Christchurch Shooting: Just the Facts - As of 6:45 p.m. NZST 20th March

Update at 6:45 p.m. NZST 20th March - Final Update
The death toll is now at 50 as one more victim died at hospital. Although some victims have yet to be identified, those victims already identified range in age from 3 to late 70s.

The gunman was arrested 21 minutes after police were first notified.

First responders were on the first scene less than 6 minutes after being called.

One of the suspects in custody was arrested for distributing the livestream that the gunman put on social media. If charged, he could serve up to 14 years in prison.

The first wave of burials happened today. Thirty victims have now been released to family.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said there will be two minutes of silence on Friday to mark a week since the attacks.

Read more below.

Update at 12:30 p.m. NZST 16th March
Gunman has been identified as Brenton Tarrant, a 28 year-old Australian man. He was in court today and will reappear in court on April 5th.
-He had lived in Dunedin, not Christchurch.
-A legally obtained the firearms he used. Of those weapons, 2 were semi-automatic. He also used shotguns. The gunman had a gun license. However, the magazines or bump stocks used were not legal. That means that the weapon as a whole, the semi-automatic weapons and magazines, are illegal in New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed that New Zealand gun laws will change.
-She has said she is looking into banning semi-automatic weapons.
She has also said the government will look into New Zealand border control, having better communication with the Australian police and government, and what needs to change with who New Zealand puts on watch lists.
-She has also been in contact with many world leaders including Donald Trump. He asked what he could do to help and she said to show sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.
-Ardern is now in Christchurch.

A Christchurch man was one of the people originally arrested and has since been released. He now seeks compensation for the wrongful arrest as he said he was "trying to help."

The other two suspects are still in custody as police try to see how/if they are connected to the situation.

None of the 3 who are in custody had criminal records or were on watch lists.

Domestic flights have resumed in New Zealand.

42 people are being treated in hospital, two of whom are critically ill and one of the two is a 5 year-old.

Police still ask all mosques to keep their doors closed for the safety of all.

Hundreds of kiwis in London came together at Hyde Park in a vigil.

Read more below.

********************************

Update at 9:40 p.m. NZST:
Police Commissioner Mike Bush addressed the press at around 9 p.m.
-He confirmed the most up-to-date numbers of injured and dead:

• 48 people were seriously injured at both mosques.
• 200 families were waiting at the hospital for more information.
• 41 dead at the Deans Ave. mosque.
• 7 dead at the Linwood mosque.
• 1 died at the hospital.
• Total death toll thus far is 49.

-1 man has been charged with murder and will be in court tomorrow.
-2 other suspects were found with weapons in their vehicle and/or on their person.
-1 other person is still a suspect, but his/her connection to this situation is unknown.
-2 IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were found on 1 suspect's car.
-Rumours have been flying and the commissioner addressed some of them:
--the charged suspect was not actually wearing explosive devices on his body.
--the police are no longer looking for additional shooters.
--these suspects were not on any watch list and the government is looking into whether there was any indication that they should have been.
-There were many questions the commissioner would not answer because the suspect has now been charged and he did not feel it would be right when much of that would come to light tomorrow in court.

Other news:
-This is the first time ever the the national security level has been raised to high.
-PM Jacinda Ardern said NZ has people from more than 200 cultures and says that it's this diversity that may have tempted the gunman.
-Ardern also confirmed that the attack was well-planned.
-The Christchurch mayor described the terrorist attack as a hate crime, but urged New Zealanders to "respond with love."
-The Australian suspect is known to be a white supremacist and said on his social media account that this attack was in response to attacks on whites.
-All lockdowns are now over, though the police is still urging mosques across the nation to keep their doors closed. Even with that urging, armed police are present at most, if not all, mosques in the country to make sure there are no other attacks.
-The 48 injured included children as well as adults.

Read more below.

***********************************

Update at 7:48 p.m. NZST:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern held a press conference around 7:30 p.m.
-Ardern says it is officially described as a terrorist attack.
-She also said that at this point that there are 40 confirmed dead, along with 20 seriously injured.
-The national threat level has been raised from low to high to reflect that police and government officials are acting in a way that keeps all people in the country safe. Many domestic flights have been canceled as the security is not the same for domestic flights as international ones.
-Ardern says New Zealand was chosen for this attack by a gunman because of the nation's compassion and kindness and she hopes that the nation does not change its attitude just because of this.
-Answering many questions, Ardern addressed the fact that the gunman was not on any watch list but that the nation stands against ANY extremism and violence, regardless of where the extremists are from.
-She also confirmed that there was not in fact an active shooter at the hospital.

