
00:47:16
of us training to be doctors at Medical
00:47:19
School than there were actually doctors
00:47:21
out back then and that was in 2000 when
00:47:23
we started um Dr roer from Shand Street
00:47:26
was there
00:47:29
you imagine that being Ro R so close I
00:47:31
got called I had the Dr rter jokes all
00:47:35
the way from did you lot of qu jokes yep
00:47:38
and even now when you come and see some
00:47:40
patient of that generation it's like oh
00:47:42
it's like oh [ __ ] I thought i' got away
00:47:44
from that wait for it three two one yeah
00:47:48
so oh back in our class here I don't
00:47:51
know there was only about I think there
00:47:53
was about 20 M and Pacific island
00:47:55
students back then H how how many do you
00:47:58
work with now in ockland um in Oakland
00:48:01
there's one other um Mali doctor he's a
00:48:03
cook Island Mali fell um who works there
00:48:06
as well so there's two of us and that's
00:48:08
probably pretty high so under
00:48:11
represented though he like what
00:48:13
percentage of the patients would be
00:48:14
molding yeah
00:48:15
so um the emergency colleges looked at
00:48:18
these stats um we helped them set up
00:48:20
their um their M Health portfolio um so
00:48:23
literally depending on where you are in
00:48:25
New Zealand um anywhere from 15 to 20%
00:48:28
of your patients coming in would be M so
00:48:31
about 18% average and the percentage of
00:48:34
senior M doctors that they had in
00:48:36
emergency was I think it was less than
00:48:39
1% when they first looked at it which
00:48:41
was about 5 years ago wow so they're
00:48:43
trying to obviously encourage more
00:48:46
trainers more doctors to come in because
00:48:48
they want to obviously balance up that
00:48:50
representation but to be fair every
00:48:53
specialty wants to balance up the
00:48:56
representation
00:48:57
of Mal doctors and there's a lot better
00:48:59
Specialties to do than
00:49:01
emergency so they've got a good M doctor
00:49:03
but he's never there he's always off
00:49:04
these room yeah sh works three days a
00:49:07
year yeah they have to go visit that
00:49:09
other one yeah yeah do uh uh people
00:49:12
often surprised when they see a moldy
00:49:14
doctor yeah it's funny there different
00:49:16
reactions in different age groups I
00:49:18
guess you know like you get the classic
00:49:20
really old um person you know in the 80s
00:49:23
or whatever that comes in they go oh
00:49:25
it's you know like so polite oh so
00:49:26
lovely to see a m doctor you know like
00:49:28
some old European lady that's probably
00:49:31
never seen one in their life and it's
00:49:32
quite funny it cracks me up it's just
00:49:34
like it's quite beautiful very us like
00:49:35
oh you m really it's like yeah there m
00:49:38
doctors now
00:49:40
you but they don't they don't mean
00:49:42
anything they're just like you know
00:49:43
lovely and they're just like really
00:49:45
happy to see you um to other ones that
00:49:48
are not so happy to see you but really
00:49:50
does that happen oh yeah you still get
00:49:53
you especially in emergency is such a
00:49:55
Charged environment you get every
00:49:56
extreme from people that are happy to
00:49:58
see you that people just like throw
00:50:00
abuse at you like if right c yeah yeah
00:50:04
why why did you want to do that why do I
00:50:07
want to do that why they want to do it
00:50:09
yeah no why why did you why did you want
00:50:10
to work in A&E um seems like a chaotic
00:50:14
place to work it seems like a place
00:50:15
where you You' I don't know do your time
00:50:18
for a couple of years and then move on
00:50:19
to something else yeah I think it sort
00:50:21
of self selects a little bit emergency
00:50:24
um I originally never wanted to do gency
00:50:27
I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon
00:50:29
like I'd gone through physio school I'd
00:50:31
come through i' done electives and stuff
00:50:32
in Orthopedics was really Keen to do it
00:50:35
and then I just found that I struggled
00:50:37
to sort of stand around in one spot long
00:50:38
enough to do some surgery you know I
00:50:41
don't know if I was a bit fidgety or
00:50:42
whatever and then um I don't know I just
00:50:46
didn't really fit in and I went off to
00:50:47
do anesthetics I thought hey that's
00:50:49
quite cool and then um a couple of years
00:50:51
like that I was like oh Jesus that's
00:50:53
pretty
00:50:54
repetitive sorry all the anst out there
00:50:57
but it's like you know little syringe
00:50:59
big syringe little syringe sleep all
00:51:00
right you know
00:51:04
so I'm sure you you offended just a
00:51:07
whole sector of your colleagues with
00:51:09
that oh yeah I've got some good M
00:51:11
there's more to it than that a you yeah
00:51:12
there's more I got some really good
00:51:13
mates Forst so I rock them up all the
00:51:15
time you know sometimes they're good at
00:51:17
like lighting adjustments you know and
00:51:18
things like that but then I tried sports
00:51:21
medicine I thought oh yep that sounds
00:51:22
like a great idea go work and practice
00:51:24
do sports medicine and then I struggle
00:51:27
with that cuzz um you know I always have
00:51:30
to be careful cuz I usually say most
00:51:32
athletes are dicks but not all of them
00:51:34
but there's some attitudes of young
00:51:36
athletes and stuff that you know maybe
00:51:37
need to be adjusted but I just found I
00:51:40
couldn't deal with that either so I just
00:51:41
ended up working in an emergency and it
00:51:43
was always going to be a temporary thing
00:51:45
and then it just sort of temporized
00:51:46
itself for about the past 12 years yeah
00:51:50
so so so so how does how does it work
00:51:52
that's something that I don't have any
00:51:53
idea about I'm guessing most people
00:51:54
don't so do you work like um week on
00:51:56
week off no so emergency one of those
00:51:59
horrible Specialties that no matter how
00:52:01
senior you are you still got shift work
00:52:03
so in um Oakland and most hospitals
00:52:07
about the same there's like about three
00:52:08
or four different shifts throughout the
00:52:10
day so there's the 8:00 crew that start
00:52:12
at 8:00 in the morning and go through
00:52:14
the like the 10 hour shifts to you know
00:52:17
6:00 at night and then there's like a
00:52:19
crew that comes on at 4:00 and then
00:52:22
there's a crew that come on at like you
00:52:24
know 10:30 at night who go through to
00:52:26
8:30 :30 in the morning so there's all
00:52:28
these overlaps but you know you you got
00:52:31
to be prepared to do shift work for the
00:52:32
rest of your life which is a bit of a
00:52:34
just a bit of a downer yeah yeah that's
00:52:37
it's taxing on the body yeah it's super
00:52:39
taxing I mean I got back from my last
00:52:41
run on a Tuesday morning I started
00:52:44
nights on Thursday and didn't finish
00:52:45
till Monday morning you know it's just
00:52:48
not the best way for you to recover or
00:52:49
for you you know to yeah let's be honest
00:52:53
it's pretty [ __ ] on your body and the
00:52:54
rest of it so I think this is probably
00:52:56
going to be my last year maybe of doing
00:52:58
night shifts yeah what do you want to do
00:52:59
next oh I'll keep doing emergency
00:53:01
probably but I'll just probably stop
00:53:03
doing nights yeah um obviously you take
00:53:05
a pay cut for doing that but and
00:53:07
sometimes work won't be that happy with
00:53:09
