New Zealand (NZ) is a popular destination for people looking for a place with job opportunities and a peaceful life. NZ is a country roughly the size of Japan with a population of around four million people. The countryside has an abundance of open green space, beaches, mountains and lakes, which are among the many attractions on offer for people contemplating a move abroad.

The New Zealand people are warm, welcoming and humble; they are easy going and enjoy welcoming new comers to their country. There are a wide variety of cultures and cultural activities in New Zealand, another reason that living there is a wonderful experience.

New Zealand is also known as one of the safest countries in the world in which to live and work. If you are looking for a job in the medical field and can’t decide what your best option is, or if you have already decided to move to New Zealand but can’t decide how to go about finding a doctors job, read on.

New Zealand’s health system is similar to that of any other developed country, which makes the transition reasonably straightforward from anywhere in the world. However, you do need to find out if you meet the qualifications along with the requirements for immigration in order to make you eligible to live and work there.

One of the best things about working as a doctor in New Zealand is the work schedule. The hours are reasonable enough that, once a doctor’s shift is over, you can have a relaxed and comfortable home life, and the time to travel and see the beautiful country with your family instead of spending all your time working.

One way to find a doctor’s job in New Zealand is to partner with a health recruitment agency, like Hospital Staff Solutions, which will take care of finding a job for you once your qualifications are confirmed. They will work alongside you to take care of all the requirements and paper work so you can make the transition with ease.

You might not be aware of the best job opportunities without travelling to personally see the hospital and people you are going to work with. When considering such a big lifestyle change and in order to minimize the risk of taking a job that is not what you expected, partnering with Hospital Staff Solutions is the best option. Get matched with a job that is best suited to your needs, assistance with finding accommodation, as well as other lifestyle information like schools for your children, house prices and cost of living. See information about the New Zealand lifestyle here.

So, talk to us now if you are considering a move to New Zealand now or in the future. With Hospital Staff Solutions you will get the support you need; we are beside you every step of the way, ensuring a smooth transition for you and your family.

Welcome to our series of articles for Doctors and Allied Health professionals thinking about coming to live and work in New Zealand or Australia. We’ll be spotlighting specific locations in detail; the health service providers, population demographic and what doctors can expect from a lifestyle in that region. Of course if you have any questions about a location not yet covered please contact us and we’ll fill you in!

Northland

As its name suggests, Northland is the most northern region of New Zealand and boasts an abundance of natural beauty and outdoor activities. You’re never more than 40 kilometres from the coast! Relatively sparsely populated, with about $160,000 people in the region, overseas doctors and other health professionals will find the opportunity for a truly relaxed lifestyle in Northland.

Current doctor's jobs in Northland: Rural GP, Psychiatrist, General Medicine Specialist, Emergency Physician.

Health Services

All public health services are provided by Northland District Health Board, with four hospitals and a number of community health centres around the North. These community health services are often offered as collaborative efforts between the DHB and local trusts;  these communities really get behind efforts to improve the general health of their populations.

Whangarei

The largest hospital in Northland is in Whangarei. It’s a secondary hospital with a 24 hour Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit, with helicopter retrievals and transfers. It has a full complement of Medical and Surgical services, Radiology, Mental Health, Paediatrics and Clinical Support Services. The hospital is currently undergoing major redevelopment of its Maternity Facilities and a new staff gymnasium.

There is also a small private hospital and surgical centre in Whangarei.

Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands Hospital is located in the small town of Kawakawa, about 15 minutes’ drive from Paihia. Everybody has heard about the Bay of Islands, right? Their hospital provides primary and secondary care to the people of the Bay of Islands and the Mid North. This is an area with a real focus on community health.

The 27 bed hospital provides comprehensive medical and paediatric services with all
the supporting services and also provides a substantial community health service.

Facilities include a 15 bed Inpatient Ward (a mixture of General Medicine & Paediatric beds), four post-natal beds with two Delivery Suites, a four-bed Accident Department, Radiology and Laboratory services, eight station satellite haemodialysis unit (a support service to the Whangarei Hospital Renal Service), Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy and Outpatient Clinics

Community Health Services include Alcohol and Drug Services, Mental Health, Paediatric Outreach Services, Diabetes, Community Nursing, Public Health and Social Work.

Dargaville

A couple of hours north of Auckland, on the West Coast, nestles the sleepy town of Dargaville. Known for growing fantastic kumara (sweet potatoes), Dargaville is the gateway to the Kauri Coast, with its towering kauri trees and lush native bush, sand dune adventures and sunsets second to none.