Other news:
-Many lockdowns have been lifted, but I am not sure if all areas have been cleared from lockdown.
-The Christchurch Hospital, where many families went to find others from the shootings, lifted its lockdown and people were finally free to leave to track down family they couldn't find at the hospital.

As the evening progresses, the commissioner will be back to brief the press again.

I will continue to try to update this information with new information.

Read more below.

************************************

First, Josh and I are safe, as is Josh's family.

However, at the time of posting, I have friends who are teachers in Christchurch and are in lockdown as it is still an active shooter situation.

Josh's sister texted me at 2:40 p.m. NZST asking if we were okay. At the time, I didn't know what had happened. She let me know what had happened and I started watching events unfold on the news.

About an hour before I heard about it, one of the shootings occurred. There was more than one shooting. Two mosques were attacked and as I write this, it is still unclear whether there was/is a third active shooter situation at the Christchurch Hospital, the same place where victims were sent from the mosques.

One of the mosques had more than 500 people inside.

All mosques across the nation have been urged to close their doors for the time being and people are asked to stay off the premises of those places for safety reasons.

The police commissioner announced that they had apprehended four suspects: three men and one woman. They also found multiple IEDs across the area. Those have been disengaged, but this information speaks to the seriousness of the situation. (This information came to light at roughly 5:30 p.m. NZST.)

It has also come to light that one of the shooters live-streamed the shooting.

Thus far, there is an unconfirmed number of 27 presumed dead, but many more injured.

At the time of posting (6:00 p.m. NZST), all Christchurch schools were still on lockdown as well as other government buildings. The commissioner did say that once they have enough police officers "saturating that area," those lockdowns would be lifted.

Because it's still an active shooter situation, residents of Christchurch were urged to stay inside, stay away from certain areas of the city if they must be out, and wait for more information from police and city officials.

Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, addressed the nation saying that this is certainly one of New Zealand's darkest days. She showed compassion for those people at the mosques, many of whom are most likely immigrants to New Zealand, and said they have chosen to make New Zealand their home and that "they are us." She then went on to condemn the shooters who committed these senseless acts.

One of the suspects is a 28-year-old Australian who, in his manifesto posted on social media, said that he originally hadn't chosen New Zealand for this mass shooting, but once he moved here, he decided he wanted to show that no country is immune to a shooting such as this, not even New Zealand.

It has also been noted that this Australian shooter used an AR-15, which the NRA refers to as America's rifle.

I understand that you might be able to gather all this information in other places, but those who are in the US may not be able to see/hear all this information and because of the large number of mass shootings in America, this news may not be as significant to their news cycle.

The area that this happened was one of the places I took my parents just 2.5 weeks ago. It is a very populated area and easily accessible by car for those shooters to escape. Fortunately 4 have been arrested, but it is still unclear whether there are more.

I will try to update this as more information becomes available.

Halswell Quarry: A Gutted Rockface Turned Public Park

Halswell Quarry looks out on the city of Christchurch.
Photo by Erin Grigson

A couple weekends ago, we went and had a picnic with Josh's family.

When they said we were going to a quarry, I was kindof confused. But when we got there, I understood why.

When I think of a quarry, I think of loud noises and rocks. While there were still plenty of rocks, it was a very serene place.

The hiking trails have amazing views.
Photo by Erin Grigson

The quarry was actually used as a quarry in the 1860s. The stone from it is pretty special because of its blue-grey color. Many of the buildings made of the stone still stand, including the Canterbury Museum.

It was a working quarry from then until 1990 and is thought to be the longest-running, continually-operated quarry in Australasia.

The Christchurch City Council saw this space as an opportunity and turned it into a recreation reserve.

Now there are walking and mountain biking trails all throughout, with picnic areas and large fields to satisfy everyone's needs.

We found a great shaded picnic table for the 8 of us to use and enjoyed our lunch before taking on one of the trails.

As usual, the hike was steep, but worth it for the views.

You could see the whole city of Christchurch spread out in front of you with the mountains towering in the distance.

It was amazing.