it but they need doctors and you know
00:53:12
I'll just work on to day and afternoon
00:53:13
shifts and just try to I've done my time
00:53:16
I think a little bit Yeah is is the
00:53:18
money okay uh the money's okay I mean I
00:53:21
never I think you know for what I think
00:53:23
a lot of doctors for what they do get
00:53:25
paid quite well I just think you know
00:53:27
the the cost of living the spos is quite
00:53:29
High I think some Specialties get paid
00:53:31
better than others which is probably a
00:53:32
bit more historical yeah um emergency is
00:53:35
probably one of the lowest paid
00:53:37
Specialties um which I think is a little
00:53:39
bit unfair considering the um the stress
00:53:42
and strain that they have to to go
00:53:43
through and they've been expected to do
00:53:45
more of everybody else's work these days
00:53:49
you know so that may change but who
00:53:51
knows yeah and what would you say of the
00:53:53
best and worst things about being an
00:53:55
ed um the best things I guess is like
00:53:58
you're never going to be short of a job
00:54:00
like you're never you're never going to
00:54:01
be out of work other Specialties you
00:54:03
know you're always trying to build up a
00:54:05
a clientele in private and I got a lot
00:54:07
of mates who are like working really
00:54:08
hard to build up that side of it because
00:54:10
that's where they make their money um
00:54:12
we're never going to be short of a job
00:54:14
if they start cutting other Specialties
00:54:16
out of things or you know advancing in
00:54:18
medicine and things change we're never
00:54:20
going to be able to work if anything you
00:54:22
know it's growing every year with less
00:54:24
doctors available so probably the best
00:54:27
one of the things um the worst things I
00:54:29
guess is you got to put up with
00:54:31
different attitudes of people at
00:54:32
different times in their lives um some
00:54:34
are really positive some really negative
00:54:36
some people you can really help which is
00:54:38
quite good you know and other times you
00:54:40
just come home from the end of the shift
00:54:41
you just want to have a drink cuz it's
00:54:43
been
00:54:44
[ __ ] yeah do you when you're doing like
00:54:47
one of those night shifts over the
00:54:49
weekend like do you how do you feel
00:54:50
before you go to work are you like yes I
00:54:51
get to go to work or are you do you have
00:54:53
anxiety
00:54:56
so I still I do get a little bit anxious
00:54:58
about going stud on to your night shifts
00:55:00
because you know it's just going to be
00:55:01
crap you know like I traditionally do
00:55:04
like you know sort of those weekend
00:55:05
night shifts you know it's going to be
00:55:06
really busy um you know most likely you
00:55:09
won't have a full compliment of Staff
00:55:11
either they won there'll be some doctors
00:55:13
that won't be there because they'll be
00:55:14
sick or they just haven't managed to
00:55:16
fill the roster or the nursing staff
00:55:17
will be short staffed there's never
00:55:20
fully staffy Department of every aspect
00:55:23
and you know if there's some event on in
00:55:25
town in Oakland that you just going to
00:55:26
get smashed with a lot of um drunken
00:55:29
drugged up abusive type people at times
00:55:31
or there's going to be a lot of um
00:55:34
traumas and accidents and other things
00:55:35
that will just fill up your department
00:55:36
pretty quick so yeah I always get a bit
00:55:40
anxious once you start you start you
00:55:41
just get into it but it's the buildup
00:55:44
tonight is usually the worst yeah yeah
00:55:46
just cuz you know I mean yeah just the
00:55:49
unexpected is you know you know it's
00:55:51
going to it's not going to be pretty
00:55:52
yeah you know it's not going to be
00:55:53
pretty you know your brain's going to be
00:55:54
a bit cabbage for like you know or 3
00:55:56
days after and the stress that it puts
00:55:58
on your private life and stuff
00:56:00
so is this what um yeah got you and your
00:56:03
fiance viy you must say do you compare
00:56:05
notes when you get home like she's like
00:56:07
well I had to put down a family's
00:56:08
laborador today what did you
00:56:10
do uh yeah I like looking at her stories
00:56:14
a bit more cuz she gets to work with
00:56:15
like really you know fluffy patience and
00:56:17
stuff but um and gets to do a wide
00:56:20
variety of things from like surgery to
00:56:22
other things so that's quite cool um she
00:56:24
just knows that like typically don't ask
00:56:26
me anything that requires a really
00:56:28
intelligent response when I'm on night
00:56:29
shifts for a couple days after just cuz
00:56:31
you're brain dead yeah pretty much yeah
00:56:33
yeah yeah is this is this part of the
00:56:35
attraction of these runs just like being
00:56:37
out there on your own clearing your head
00:56:39
not thinking about anything being on
00:56:41
autopilot yeah I think it was one of the
00:56:43
definitely was one of the biggest
00:56:44
aspects when I first started was the
00:56:45
fact that although they were physically
00:56:47
demanding it was like mentally for me it
00:56:50
wasn't I mean you had that same aspect
00:56:53
every day like you know you slept you
00:56:55
woke up you ate something you went for a
00:56:57
run you know you slept again he just
00:57:00
repeated the same thing over and over
00:57:01
and over with a group of other people
00:57:03
that wanted to do the same you didn't
00:57:05
have to think about everything it's my
00:57:06
routine was the same every day and I
00:57:09
just loved it cuz I could just literally
00:57:11
at times switch your brain off and it
00:57:13
was great yeah I love that I can see the
00:57:15
appeal yeah like a complete opposite to
00:57:17
what you're doing in your job yeah like
00:57:18
quite often I don't take people take
00:57:20
their cell phones on their runs or they
00:57:22
listen to music and stuff like that I
00:57:23
will when I'm training but quite often I
00:57:25
go on these multi-day things take it I
00:57:27
ditch it ditch all that sort of stuff I
00:57:29
just find it great I just switch off
00:57:31
completely yes so so when you work um
00:57:34
night shift on the weekend like um yeah
00:57:35
we know about alcohol and how bad that
00:57:37
is what what about drugs what's the
00:57:38
what's the issue there oh yeah meth is
00:57:40
the worst really still oh yeah so much
00:57:43
um really yeah GHB patients and stuff
00:57:45
like that are quite easy to deal with
00:57:46
because they're over asleep or they're
00:57:47
awake um what's GHB oh one of those
00:57:50
party drugs that you know like a failed
00:57:53
little anesthetic drug that people take
00:57:54
for recreation you get your Jo a little
00:57:56
bit wrong and you're asleep rather than
00:57:59
partying so that's easy you know they're
00:58:02
up they're down you watch them you know
00:58:04
when they wake up and they've been wake
00:58:05
enough they can go um but um meth is
00:58:08
just still huge and you know obviously
00:58:11
the aspects of meth if they're coming to
00:58:13
us they're usually not nice
00:58:15
characters yeah so well first of all
00:58:18
that's that's alarming like
00:58:20
um I mean yeah I've got some friends
00:58:23
that aren't Saints but the the sort of
00:58:24
drugs I'd see in my circles would be
00:58:25
like MD ma or maybe some some cocaine
00:58:28
but I I I don't know anybody at all that
00:58:31
would still be on myth yeah so I mean