Dargaville Hospital is jointly owned by Northland DHB and the Kaipara Community Health Trust. Kaipara Health Centre incorporates Dargaville Hospital and the Dargaville Medical Centre (24 hours), as well as the Iwi (tribe) provider, Te Ha O Te Oranga.

The hospital has a 12 bed general ward and a four bed maternity ward and is supported by an on-site laboratory, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy services. Consultants visit from Whangarei Hospital to provide specialty medical and surgical services.

Kaitaia

New Zealand’s northern most town is Kaitaia and some of New Zealand’s most beautiful beaches are right on your doorstep.

Kaitaia Hospital is a general hospital serving a widely scattered population. The 26 bed hospital has a general ward, maternity and paediatric ward with all the supporting services, and also provides a substantial community health service.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information about doctor’s jobs or a new lifestyle in Northland,New Zealand.

Next time: keep an eye out for our next article, about Australia's Victoria region!

I love to travel and have always kept a lengthy and regularly-updated list of places (Venice. . .  Nepal. . . the Taj Mahal! ) that I daydream of visiting. But the Pacific islands were different. If I let my mind wander that direction, it landed on an image of a little palm-frond hut on a sandy beach that I told myself probably doesn’t even exist in today’s world. Just the name “South Pacific” conjured an image so romantic, so exotic and so very, very far away that it seemed out of reach, even in my imagination.

But in New Zealand, those daydream-y small islands of the South Pacific are our neighbors. Places that would take incredible logistical effort (and a lot of money) to reach from Chicago are now just a three-hour direct flight away.

Over the cool and drizzly winter, the newspapers here were full of ads for discounted flights to Fiji, Rarotonga, Samoa and Bora-Bora. The travel agents in town filled their windows with special deals for over-water bungalows. Neighbours, colleagues and backpackers we met travelling told us they’d already booked their tickets.

So Matt requested a week of vacation in the middle of NZ’s mild winter. We booked a flight to Samoa and reserved a little palm-frond fale on the beach. We chose Samoa because we heard it had a pristine natural environment and interesting traditional culture. I’d seen photos of the To Sua ocean trench, a place so stunning that I didn’t actually believe it was real.

If you are considering a medical career in New Zealand, here is an important fact I can share: the South Pacific daydream vacation is affordable and easy to access from here. And it’s real!

Our little fale was truly just a few meters from the gentle waves on a white-sand beach. When we waded knee-deep into the water, brightly colored fish swam around our feet. Almost every morning, we put on our snorkels and paddled around the coral reef in front of our hut. Every afternoon, we drank icy coconut water in the shade. We floated in freshwater cave pools with water so blue that I expected it to feel icy. (It was warm.) We swam under waterfalls, hiked over old lava flows and bought fresh papaya at a bustling market.

We marveled at a society where many people live in houses without locks and much property is still owned communally. We talked with people about their day-to-day lives and how they balance traditions with modern demands.

I expected this island holiday to be lovely but I didn’t expect to find a place so truly unspoiled. The natural beauty was even more pristine and the traditional culture was even stronger than I had expected. I hadn’t believed a place like this really existed in today’s world. And even more, I didn’t realize that such a dreamy vacation (the palm frond hut of my imagination!) would be so affordable and easy to reach.

Now that I’ve seen Samoa with my own eyes, my daydream travel list is a little longer. My mind is wandering to Tonga, where you can see humpback whales swim by the beach. Or how about Vanuatu with its volcano, or Fiji with its temples in the forest? For now, I love my memories of waking up in the fale on the beach and swimming in blue water with bright-coloured fish.

A few months after we moved to New Zealand, I called to reserve a beachfront campsite for the weekend. I was calling on Friday morning and wondered if any spaces were available. The person who answered the phone actually laughed. “Just rock on up, darling,” she told me. “It won’t be a problem.” She was right: we shared the huge beautiful beachfront with just two other tents that sunny weekend.

One of the best parts about working in New Zealand, we’ve learned, is just how easy it is to experience so much of the country when you’re not working.

New Zealand has a fairly small land area so most places are within easy long-weekend distance. There aren’t very many people here, so traffic is rarely an issue and those beachfront campsites (or a good hotel room) are almost always available. Without a massive highway system like the ones I’m used to in the U.S., we travel on small (and generally well-maintained) roads through gorgeous scenery and towns where I’m tempted to stop for coffee and cake.

With his job at the hospital, Matt works just one weekend per month and gets six weeks of vacation each year (which I think is standard for doctors in New Zealand) and extra days off if he happens to be scheduled on a holiday. At least once a month, he gets a three- or four-day weekend. This all adds up to plenty of time for some good excursions.