You can still see the walls of the quarry, though most of it has been covered with vegetation at this point.
Photos by Erin Grigson

I should note that because it's mountain bike friendly, it's also more or less stroller/pram friendly. (We had a couple small boulders in our path, but that was easy enough to get around.)

My favorite thing about the quarry was that it was something ugly and useless and made into something beautiful and fun.

I can see why the quarry is a popular place on a warm, spring day. And I know we'll make another trip out there.

We Fed Giraffes and Other Stuff at Orana Wildlife Park

This is the giraffe we got to feed. She was hungry, but also wanted to pose for the camera!
Photos by Erin Grigson

Josh and I spent our Labour Day with some unique (and not so unique) animals.

Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch is New Zealand's only open range zoo. Before we went, I didn't know what that meant, but now I can say that it's pretty clearly a zoo that gives animals more room to interact naturally while still keeping visitors safe and breeding endangered species. But since that's too long to put on a sign, "open range zoo" will do.

A springbok, a rhino, a couple zebras, and a meerkat walk into a bar...
Photos by Erin Grigson

The park houses a whopping 400 animals across 70 species. However, the way the park is run, you may not see all those animals.

For instance, I'm a big fan of kangaroos and wallabies, so we went to see them. We didn't. As we were walking away, the tour guide of a passing shuttle was saying how he drives by that area everyday and has yet to see a wallaby. This is a credit to the way the park is run, that the zookeepers let the animals interact as much or as little as the animals desire.

Since I couldn't take pictures in the Kiwi House, I decided we
had to take a selfie with the massive kiwi outside.

One of my favorite things in the park was the Kiwi House. As you might guess, there was a kiwi inside whether you could see him or not.

Kiwis are nocturnal, so the house is dark, keeping the kiwi awake while visitors are in the park. Then they turn on the sun when the park is closed, giving the bird its sleep.

This bird fascinated me. (I didn't get a picture, partly because it was too dark and partly because photography isn't allowed in the kiwi house.) I have seen photos and even videos of it before, but seeing it in real life, I was blown away.

Kiwis are flightless birds and are also why New Zealanders are called kiwis. The birds have 2 legs. That's it. No wings, no arms, just 2 legs. Oh, and a seriously long beak. Because of this, they are kinda funny looking, but super cute.

What I found pretty cool about kiwis is that, first, the females are bigger than the males by about a third of the male. Also, after the female lays the really large egg (about a fifth the size it will end up growing to be), the male is the one that sits on it until it hatches. Way to do your part, kiwi dads!

Mr. Peacock was just wandering
around the park.
Photo by Erin Grigson

Unfortunately, kiwis are endangered, partly because of predators (including but not limited to dogs) and partly because the vast majority of kiwi chicks (about 95%) don't live a week.

But don't count kiwis out. They will rush you if they feel threatened. They will not go down without a fight.

But the kiwi wasn't the only thing we saw.

We walked through a huge bird enclosure where the birds flew free around you. It was pretty cool. There were birdfeeders around the path to bring the birds closer to the visitors, but other than that, it was like a jungle. It even had a waterfall.

Like I said, Orana is an open range zoo. Part of that concept is that some animals literally roam free. Obviously, there were some ducks moving freely. That's not really shocking. What did drop my jaw was the peacock - yes, peacock - casually walking around outside the bird enclosure.

I desperately wanted the peacock to open his tail, but I left him alone... after taking plenty of photos.

The tuatara, a native species of lizard that looks similar to an iguana, was also on display. While I was excited to see the special New Zealand reptile, it honestly looked like any other iguana to me.

What didn't disappoint (okay a little, but I was still excited) were the tasmanian devils. I was expecting Bugs Bunny's devilish friend. What we saw were lazy little balls of fur laying out in the sun. Definitely not a tornado of an animal. However, if the enclosures are any indication of how they act when awake and alert, they could be like that at some point.

The lions were being lazy.
Photo by Erin Grigson

They have lions and tigers, but no bears.

From 1976 to 1995, Orana had New Zealand's only drive-through lion reserve. Yes, that's drive-through, like what you do at McDonald's or Sonic. In fact, Josh's mother told me that she had driven through it with Josh's siblings. Wow.

However, for obvious reasons, they had to stop this practice. Fortunately, since 1999, the park has offered brave souls the opportunity to be in the lion enclosure, in a cage of course, during feeding time.

We opted out of that one.