00:58:33
those sort of things we get rarely you
00:58:34
know like it's pretty rare to get anyone
00:58:36
to come in with like cocaine or
00:58:37
something like that you do get the
00:58:39
occasional one but it's pretty rare and
00:58:40
it might be that you know the drug that
00:58:42
they think they're taking is not they're
00:58:43
not taking or it's dirty or there's
00:58:44
something wrong but meth is just huge
00:58:47
and um there's a lot of it unfortunately
00:58:49
tied them with mental health patients
00:58:51
too and it's hard to differenti I guess
00:58:53
you know which is due to the meth which
00:58:55
is due to underly health so we have to
00:58:57
assess a lot of them um police are
00:58:59
reluctant to have them in the cells at
00:59:01
times um and then there's just ones that
00:59:03
do meth and do violent things and
00:59:05
horrible things and when they come in
00:59:07
you know you can imagine like you know
00:59:10
some newr female nurse trying to deal
00:59:12
with some big Meed up person you know
00:59:15
it's not the best Security's been one of
00:59:18
the biggest increases in emergency
00:59:19
departments in the past couple of
00:59:21
years oh is that right also there's your
00:59:24
security guard station there yes so
00:59:26
we've um since I've been working there
00:59:28
it's it's great it's transitioned from
00:59:30
pretty ad hoc security to a pretty good
00:59:32
security team now that are there
00:59:34
fulltime we have our own team um that's
00:59:37
terrible though yeah it's terrible it
00:59:38
shouldn't be necessary yeah it shouldn't
00:59:40
be necessary but they're pretty big
00:59:42
group of guys and girls that are really
00:59:44
quite professional um and obviously you
00:59:47
know their main role is just
00:59:49
basically excuse me patient safety and
00:59:52
staff safety so we do the best we can
00:59:54
but you could always do with more un
00:59:56
unfortunately on the weekends so you get
00:59:57
abused every other night oh yeah pretty
01:00:00
much like you know the things that you
01:00:02
get called and usually you know you try
01:00:05
to deescalate things and just to try to
01:00:07
talk to patients to find out you know
01:00:09
what's going on and yeah but there's a
01:00:12
level of abuse that would just get so
01:00:14
bad it's just like okay I can actually
01:00:16
tell from that and from your experience
01:00:18
that this person you know over this
01:00:20
one's really unwell and then we'll like
01:00:22
sedate them and do whatever we need to
01:00:24
to do under sort of like a duty of to
01:00:26
make sure they're safe and they're okay
01:00:27
all this one's just on drugs and alcohol
01:00:29
and there's actually nothing else wrong
01:00:31
with them and they can go away with the
01:00:33
police or something like that but that's
01:00:35
something that a decision making that
01:00:37
comes with experience I guess
01:00:40
yeah so you've you've been called the
01:00:43
seaword a couple of times oh
01:00:46
yeah quite a lot this this um this week
01:00:49
actually the what do you mean quite a
01:00:51
lot what's a what's a what's a he we
01:00:53
well you know sometimes you'll have runs
01:00:55
of it you know you'll have runs of days
01:00:57
where you've got like multiple sort of
01:00:58
patients of you know of dubious
01:01:02
character that just want to come in and
01:01:03
abuse people or get picked up from
01:01:06
somewhere because people don't know
01:01:07
what's wrong with them you know and drop
01:01:09
them off at the hospital over the police
01:01:10
or the ambulance and stuff and yeah so
01:01:13
quite a bit you get runs of it and then
01:01:16
quite often being like um I suppose one
01:01:19
of the male doctors it's not afraid to
01:01:20
see patients in the hospital if you got
01:01:22
a lot of female staff on quite rightly
01:01:24
they're bit scared at times to go see
01:01:25
these sort of people you get asked to
01:01:27
see so I probably see a
01:01:28
disproportionately large amount of um
01:01:31
drugged drunk or violent patients just
01:01:34
by the factor of I am who I am I guess
01:01:36
how how do you not retaliate especially
01:01:38
like at the end of a long night shift um
01:01:41
I well that's the thing is like you try
01:01:42
to you have to stay professional as much
01:01:45
as you can um at times you just got to
01:01:47
walk away and leave it or at times
01:01:48
you've got to sedate people and do that
01:01:51
um the only times that it's really got
01:01:52
physical is I've stepped in a couple of
01:01:54
times when security for whatever reason
01:01:57
aren't there quick enough if they're
01:01:58
somewhere else and like you know
01:01:59
patients had to go some of the nurses
01:02:01
and stuff like that then um I've
01:02:04
breached probably work protocol a couple
01:02:06
of times before getting involved they
01:02:07
don't like us getting involved and a lot
01:02:09
of like doctors and medical staff won't
01:02:12
because they're scared of the
01:02:13
ramifications for work which I think is
01:02:15
pretty poor and works just got to pull
01:02:17
their head back in a little bit about
01:02:18
that yeah they should have your back
01:02:20
right yeah I think so I think if it's
01:02:21
come to the point that a doctor's got to
01:02:23
step in physically to try to protect one
01:02:25
of the staff members
01:02:26
you know don't drag them over the Cs
01:02:28
about it you know what what are some of
01:02:31
the more memorable cases that you've
01:02:33
seen you spring to mind do you still get
01:02:35
immune to things after a while you do
01:02:37
but like most of the memoral cases like
01:02:39
I think of as ones that you can't s on
01:02:40
the radio cuz it usually involves you
01:02:43
know um things in orifices and other
01:02:45
stuff but does that actually happen oh
01:02:48
come on yeah it always happens you know
01:02:51
um yeah I just trying to think of a like
01:02:54
a clean story but
01:02:56
being an emergency worker we have a
01:02:58
pretty um perverse sense of humor at
01:03:01
times well you have you you need you
01:03:02
need a like a black sense of humor
01:03:04
wouldn't you a as a coping mechanism you
01:03:06
do like I think a lot of like you talk
01:03:08
to um emergency workers nurses doctors
01:03:10
whatever they've got pretty um pretty
01:03:12
dark senses of humor stuff and I think
01:03:15
if you're out of the no you're extremely
01:03:17
sensitive you probably don't like it but
01:03:19
it is a bit of a coping mechanism when
01:03:21
you work in that environment they never
01:03:23
mean anything bad about it it's just our
01:03:25
sense of humor are just a little bit
01:03:27
darker than other people's I guess we
01:03:29
need to if you don't laugh you're going
01:03:30
to cry right yeah yeah a lot of people
01:03:32
like who don't have that sort of dark
01:03:34
sense of humor unfortunately are really
01:03:36
good stuff and they don't last there
01:03:37
that long I think so it is's a bit of a
01:03:39
coping making they just get chewed up
01:03:41
and sped out yeah like you can come on
01:03:43
to the worst possible shift in the world
01:03:46
but you can look around and see other
01:03:47
people like you know other nurses you
01:03:49
know that have been different time and
01:03:50
they're looking they'll see you and it's
01:03:51
like okay sweet it's going to be okay
01:03:53
we're going to get through cuz we're all
01:03:55
just going to have have a bit of a a bit