A few of our favourites:

Gorgeous beaches in the Coromandel peninsula. The Coromandel peninsula, where we live, is lined by rocky shores and sandy beaches that are perfect for day trips or a laid-back long weekend. In the cooler winter months, we found spectacular hiking trails by the shore. Now that summer is really underway, it seems that everyone I meet is whispering a suggestion for their favorite swimming beach up the peninsula. From the well-known tourist spots to these quieter little corners, I’ve never been disappointed. (I wrote a few articles about beaches and sights in this region . . . check out Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove and the rugged northern Coromandel if you’re interested!) 

Baby seals and snow-capped peaks in Kaikoura. We were at a dinner party when one of Matt’s colleagues told us about a trail in Kaikoura that leads to a waterfall pool where baby seals play while their mothers go out to sea. By breakfast the next morning, we’d found a cheap flight and planned one of my favorite weekends in New Zealand. Baby seals frolicking under a waterfall? They were every bit as adorable as you’d imagine. Sleepy adult seals lounging by the water, awe-inspiring whales and a really, really big albatross were amazing, too. The peninsula trail along Kaikoura’s sea cliffs was so breathtaking that we did it twice.

Art deco style and wine in Napier. We saved our visit to Napier for the middle of winter, thinking we’d be able to enjoy the city’s famed food, wine and Art Deco architecture even if it rained. But the weather was amazing and our trip felt like a wellness retreat. We spent a day cycling on the seemingly-endless beachfront trails, soaked in hot pools by the shore, strolled around town on the fascinating architecture tour, bought bags of sweet oranges fresh off the tree and sat in the sun tasting wine and hearing from the winemaker about why this region is so special. The mid-winter timing meant we could rent a waterfront apartment for a great price and wake up to the sound of waves. 

A view above the clouds in Taranaki. When Matt started looking into finding a job as a doctor in New Zealand, he talked to his friend Sam who had come to New Zealand a few months earlier and recommended Hospital Staff Solutions. After we’d settled in to our new home, we packed up the car for a road trip across the North Island to visit Sam and his wife in New Plymouth. The best part of the weekend (apart from the excellent company) was a hike on Taranaki, a mountain I can only describe as majestic. We started out walking through lush sub-tropical forest in a light fog and continued up the mountain until we found ourselves staring into bright blue skies and looking down at quick-moving white clouds.

Art and city life in Auckland and Tauranga. While we’re loving the experience of living in our tiny coastal town, there are times when I miss the energy of city life. When those moments strike, we get in the car and head to Auckland or Tauranga, both lively cities about an hour and a half from here. We can check out an art museum, do a little shopping, eat some type of food we’ve been missing and then happily return to our peaceful little home. In true New Zealand style, these cities both boast their share of great beaches, fabulous farmers’ markets and beautiful green space.

You know, I could go on and on about fun travels in NZ: We had a great time exploring the Kauri Coast north of Auckland, loved the bubbling geothermal sights of Rotorura, can’t wait to go back to Wanaka, and were in awe of Aoraki Mt. Cook.  My friends visiting from Chicago loved taking the Interislander ferry to the South Island and spending a few days in Marlborough.

You can check out the links from Hospital Staff Solution’s great regional listings or browse around NewZealand.com for inspiration. I love browsing Book a Bach to see cottages or little vacation apartments for rent and like to check out Grab a Seat for cheap airfare within New Zealand.

Happy planning!

Up next: Exploring the South Pacific!

Tara Kennon is an American writer living and working in New Zealand’s beautiful Coromandel peninsula. While she interviews macadamia farmers and attempts to learn proper British spelling, her partner Matt is learning the ins and outs of New Zealand’s healthcare system as an emergency physician in a regional rural hospital. This series shares an on-the-ground perspective of their journey from Chicago to this gorgeous little corner of the Southern Hemisphere.

I’ve always loved Christmas trees: tall or short, fat or skinny, dusted with snow or decked out in tinsel. Some of my favorite holiday memories are of stomping through snow at the Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree with my dad, or gathering bunches of friends for a party next to a way-too-big tree in my little city apartment. The smell of a fresh pine instantly puts me in the holiday spirit.

Last Christmas, Matt and I put up our tree in Chicago the same week we officially decided to move to New Zealand. We told our families, talked to our bosses and planned a big holiday party with mulled wine and a fire in the fireplace.