When we first arrived, we were given a map of the park. In the map, it had the designated feeding times of specific animals, which helped visitors see the animals. And for some animals, visitors got to interact at that time.

We were lucky and got to do just that.

We fed a giraffe!
Left photo by Josh

Josh and I both got to feed a giraffe!

Delicious!

There were quite a few people lined up, but everyone got a branch and we all were able to feed one of the two giraffes eagerly waiting for their afternoon snack.

Our giraffe was a bit greedy and had her mouth full when she tried to take my branch. I held firm and didn't let her take my branch until she finished the other one (she kept dropping them out of her mouth) and she seemed okay with that.

It was definitely a new experience and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Orana. It's free to anyone once you're in the park, so why not??

Giraffes were not the only animals guests could feed. They had a farm animal area that housed sheep, alpacas, pigs, chickens and more and people could go feed them during their designated time, too.

As per usual, I had ice cream. However, just to be clear, it was Josh's idea. And he got a popsicle, too. Both were refreshing on that hot, sunny day. We slurped on our sweets while wandering by the rhinos.

1 of only 3 gorillas in New Zealand.
Photo by Erin Grigson

After the rhinos, we saw the gorillas. Orana is special in that it's the only place in New Zealand that has gorillas. There are only 3 gorillas in all of New Zealand, all at the park.

The thing I love about Orana Wildlife Park ia that it's a not-for-profit, registered charity. All the money they raise goes to making life better for the animals. More than 15 million dollars have been raised to help the animals.

While we were there, we saw new, bigger enclosures with the animals inside them after passing smaller, empty ones. I love that the park is always working on making a more natural environment while keeping endangered species alive.

I know New Zealand is not the only place with zoos and I'm sure Orana Wildlife Park is probably not the only open range zoo in the world. But if you feel any inclination to contribute to a good animal cause, feel free to follow the link here. This place is desperately trying to save endangered species and is giving the animals in it the best life possible.

The cheetahs had so much room to run. That's one of the many things I loved about Orana.
Photos by Erin Grigson

I would highly encourage anyone in New Zealand with a family, for a date, or on your own to go to Orana Wildlife Park.

It was totally worth the $34.50 per person for the interaction with animals and the unique atmosphere.

Where to next?

Riccarton House & Bush: Tea Parties Are Not Just For Little Girls

Riccarton House
Photos by Erin Grigson

As you readers may have figured out by now, I like to really plan out our adventures. But I hadn't really thought about the adventures closer to home until recently.

My list of places to see and things to do in Christchurch is really long. Luckily, we have plenty of time to do it all since we live so close.

One of the places at the top of my list was Riccarton House and Bush. About a month ago, Josh's mom told me that we would be attending high tea there, along with 2 of her sisters, one of their daughters and Josh's sister.



Vanilla & Raspberry Cake with Yogurt and a Hot Chocolate
Photo by Erin Grigson

High tea sounds very upscale British, doesn't it? I had no idea what to expect.

The 6 of us sat down, a little after lunchtime and had our choice of hot beverage and cake. I don't like coffee or tea, but hot chocolate sounded delicious. After looking at the options, I had no problem choosing the vanilla and raspberry cake.

Something I found odd was that once I ordered the cake, they asked if I wanted cream or yogurt with it. Not knowing what to expect, I ordered yogurt.

I was confused, so I asked everyone at the table why the waiter asked that. I was informed that it's put on the side to add to the cake for some moisture or something. But it's really only a thing to fancy it up at high tea.

When my order came, I was more than impressed. My hot chocolate and cake with yogurt looked delicious. The cake was even topped off with a rose petal.

After the high tea, we had a tour of Riccarton House. I gained quite a bit of insight into the history of Christchurch in that one tour.

Riccarton House is a Victorian-Edwardian style house that's been restored to portray that time, inside and out. It's also one of the only historical structures still in (pretty much) one piece after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.

Left: The clay bricks in between wooden planks kept the walls from crumbling in the earthquakes.
Center: The steel cross-beams were added to stabilize the structure in the restoration.
Right: Newspapers were used to insulate the walls.
Photos by Erin Grigson

The main reason it's still standing is the way the walls were built. There were layers of bricks, but wooden planks in between. The wood let the walls have some give, keeping them from crumbling when the earth started to shake.