01:03:56
of a laugh about it just you know cuz we
01:03:58
can deal with that sort of and just
01:04:01
hopefully there's you know there'll be a
01:04:03
time maybe when we can't and that'll be
01:04:05
the time to step out but some of the
01:04:07
young people or some of the new ones
01:04:09
just um
01:04:10
unfortunately burn out
01:04:12
or so the orifice stuff the I knew this
01:04:16
I shouldn't have said the word orifice
01:04:18
you say stuff is like put it this way
01:04:20
there's always these always these these
01:04:21
things on on social media and that but
01:04:23
the main thing is like nothing like on
01:04:25
Tik Tok yeah yeah and it's true nothing
01:04:27
accidentally slips up somebody's butt at
01:04:28
3 in the morning there's no such thing
01:04:30
as a butt accident you know and that's
01:04:33
probably the the main takeaway message
01:04:35
the the funny thing for me is that by
01:04:38
the by the time someone's like okay I
01:04:40
have tried everything I can't get this
01:04:42
out myself I need to get medical
01:04:43
attention they've been trying for hours
01:04:46
that's true that's true absolute and the
01:04:49
key is just be honest like emergency
01:04:51
doctors and nurses we have seen
01:04:53
everything before literally everything
01:04:55
you know
01:04:56
Were You There When the dude came in
01:04:57
with the e no this was a big public
01:04:59
event right this was a big public event
01:05:01
no luckily I wasn't on that shift and I
01:05:03
wasn't involved in it which is lucky cuz
01:05:05
there was so much ramifications from
01:05:06
that and I think we lost a very good
01:05:08
doctor who was head of the department at
01:05:10
the time who literally fell on his sword
01:05:13
a little bit and went back to the UK um
01:05:15
I think he was always considering it but
01:05:18
um I think that was the final straw cuz
01:05:20
I think he was a bit of an escapegoat
01:05:23
cuz photos or whatever of the x-rays
01:05:25
what were released into the media and it
01:05:29
probably wasn't the medical staff from
01:05:31
what I understand so but yeah that was a
01:05:34
yeah obviously that was the one that
01:05:35
made the paper so when something like
01:05:38
that happens does does everyone in the
01:05:39
staff room talk well that's the thing is
01:05:42
like you know patient confidentiality
01:05:44
the official answer is no no one talks
01:05:45
about this no not
01:05:48
whatsoever good good answer um but yeah
01:05:52
is there like a top five items top five
01:05:54
items well I guess you got to consider
01:05:56
like being opposite the prison probably
01:05:58
doesn't help um although you see less of
01:06:00
that these days but um vegetables are
01:06:03
usually the one of the top items I think
01:06:06
wow like
01:06:08
cucumber yeah things like that yeah
01:06:13
pnps oh that makes sense yeah the the
01:06:16
sharp end and then the fatter end I mean
01:06:19
the classic story is like a Pati I this
01:06:20
happened a long time ago now and like
01:06:23
some of the story will be fabricated so
01:06:25
I can't get done for it but the whole
01:06:27
thing is like you say people have tried
01:06:29
everything for hours and um a nurse came
01:06:32
out of a room and she was really
01:06:33
panicked he says you got to see this
01:06:35
person they're in a lot of pain I don't
01:06:36
know what's going on there the people
01:06:38
they're panicking I was like okay so
01:06:40
when a nurse comes he says they're
01:06:41
concerned you go over a look and I
01:06:43
opened the door and this lady came up to
01:06:44
me and she said look it's my fault it's
01:06:46
all my fault I I was like just calm down
01:06:48
what's going on and she said that her
01:06:51
and her partner had been having a sexy
01:06:52
time in the morning and this was at
01:06:54
night time
01:06:56
and they tried everything to remove this
01:06:59
item from her partner's backside but
01:07:01
they'd also given him a lot of laxativ
01:07:02
and stimulants so the pressure was just
01:07:04
building up in this F you know to the
01:07:07
point that he was in excruciating pain
01:07:10
so like you know after I you know had
01:07:13
the compulsory little um chat to them
01:07:15
about everything about like it's okay
01:07:17
we'll sort you out and that we got them
01:07:18
up to you know theater straight away cuz
01:07:20
we couldn't get it out and the problem
01:07:22
was solved but uh how do you get it out
01:07:25
well sometimes you can actually retrieve
01:07:27
things in the emergency department um
01:07:29
like you can sort of like put regid
01:07:31
tubes in and put some air in and if
01:07:33
there's something to grab you can pull
01:07:34
them out but obviously a lot of these
01:07:35
objects people put in their backsides
01:07:36
are smooth you can't get a grip on them
01:07:39
and then obviously they got to go up to
01:07:40
surgery and the surgents could deal with
01:07:43
it this is amazing you've been you've
01:07:46
been a really big Advocate over the
01:07:47
years uh about um men and particularly
01:07:50
young guys like taking more care of
01:07:51
their health and not um avoiding warning
01:07:53
signs and stuff um you so what's some of
01:07:56
the like standout stuff that you've seen
01:07:58
from young guys like failing to take
01:08:00
attention pay attention to their heal I
01:08:02
can't understand how some young guys
01:08:05
um will just put up with like changes in
01:08:08
their testicles and stuff like that you
01:08:11
know I don't know like I don't look at
01:08:13
my nuts a lot or every day but I would
01:08:15
notice if something was
01:08:17
changing yeah if you felt discomfort
01:08:19
yeah and definitely with the size of
01:08:20
what some people the times that they
01:08:22
were waste and I think it's just whether
01:08:24
it's a little bit ofar or people just
01:08:26
don't want to but sometimes especially
01:08:28
young people see them come in with some
01:08:30
horrendous sort of things that have been
01:08:31
going for a long time you know and
01:08:33
that's just a bit sad you know that
01:08:35
people don't feel um I suppose
01:08:38
comfortable or confident enough to talk
01:08:39
to their medical professional and come
01:08:41
and see things so yeah I wonder if
01:08:42
that's like an element of like bravado
01:08:44
as well I was reading the you know the
01:08:45
Lance Armstrong Lance Armstrong the
01:08:47
cyclist yeah um yeah he had testicular
01:08:49
cancer and in the book he talks about
01:08:51
that and how like his one of his nuts in
01:08:53
particular was getting like bigger and
01:08:55
bigger but he was just used to like
01:08:56
being in the pain cave so he just sort
01:08:58
of ignored it and carried on and he's
01:09:00
he's a smart guy surrounded by
01:09:02
surrounded by do do and medical
01:09:03
experence it's just like generally if
01:09:05
something like you know changes in your
01:09:07
body and it doesn't go away after a week
01:09:08
or so a couple of weeks you know and
01:09:10
it's getting worse it's not going to go
01:09:12
away by itself you know and it's I think
01:09:15
it's time to get someone to look at it
01:09:17
but then people do that for everything
01:09:18
people get like worse and they breathing
01:09:20
and away from the heart function some of
01:09:21
the other people and they think oh I
01:09:22
just thought it was going to get better
01:09:23
after a week or so doctor it's like
01:09:25
yeah and this is coming from you like a
