First week in Paradise

My name is Jess and I am the new practice manager here at Esther Honey, joining Gregg in Rarotonga to help promote the foundation and keep the clinic running as smoothly as ‘island time’ allows. So welcome to my first blog, you will be hearing a lot more from me, and I am looking forward to keeping you updated on the exciting challenge of a vet clinic in the Cook Islands.

A bit about me (minus the boring bits); I’m a Murdoch (Western Oz) graduated vet but originally a Kiwi and still very proud of it (Go All Blacks!). The last few years I have been living and working in the UK and Denmark, in between trips to Thailand, Vietnam and Greece to help on a variety of humane projects where I love the satisfaction of making a difference, as well as the challenges of cross cultural (and cross language) consults. I have become very adept at miming vomiting and diarrhoea, and have serious trouble adapting to life in anything other than jandals (Raro terminology for flip flops/thongs); this makes for seriously cold toes in a Danish winter...

Part way through studying my MBA online (a challenge from a place where internet connectivity is as much on island time as the rest of us), and having a mildly unhealthy obsession for conservation and animal welfare, Esther Honey offered me the perfect opportunity to feel I could make a difference. Of course, my love of beaches, sunshine and mango daquiris didn’t affect the transition at all!

The team here have been amazing at showing me the beauties of the Cook Islands in my first week. Monday Hash runs (embarrassing—we took a short cut), Tuesday island-dancing lessons (embarrassing—we are in the class with toddlers), Wednesday paddling to look for whales (embarrassing—not sure it was supposed to end with capsize drills), Thursday mini-golf (embarrassing—the most points wins right?), Friday night cocktails and dancing (you can guess where that is going...). Mostly I love that it is not unusual to be out doing any one of these things and spot an unneutered, un-collared dog and pop it in the car on the way home and return them safely (but a little shocked) the next day.

I can’t wait to find out what else this amazing country has in store for me, and to pass the adventures on to our loyal blog followers.