The gloves given to Jane by John to let her
know he intended to marry her one day.
Photo by Erin Grigson

In the restoration, the walls were stabilized even more with steel beams, but for more than a century, the old framework sufficed. Before moving on to the next room, we also learned that the original builders used newspapers to insulate, which looks cool... and is cool. It didn't actually insulate it at all. It was cold.

The story of Riccarton House starts with William and John Deans, brothers who had a dream. They really wanted to farm, but in Scotland, where they were from, if you didn't have land, you weren't going to be a farmer.

So they decided to buy some land in New Zealand, sight unseen and went on their way. They named the area Riccarton and settled there in 1843.

John loved a woman named Jane, who was still back in Europe. He gave her a pair of gloves, which was supposed to signify that he loved her but wasn't ready to propose yet. Obviously it worked because Jane waited another (maybe if I remember correctly) 9 years before he finally proposed.

John married Jane and, shortly after, passed away. But before he died, they had a son, John II. In those days, Jane couldn't own the house or land, so it was put into a trust for John II that he could have on his 21st birthday. As the only heir, Jane put all her hopes on him. Fortunately for the family line, John II lived to see that birthday.

When that day finally arrived, John II wanted to make a great statement and added to the house with a grand dining room filled with ornate wood carvings. Above the dining room, he also added a master bedroom.

The master bedroom above the dining room added by John II to mark his
21st birthday. The escape hatch is in the floor of the bedroom.
Photos by Erin Grigson

That master bedroom actually had an escape hatch in the floor, installed in case of fire. Fortunately, it was never put to use.

As we moved through the house, I was struck by all the beautiful woodwork. Our guide told us that it looks so unique because oak trees are usually supposed to be allowed to grow for 120 years before being cut down. However, the trees used in the Riccarton House were only 50 years old, so they are a gorgeous, unique color.

And the woodwork was everywhere: walls, wardrobes, bannisters, even the ceiling. It really made the house fell like one-of-a-kind.

The beautiful wood everywhere
Photos by Erin Grigson

Inside the cabinet, you can see the original wallpaper and on
the right, you can see the modern version, which the
restoration team tried to match with the original.
Photo by Erin Grigson

One of the other things that really stood out to me in the house was that the restoration team tried really hard to match the original wallpaper. In some places, you could still see the original wallpaper and compare it to what the designers had put in. I thought that was really cool.

In the original kitchen, the stove is still in working order and looks pristine. It's also worth noting that the Deans family cared enough about their servants to give them their own dining room. Obviously it was not as big or as grand as the one John II added to the house, but it was still far more than what was afforded to most servants in the day.

In the attic, I learned 2 fun facts. First, when their mother was gone, the children were not allowed inside the house, which seemed odd in this day and age. But the kids would climb up the side of the house and come in through the door in the attic while she was away.

The door in the middle was used by the children to sneak back into the house
when their mother was away. The bathtub was used by the Deans
once upon a time.
Photo by Erin Grigson

Also, the phrase, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water," made so much more sense. There was a tub in the attic and our guide explained that the children were bathed oldest to youngest. As you might assumed, if it was a large family, by the time you got to the baby, the water was so dirty it was easy to see how the baby could get tossed out, too.

Out tour was very informative and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn about Christchurch's history.

I wish I could remember all the stories our guide told us, but I guess you'll just have to come take the tour for yourself.

And I definitely still have to go back and take a stroll through the Bush.

Hospitality of New Zealand Hospitals - a First-Hand Account

Most of you probably don't know, but a few weeks ago, I was in the hospital.

If you're squeamish, you might just want to skim over this. You've been warned.

I mean, I have to cover all the bases for my readers, so no stone left unturned, gall stone or otherwise.

At the 24-Hour Surgery place...

When I went to bed that Friday night, I felt like I had a bad stomach ache and a bit of chest pain. For the next four hours, the pain grew excruciating, so much so that not only couldn't I sleep, but I was screaming. I became nauseous as well and was certain I would throw up. Josh finally convinced me to go to the 24-hour doctor and off we went at about 2:30 in the morning.

Once there, I had grown so nauseous that I vomited. Normally, my stomach aches dull after I puke. Not this time.

Once they called me back, Nurse Natalie was quick to make sure I had pain and nausea relief, which I was eternally grateful for. I will say that I've never had strong drugs like that, but man, that first round of morphine did the trick.