01:09:28
guy that does these events and then
01:09:29
pisses blood or has temporary blindness
01:09:32
yeah but everything's like tery like if
01:09:33
I was still blind the next day I'd see a
01:09:36
medical professional yeah if I was still
01:09:37
pissing blood you know the next day or
01:09:39
two days I'd go see someone you know but
01:09:42
um yeah then again a bit of medical
01:09:44
knowledge can do a lot of harm and how
01:09:46
how was um how was Co for you were you
01:09:48
were you in the emergency department
01:09:50
during the the co years it was mixed it
01:09:52
was absolute crap in the end um but the
01:09:55
start with it was glorious because no
01:09:57
one would come into the emergency
01:09:59
department so we'd go to work and then
01:10:01
it was all the shutdowns and you could
01:10:02
just get to work really easily like you
01:10:04
know there was nothing on the motorway
01:10:06
you'd go to work and there was bugger or
01:10:08
people showing up cuz they were really
01:10:09
scared um and then the backlash of it
01:10:12
was horrendous we've never recovered um
01:10:15
and the health system hasn't recovered
01:10:17
just because of all the backlog of
01:10:18
people that weren't seen by Specialties
01:10:20
weren't seen in clinics surgeries
01:10:21
weren't done you know if someone was
01:10:23
waiting for their you know
01:10:25
their cardiac surgery during Co and it
01:10:29
got put off for like 18 months to two
01:10:31
years they're not getting any better you
01:10:33
know their heart function is not getting
01:10:34
any better and there's all those people
01:10:36
have just backlogged up from Specialties
01:10:38
that haven't been able to see them into
01:10:40
the emergency department cuz the GP
01:10:44
primary healthare system can't cope or
01:10:46
deal with them so our job when I say
01:10:48
it's getting bad it's just got bad
01:10:50
because of all the backlog and stuff is
01:10:52
still going on and all the demand on the
01:10:54
system going on you know so what about
01:10:57
you from a personal level how how hard
01:10:59
was that with all the PPE
01:11:00
and there were there were super stuct
01:11:02
protocols were there with you guys yeah
01:11:04
well it was interesting like um to start
01:11:06
with there was no PPE and I think that
01:11:08
was a little bit because there was none
01:11:09
around so you know a lot of the
01:11:12
knowledge that or information we were
01:11:14
getting about it was coming sort of
01:11:15
secondhand from overseas there wasn't
01:11:17
really a lot of initially New Zealand
01:11:20
medical Le lead information coming to us
01:11:23
um and we were initially told by work
01:11:25
you don't need PPE you know you don't
01:11:27
need face masks you don't need all this
01:11:29
stuff and they didn't want us wearing
01:11:30
face masks it would scare people and
01:11:32
this was when Co was kicking off
01:11:34
overseas and starting to spread and then
01:11:37
they just went completely the opposite
01:11:38
and I think it was once they actually
01:11:39
managed to purchase some PPE and we were
01:11:42
like you know literally head to tail
01:11:44
standing outside with a tent blocking
01:11:46
people out at the door and swabbing them
01:11:48
and stuff and coming in and it made your
01:11:50
work days longer cuz you feel try
01:11:54
breathing through like a an n95 all for
01:11:56
your entire shift and it's actually
01:11:59
quite hard or quite tiring
01:12:01
actually probably good training for
01:12:03
altitude runs yeah good training for
01:12:05
altitude runs yeah
01:12:06
yeah um when when someone dies on your
01:12:09
watch what what sort of impact does that
01:12:11
have on you if
01:12:12
any um well that's a bit of a tough one
01:12:15
I guess
01:12:16
um I probably it's it's one of those
01:12:18
things I guess you know that probably
01:12:20
doesn't affect you as much now as when
01:12:22
you were a younger doctor um you get a
01:12:24
little bit used to it you don't really
01:12:27
get that many deaths um on your
01:12:30
watch um these days or not as much as
01:12:33
the old
01:12:34
days um but then occasionally there'll
01:12:37
be one there'll be something that will
01:12:38
hit you maybe a little bit more and it's
01:12:40
generally because it reminds you of
01:12:42
something or they remind you of someone
01:12:44
or something like that but um quite
01:12:46
often now it's um it's just part of the
01:12:49
job I guess to a certain degree right
01:12:52
that pays not to get too emotionally
01:12:54
invested in some of these things because
01:12:56
otherwise um it will take too much of a
01:12:59
toll on you I mean it sounds a bit um a
01:13:02
bit callous if you think about it but I
01:13:04
think a lot of the young people coming
01:13:05
in sometimes you know they got quite
01:13:08
high ideals about how things will go and
01:13:10
their first couple of deaths really hit
01:13:12
them quite hard and then they come a
01:13:13
little bit more resistance to it well
01:13:16
you have to don't you otherwise
01:13:18
otherwise it's you're just not going to
01:13:19
allow and the main thing to think of is
01:13:21
or to remember is yo if somebody dies in
01:13:23
your department it's nothing that you've
01:13:25
done that's done it they were always
01:13:27
going to die pretty much you know like
01:13:29
medicine and stuff and the way we do
01:13:31
things is you know so sort of good now
01:13:34
and there're so you with the really sick
01:13:36
patients you're never on your own
01:13:37
typically in the hospital there's a team
01:13:39
of you that working um and if they die
01:13:42
they were going to the way I look is
01:13:43
they were going to die you know it's not
01:13:46
your fault it's what you got to remember
01:13:47
a lot of the young people will think
01:13:49
it's partly their fault or something I
01:13:51
guess [ __ ] yeah you you're yeah your
01:13:54
mental health really good like you seem
01:13:56
to have like a real good balanced grasp
01:13:58
on everything yeah on the outside eh on
01:14:01
the outside you
01:14:03
say yeah yeah you even know what happens
01:14:05
on no well that's that's true that's
01:14:07
true you don't but you seem quite Cas
01:14:09
quite not chalant about everything I
01:14:11
think I've got better as I've got older
01:14:12
cuz I've just got a little bit more
01:14:14
accepting and a little bit more life
01:14:16
experience as well yeah I think you get
01:14:18
over that initial phase in your life
01:14:20
where you struggle a lot um and there's
01:14:22
always bad things that can happen in
01:14:23
your life but then you get to the point
01:14:25
you know there's things that you know
01:14:27
you can do or you know you can do better
01:14:28
or you can fix and there's other things
01:14:30
you can't and it's like you say you know
01:14:32
if something's really going wrong it's
01:14:33
like it's not my CC it's not my monkeys
01:14:35
you know I can only do what I can do you
01:14:38
know the health system drives me nuts at
01:14:40
times but then you just got to sit back
01:14:41
and think well it's not my fault the
01:14:44
health system's broken I can only do
01:14:45
what I can do you know and that's the a
01:14:49
lot of things you know in your life you
01:14:51
know if you want to be if I want to be
01:14:53
more awake and more fitter more
01:14:55
healthier do less night shifts you know
01:14:57
go for a run more eat better there's
01:14:58
things that I can change and there's
01:14:59
things that you can't and I think that
01:15:01
sort of helps your mental health quite a
01:15:03
bit better than the dogs taking dogs oh
01:15:06
dogs are great he God we don't we don't
01:15:08
deserve them hey we as humans we don't
01:15:10
deserve them I think in the fact I think
01:15:12
we should go out and get another one
01:15:13
after this and I should have three
01:15:17
dogs what about um PTSD no
01:15:21
PTSD no no I don't yeah
01:15:25
no traumatic stress no I think probably
01:15:28
the most one the most traumatic I think
01:15:30
probably the most traumatic thing I've
01:15:31
had in my life would probably be you
01:15:34
know the passing away of my dad and I
01:15:35
sort of like think about that and still
01:15:37
have to deal with that sometimes and you
01:15:39
think about that on your your long runs
01:15:41
and things about you know what you could
01:15:44
have done better what you know and
01:15:46
that's probably the most thing that I
01:15:48
worked for in my life but in terms of
01:15:49
work and Military stuff and that no no
01:15:52
post oh yeah we haven't even talked on
01:15:54
yeah this is the crazy thing you've had
01:15:56
such a like um diverse and interesting
01:15:58
first of all these the running stuff um
01:16:00
but also career-wise as well that's
01:16:01
right you you were um like a medic in
01:16:03
the Army in Iraq yeah so I mean I was in
01:16:07
um like the territorial force it was
01:16:09
back in the old days when you were at
01:16:11
University um did a couple years of that
01:16:13
and then reenlisted in my 40s um because
01:16:17
they were short of doctors for
01:16:18
deployments so reenlisted and went
01:16:20
through a lot of training and stuff
01:16:22
again and then deployed off to Iraq as a
01:16:23
doctor so what then tail um to be fair
01:16:26
it was like a lot of um sitting around
01:16:28
and waiting I guess which is probably
01:16:30
one of the main things the military does
01:16:32
at times you know it's the old joke sit
01:16:33
around and wait but um or hurry up and
01:16:35
wait but um yeah I actually enjoyed the
01:16:40
lifestyle I enjoyed the regular hours
01:16:43
funny enough the meals and the exercise
01:16:45
getting paid the exercise so I really
01:16:46
enjoyed my deployment time I didn't
01:16:49
enjoy a lot of the um bureaucracy and
01:16:51
other stuff you know I don't think the
01:16:54
military does Health well but that's a
01:16:56
lot of Industries and stuff in New
01:16:58
Zealand they do Health well they could
01:17:00
look after their soldiers better while
01:17:01
they're in and with their out as well I
01:17:05
think um but yeah I really enjoyed my
01:17:08
time so you you so you you were sort of
01:17:10
in like a like a an army base rather
01:17:12
than like a war yes I was in an army
01:17:13
base overseas um and it's all that
01:17:15
stuff's been Declassified now long ago
01:17:18
and I was deployed of a doctor from
01:17:19
Australia who was sort of like a GP
01:17:21
trainee and most of the stuff we were
01:17:23
doing was General practice type stuff
01:17:24
which he knew more of than I did cuz he
01:17:26
was a full-time permanent military
01:17:28
doctor so he actually fortunately for
01:17:31
him did most of the stuff dealing with
01:17:32
the rashes in the feet and all the rest
01:17:34
of it and my role there was if anything
01:17:37
kicked off was to be the emergency
01:17:39
resuscitative type do and run those sort
01:17:41
of things and those sort of things were
01:17:43
few and far between so a lot of the time
01:17:46
I was just um well almost like a bit of
01:17:48
a Pampered Pooch they took me took me
01:17:52
for walks feed me you know yeah there
01:17:55
was always young people Keen to go for a
01:17:56
run or do something stupid you know we'd
01:17:58
come up with some stupid exercise things
01:17:59
just to test ourselves out and it was a
01:18:02
great time I enjoyed that yes enjoyable
01:18:03
experence yeah would you see more more
01:18:05
more gunshot wounds as a like a medic in
01:18:08
Iraq or at Oakland Hospital on an
01:18:10
average week or Hospital hands down
01:18:12
actually I was joking is that right
01:18:14
hands down like especially in the past
01:18:17
what 10 years I've been working in
01:18:18
emergency you know 10 years ago if
01:18:20
somebody come out with a gunshot wound
01:18:21
to Orland Hospital you would have every
01:18:23
man in his dog down from every in the
01:18:25
hospital wanting to see it now I had one
01:18:28
week we had three we had three people
01:18:29
shot in a week you know which is a high
01:18:32
week for it and abnormal but three in a
01:18:35
week it's like nobody not everybody
01:18:36
shows up anymore you know they're like
01:18:38
oh where is it get a scan of it where's
01:18:40
the W going what's blah blah so um your
01:18:43
violent crime in New Zealand in terms of
01:18:45
weapons has definitely ramped up in the
01:18:48
past few years like past few years has
01:18:50
in postco or just yeah postco especially
01:18:53
yeah it seems like there's a lot of I
01:18:55
mean you you'd know this um more cutely
01:18:57
than anyone but it just seems like
01:18:58
there's a like a just a a lot of rage or
01:19:01
anger around yeah it's a good way of
01:19:03
describing it there's a lot of hate in
01:19:05
society or people that just aren't
01:19:07
moderating their behavior just will turn
01:19:09
violent for the most little things I
01:19:11
mean some of the stuff you see coming in
01:19:13
it's like you got hit or assaulted over
01:19:15
that you know just
01:19:16
completely I mean you used to laugh in
01:19:18
the old days the C answer was oh yeah
01:19:20
some dudes hit me you know some random
01:19:22
thing in other words this person got
01:19:23
drunk started a fight and knew who they
01:19:25
were but now literally somebody might
01:19:28
just be walking down the street and
01:19:29
somebody completely out of the blue will
01:19:31
hit them or something and they coming
01:19:33
with serious injuries it's not a joke
01:19:36
anymore it's actually what happens if
01:19:39
you go out in town um I think the most
01:19:43
advice most people just keep an
01:19:44
awareness of the situation and what's
01:19:46
going on don't completely let your guard
01:19:47
down when you go out on night of the
01:19:49
town and that's a horrible thing to say
01:19:51
cuz that's what you want to do isn't it
01:19:53
when you go out but um no so we see so
01:19:56
much
01:19:57
violence does it does it put you off
01:19:59
alcohol yeah yeah I won't go out
01:20:01
drinking in town really like we'll go
01:20:03
out um you know really like for a
01:20:05
restaurant or maybe have a drink or
01:20:06
something but I hardly ever go out into
01:20:09
town for a drink or something or if you
01:20:11
do you're going with your mates you're
01:20:13
not getting you know like drunk like you
01:20:15
used to in the old days I just don't
01:20:17
think it's worth it personally no
01:20:20
absolutely not yeah it's crazy that a so
01:20:23
my uh my ex partner JJ her her brother
01:20:26
got shot a couple of years ago just um
01:20:28
uh in central Oakland at getting a kebab
01:20:30
at 3:00 in the morning and that ended up
01:20:32
getting a little bit of press um because
01:20:33
of JJ's profile um but the the girl that
01:20:37
Paul was with she ended up like um she's
01:20:39
blind in one eye and it you wouldn't
01:20:41
even read about in the paper like it
01:20:42