In the meantime, I met Dr. Michael from Ohio. Small world, right? He looked at my "I don't have an accent, y'all do" sweatshirt and guessed that I was from West Virginia. I enthusiastically said "No! Kentucky!" He said Kentucky wasn't somewhere he considered Southern. I told him it definitely is. I also called him a buckeye, which he seemed to take as a compliment.

But despite his Ohio-ness, both he and Nurse Natalie took care of me the best they could. After doing some tests, they found that the only odd result was that my white blood cell count was high, which means I had recently been fighting off an infection.

Finally, I was able to sleep for a while. I was exhausted.

I've never had an IV until this
incident. Not pleasant.

Because it was a Saturday morning around 6:30, they did not have all personnel there. They referred me to the Emergency Department at Christchurch Hospital, so there we went... with my IV needle still in my arm. (Shoutout to Nurse Natalie for not subjecting me to more needle sticks, but I found out the hard way that it is terribly painful trying to tie up my ponytail with that sticking in my vein.)

Once at the hospital, I was admitted, and had to do the whole hospital gown thing. That's never been something I wanted to experience. I was in Ward 16, known as SARA or the Surgery Assessment Review Area. As ominous as that sounds, it was just where I waited in a hospital bed while getting fluids before I could see a doctor.

And I slept, which was glorious... until the pain came back and they did not give me more morphine. I honestly can't remember when they did give me something for the pain, but I feel like it was hours after I got there.

I have to say that while the vast majority of my experience at the 24-hour place and the hospital was good, my nurse (who will remain nameless even though I definitely remembered her name) in Ward 16 seemed a bit green... The amount of beeping coming from my IV machine was scary. Every time she unhooked the machine from my arm and then reattached it, it started beeping at her (I'm assuming) because it had air in the line, which is not exactly a settling feeling when you're already in a world of pain.

Later on, I met a third-year medical student who, when I said I was from Kentucky, said she had recently been to Lexington. I proudly exclaimed that that was where I went to university. She said, "They're the ones with a really good basketball team, right?" Of course, I agreed. Again I say, small world. (She also said she went to a really good donut place, which I named North Lime Coffee and Donuts and she said, "How did you know??" I think it's pretty cool that North Lime can now say they are internationally renowned.)

After she took my history, the doctor came in (and asked me the same questions she did, which is quite annoying, but at least they want to get it right) and told me that he wanted to look at my gallbladder and see if I had gall stones or something else wrong with it... Ultrasound it was.

I've seen movies and shows portraying ultrasounds before, but I had no idea what I was in for when it came to the jelly. So. Sticky. And it got everywhere.

The good news from the ultrasound technician was that she didn't see anything wrong. In fact, she said my gallbladder looked "pristine." Score.

But what now?


I was good enough to go, even if I didn't look it.
Photo by Josh

Back to the hospital room I was rolled, where we waited for what seemed like ages. Then suddenly I was moved to Ward 15... right next door. But we didn't know why. No one had come to explain anything after the ultrasound.

Finally, my doctor, Dr. Richards, came in to give us some idea of what was going on. He said that because they didn't see anything wrong with the ultrasound, they were going to assume that my pain was caused by a stomach ulcer. Dr. Richards wanted me to stay the night and then possibly scope me the following day. I politely declined.

While New Zealand has publicly funded healthcare, it doesn't apply to me right now. Which means every cost from that day, we were paying for out of pocket. It's also why I wouldn't let Josh take me to the hospital sooner than he did.

I explained this situation to Dr. Richards, who was convinced that I was covered. But he promised to look into it. A bit later, he came back and sided with me. He said a night in the hospital costs $1,000 NZD (roughly $680 USD) and understood where I was coming from. He prescribed me some medicine to help the ulcer heal faster and told me to take some generic pain medicine (something similar to aspirin) to ease the pain that was still there. (Something he explained that I'll definitely remember is that ibuprofen, which is my go-to for pain relief, is NOT good for stomach pain and possibly could have made it worse when I took some Friday evening.) Dr. Richards told me that the ulcer would take care of itself, but to come back if the pain returned or continued.

So at about 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, we left the hospital.

Josh, being the amazingly supportive boyfriend he is, held my hand when I needed it, chauffeured me place to place, and told me to stop worrying about the cost because, "we have to get you better."

It's been a few weeks and I'm seemingly back to normal.

As much as I want to experience everything New Zealand has to offer, I feel like once was enough for me and the hospital.