doesn't even get reported on yeah so we
01:20:44
like all the ones that you see in the
01:20:45
paper for every one you see in the paper
01:20:47
there's probably another couple that
01:20:48
just don't even make it you know there's
01:20:50
people getting shot with homemade
01:20:52
firearms and things like that as well
01:20:54
just random drive-bys people are
01:20:56
literally standing outside in a group
01:20:58
and somebody would drive by and I don't
01:21:00
know I don't like the color of their
01:21:01
shoes or their jacket or something
01:21:02
stupid like that we we'll shoot them
01:21:05
yeah is it is it usually gang stuff um
01:21:09
or is that just a sweeping
01:21:10
generalization I think there's
01:21:11
undertones of it but some of them just
01:21:14
to be completely random or it's I don't
01:21:15
know whether it's drug related or you
01:21:17
just don't know it's not clearly gting
01:21:20
someone
01:21:22
but wow I in you volunteer for a while
01:21:25
on rescue helicopter uh I found an old
01:21:27
article online of um some some massive
01:21:30
car crash you involved with how do you
01:21:31
have time to volunteer for [ __ ] uh well
01:21:33
that was back in the day where it was
01:21:35
like you know when you were young and
01:21:36
you always Keen to jump out of
01:21:37
helicopters and do stupid stuff you know
01:21:39
fly around the Wy [ __ ] during a nice red
01:21:41
you know Santa suit but it used to be
01:21:44
West rescues used to be volunteer
01:21:46
doctors so they would pay the pilots and
01:21:48
the crewmen and the Medics and stuff but
01:21:50
the doctors were sort of volunteer and
01:21:52
we used to donate you know our clinical
01:21:55
shifts and go work for them so there
01:21:57
used to be this massive pool of us that
01:21:58
were doing it so I got asked if I wanted
01:22:01
to do it when I was younger I was like
01:22:03
yeah I'll do it so did about four shifts
01:22:05
a month and we just went and hang out
01:22:07
down the
01:22:08
helicopter station and sometimes you'd
01:22:10
have no work and sometimes you'd be
01:22:12
non-stop from start to finish and then
01:22:15
when it sort of all got grouped and uh
01:22:18
they're trying to centralize it all they
01:22:19
decided to move to fulltime and probably
01:22:22
quite rightly they um sort of cut their
01:22:25
crew numbers down and they came up with
01:22:26
their own training program and things
01:22:28
like that so that's good so no longer
01:22:31
required I guess it had all changed when
01:22:33
I was off at military service so I came
01:22:35
back had been volunteering for westpack
01:22:37
and then wasn't really needed anymore so
01:22:39
just moved on to something else what
01:22:40
sort of jobs were involved with the
01:22:42
helicopter stuff is it mainly car
01:22:43
accidents or yes so you get some really
01:22:45
like you know simple jobs you just fly
01:22:47
over the way island or Buri or something
01:22:50
after hours and you pick up somebody
01:22:51
they worried about chest pain or
01:22:52
something or pretty simple stuff or
01:22:55
you'd fly off and it was one we landed
01:22:58
in the middle of like State high one
01:23:00
north of the PO tunnel I think it is and
01:23:03
the pilot did a really good job like cut
01:23:05
through the wires and sort of landed
01:23:06
right on the state highway there you
01:23:08
know and we had to like um get the fir
01:23:10
pull a guy out of the car and like we
01:23:13
intubated him there in the middle of the
01:23:14
State Highway and flew him off to O
01:23:16
hospital so it's a very wide range of
01:23:19
what you're doing [ __ ] it's been a hell
01:23:21
of a life hasn't it and you're only at
01:23:23
the halfway mark
01:23:25
yeah hopefully what's the life
01:23:26
expectancy of a married male at the
01:23:28
moment yeah hopefully what is it your
01:23:30
dead was 81 was was that a is it a good
01:23:33
Innings yeah so he was um one of 18 kids
01:23:37
in the family and he was the last one
01:23:38
last one left but he was the youngest so
01:23:43
but you're you're you're fat and healthy
01:23:44
and you're aware of what you should be
01:23:45
doing so yeah is yeah your life
01:23:48
expectancy should be right should be
01:23:49
better yeah unless the job Burns me out
01:23:52
but I am pretty proactive like I've you
01:23:54
know
01:23:55
seen cardiac doctors I've seen
01:23:56
respiratory doctors and stuff with my
01:23:58
family history and I've seen a
01:24:00
gastroenterologist but I've driven that
01:24:02
and had to drive that and most of it
01:24:04
through private because the public
01:24:06
system wouldn't do it but I've got risk
01:24:07
factors and I've got and had them all
01:24:09
checked and I'm doing pretty well at the
01:24:10
moment are you s of saying like the the
01:24:13
squeaky wheel gets the oil you got to
01:24:15
yeah the squeaky wheel or the wheel
01:24:17
that's got some money unfortunately new
01:24:19
healthcare like if you can afford
01:24:20
Private health insurance then you can
01:24:22
get whatever healthare you need to a
01:24:23
certain
01:24:25
um and that's the way the
01:24:27
systems is at the moment unfortunately
01:24:30
if you're if you're financially well
01:24:32
enough off then you're going to get all
01:24:34
the investigations and stuff you need um
01:24:38
if you're not then you can have to wait
01:24:39
for the public system you could be
01:24:40
waiting a hell of a long
01:24:42
time what what do you want to do through
01:24:44
your 50s and
01:24:46
60s um keep running you know of haven't
01:24:50
given up on maybe doing some more
01:24:52
crazier stuff or longer stuff um stay
01:24:54
fit you know working on a little side
01:24:58
interest of just making some running
01:24:59
clothing and stuff for
01:25:00
myself and um that's great you're
01:25:03
wearing it now huntaway
01:25:05
runco yeah yeah for the I got to pair of
01:25:08
the shorts the shorts are great so many
01:25:10
pockets and it's always just a um it's
01:25:12
just a side interest things to keep your
01:25:14
brain going um and then obviously um I'd
01:25:18
like to have more time to work on the
01:25:19
scholarship and things like that and get
01:25:21
other young people doing things and then
01:25:24
I supp you it's probably about time to
01:25:25
start a
01:25:27
family good that the plan yeah actually
01:25:30
I've got a where's the photo here I got
01:25:32
a nice photo here of you and Vicki it
01:25:34
was very hard to find very hard to find
01:25:36
a nice photo of you guys was it oh yeah
01:25:38
yeah one where you're not pulling a face
01:25:40
yeah yeah well I I tried to ruin them
01:25:42
tell us about that that young lady that
01:25:44
one that photo must have been back in
01:25:45
our younger days when we were fresh and
01:25:47
sparkly and stuff and that yeah yeah how
01:25:50
long you guys been together there oh I'm
01:25:53
G to get this Phong get in trouble no
01:25:54
it's been about two and a half years two
01:25:56
and a half years yeah yeah she's great
01:25:58
as I mentioned before she's Kanye's vet
01:25:59
she's she's bloody great you found a
01:26:00
good one there yeah yeah and the family
01:26:02
were really stoked as well they were
01:26:04
like we always need a vet I think it was
01:26:06
the first thing out of my mom's mouth
01:26:07
wasn't like oh you know you're finally
01:26:09
settling down and stuff it was like oh
01:26:10
we need a vet yeah yeah yeah cuz we're
01:26:12
all animal lovers in the family yeah and
01:26:14
that's exactly what you want to do after
01:26:15
hours yeah more
01:26:18
vetting yeah oh that's bloody great sh
01:26:20
this has been inspiring what a life yeah
01:26:23
well you already hear the good stuff at
01:26:25
times yeah yeah no no just in terms of
01:26:28
like like you know what you're doing
01:26:29
with your job and stuff as well like I
01:26:31
know it's not easy and it must be
01:26:32
incredibly frustrating at times um but
01:26:34
no we we appreciate what you do thank
01:26:37
you and and Al so the runs uh so we're
01:26:40
recording this in um Late July what runs
01:26:42
have we got to go between now and the
01:26:43
end of the year um so in about oh a week
01:26:45
and a half I fly off to Romania so doing
01:26:48
Ultra race Romania it's a um a sort of a
01:26:50
family Run Race which sounds quite nice
01:26:52
over there um um then about a month
01:26:55
later I've got Grand to Grand in the
01:26:57
states um which I've managed to get a
01:26:59
cheap entry um through cin one of the
01:27:01
New Zealand supplement companies um and
01:27:04
then after that there's a small race in
01:27:07
Australia which is only 3 days which is
01:27:09
around 12ks and then after that we're
01:27:11
sort of straight off to Antarctica so
01:27:13
it's all done in November finished up by
01:27:15
November yeah how good and and what's so
01:27:18
what surface are you running on in
01:27:19
antactica is it like snow and ice or
01:27:21
what yeah yeah snow and ice in that yeah
01:27:23
so you run basically in your shoes and
01:27:25
you have these little stretchy sort of
01:27:27
crampons that you put over the top you
01:27:29
just run around in those and and in
01:27:31
terms of climate like what are you what
01:27:32
will you be
01:27:33
wearing um probably more than last time
01:27:36
hopefully but um generally it's it's
01:27:39
quite dry it's a dry cold you know it's
01:27:41
wind chill that will um which will catch
01:27:43
you so just yeah just warm out of layers
01:27:46
and and is that um like a point too race
01:27:49
or is it like just I know there's a
01:27:50
marathon there and it's just like kind
01:27:52
of Loops yeah so it's the same sort of
01:27:53
thing because you can never get um
01:27:55
clearance I guess environmental
01:27:56
clearance that do like a point too race
01:27:58
and it's just too risky down there yeah
01:28:00
so typically uh you're on a boat and
01:28:02
they will you know sail to a area in the
01:28:05
morning they'll set up um a loop or a
01:28:09
course that could be anywhere from 400 m
01:28:11
to you know 3 or 4ks depending on the
01:28:14
area and um while the weather's fine
01:28:16
because everything's weather dictated
01:28:18
you'll run as many loops and try to
01:28:19
clock up as much distance as you can
01:28:21
then they'll put you back on the boat
01:28:23
the end of the day and they'll go
01:28:23
somewhere else house so it's quite good
01:28:25
from that side you get to see a few
01:28:27
different areas of you know the South
01:28:28
shetlands and the the main Antarctic
01:28:30
shelf and you get to stay on the boat or
01:28:32
and you get to stay on the boat which is
01:28:34
a luxury you you'd hate that luxury it
01:28:36
is I'd rather stay on the I shelf and
01:28:39
that and but apparently it's really hard
01:28:41
to get um consent yeah yeah because of
01:28:43
all the environmental concerns so [ __ ] I
01:28:46
I wish more of us were like this like
01:28:48
into doing really hard stuff can it be
01:28:50
luned yeah it can be loed can be led if
01:28:54
you got the desire to do it you can
01:28:55
always go out and do stuff yourself or
01:28:57
with some mates that's quite hard and
01:28:58
you know and a little bit crazy and
01:29:01
sometimes Reckless but but there's a
01:29:03
saying I like it's um if if you know the
01:29:06
why it's easy to find the how so what is
01:29:08
it for you what's the
01:29:09
why um I think part of it is I want to
01:29:13
every year besides from doing things for
01:29:15
Charities and other stuff like that I
01:29:17
want to test myself every year to see
01:29:19
where I'm at you know like and that's a
01:29:21
driving force for me like I'd
01:29:24
yeah you want to push your limits I want
01:29:26
I would love to have found my breaking
01:29:28
limit when I was younger and I just
01:29:30
never did um and I think it's probably
01:29:33
going to be easier to find it now as I'm
01:29:34
getting older so that's the hope that's
01:29:37
the driver just age catching up with you
01:29:40
yeah age catching up with me will
01:29:41
probably be the one that brings you in
01:29:43
yeah your your mind was saying like nah
01:29:45
n just do it yeah don't be soft just do
01:29:46
it and then the body will crap out
01:29:48
probably at some stage yeah so uh this
01:29:51
podcast is sponsored by the generate
01:29:52
kiwi saver scheme and challenged me to
01:29:54
give 20,000 to charity by spreading the
01:29:57
word about the importance of kiwi sa
01:29:58
advice and planning for your future so
01:30:01
if you answer these five questions
01:30:03
generate will donate 500 bucks to a
01:30:05
charity of your CH actually should we
01:30:07
and your scholarship 500 bucks
01:30:10
scholarship yep yeah a great idea okay
01:30:12
are you a spender or a saver
01:30:14
spender no [ __ ] no [ __ ] Trel um what's
01:30:18
been your biggest money
01:30:20
mistake oh not starting to save in
01:30:23
earlier when I first started earning
01:30:25
money yeah from day one I wish I'd put
01:30:28
some money away oh same here same here
01:30:31
even like in my 20s you you read about
01:30:33
things like compounding interests but
01:30:34
you don't really understand it till you
01:30:35
get older and it's like a yeah um yeah
01:30:39
what's that saying like youth is wasted
01:30:41
on the young or something like that um
01:30:42
who do you talk to when you have
01:30:44
questions about money um Vicki yeah your
01:30:47
fiance yep she's smarter with money than
01:30:49
I
01:30:50
am um what's something fun you can see
01:30:52
yourself doing in retirement
01:30:54
or pulling a sled in Alaska probably for
01:30:57
about a
01:30:58
thks no I said want something fun you
01:31:01
can
01:31:02
see um if you could pick anywhere to
01:31:05
retire in New Zealand where would it be
01:31:06
NY oo that's a really good one
01:31:10
actually
01:31:12
um down south somewhere somewhere down
01:31:16
south where I've got access to hunting
01:31:18
and The Great Outdoors and that I want
01:31:20
to spend most of my retirement age
01:31:21
driving a four-wheel drive around
01:31:23
shooting deer
01:31:26
um what do you love the most about being
01:31:27
a
01:31:28
kiwi um we're so far away from everybody
01:31:33
else jeez
01:31:36
okay with with all the [ __ ] that's going
01:31:38
on in the world when you look at you
01:31:39
other countries oh yeah that's what you
01:31:41
me and conflicts and other stuff like
01:31:43
that that's the only advantage of being
01:31:44
all the way down here okay oh so you're
01:31:46
okay being surrended by other
01:31:49
kiwis not too
01:31:51
many hey well this has been great it's
01:31:53
been really enjoyable um it's been in
01:31:55
the calendar for months and months and
01:31:56
months because you're such a busy man
01:31:58
with your work and your travel um but
01:32:00
I'm so pleased we finally made it happen
01:32:02
cool thank you yeah Dr inia ratti thank
01:32:04
you so much all right thanks a lot
01:32:10
[Music]