When we opened a New Zealand Christmas card from Angela with a beautiful beach scene, we started imagining what it would be like to celebrate Christmas in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere summer. I loved the idea of a fun summer Christmas but wondered if I would be homesick for the sights, sounds and smells that I’ve always associated with the holidays.

Now that we’re here in the Coromandel for the Christmas season, with perfectly sunny days and really late sunsets, it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Our little town is buzzing with holidaymakers on their way to campgrounds and vacation cottages. We went blueberry picking on Saturday, so I’m bringing the fruit salad to our Christmas-morning beach picnic with friends and a berry dessert to dinner in the evening.

We didn’t put up a big pine tree this year (confession: I decorated a little cactus) but yesterday my favorite Christmas fragrance found me anyway. It was a gorgeous day, so Matt and I decided to go for a hike up a small mountain next to the beach. As we walked higher and higher, I began to notice a familiar holiday smell and realized the trail was covered in pine needles. The warmth of the strong sun and the crunch of our boots released that very festive fragrance of Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year here, too.

Wishing you a very happy holiday and wonderful adventures in the new year ahead!

What is it like to practice medicine in a totally different system? When we were thinking about moving to New Zealand, Matt talked with his recruiter and with staff at the hospital where he now works to get a sense of what this job would look like on the ground. Still, it’s hard to grasp a different system from far away.

As Americans, especially as our country has been engaged in so much debate about healthcare reform over the last few years, we’ve all heard stories about other countries’ health systems and how terrible, wonderful, dysfunctional or compassionate they are. It’s difficult to find reliable information about how another system actually functions for the patients and medical staff involved.

Since Matt started his job as an emergency physician in New Zealand about six months ago, I’ve gotten to hear a lot from him and from his colleagues about working in the New Zealand health system. What factors do they say stand out?

• Healthcare is free for almost everyone. All New Zealanders are covered by the national healthcare system. This means primary care is nearly universal and people generally get the routine care they need from their GP. Most patients come to the emergency department because they have an emergency, not because they don’t have any other access to care.  

• Doctors and nurses come here from across the globe. Matt works alongside many New Zealanders but also with colleagues from North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. I was worried that living and working in a small town would mean we’d be the only ones around who didn’t grow up nearby. That hasn’t been the case at all.

• Patients don’t always have quick access to specialists or diagnostic tests. For years, Matt worked the night shift in a busy ER that was staffed around the clock with technicians to conduct any diagnostic test a patient needed. He could call specialists who would fit in a patient on Monday if necessary. It was a real adjustment for him to move to a system where diagnostic tests often wait until morning and it can take weeks or months to schedule consultations with specialists. He and his colleagues are nearly always able to speak with a specialist immediately, though, and get advice on initiating treatment right away until that appointment is available.
  

• The professional environment is collegial and respectful. Since we’ve moved to New Zealand, I’ve never heard Matt mention a colleague who was volatile, disrespectful or even unhelpful. The work-life balance thing is real: doctors here are generally not overworked to the point of becoming unhappy or unpleasant to work with.
  

• Doctors aren’t working with a constant fear of lawsuits. The malpractice environment for doctors is totally different in New Zealand. While professional standards and accountability seem quite rigorous, the threat of frivolous lawsuits is almost zero. From what I can see, this extends outside of healthcare -- the culture of litigation and the adversarial interactions that go with it just don’t exist here as they do in the U.S.
  

• Maori cultural beliefs are integrated into the fabric of the system. From a space in the hospital where extended family can gather to the simple training that Matt received as part of his orientation, there’s been a conscious effort to shape the healthcare system here in a way that respects and integrates Maori cultural practices and values. This is a complex dynamic that I’m sure will continue to evolve. Doctors from overseas say the personal and professional lessons it provides are tremendous.
  

• Drugs have different names here, and not every drug is available on the national formulary. New Zealand has a national formulary for drugs, which includes each type of medication but not as many options in each class as in the U.S.  Those drugs go by names that are similar to the British system rather than the American one. Matt was pretty worried about this before starting his job here, but says it turned out to be a non-issue. His actual words were, “It’s like a foreign language for the first week, then it’s fine.” The pharmacist at his hospital even installed a program on his computer to help with that first week.
  

• There’s a network of medical staff in place to visit patients at home after they leave the hospital. If Matt sees a patient who has trouble walking or taking her medications, he can work with the hospital to arrange follow-up care at home without any cost to the patient. New Zealand has a network of visiting nurses and healthcare assistants who drop by patients’ homes to dress wounds, administer medicine and help with changing, showering, tidying the house -- the basics of daily life. When one of my elderly neighbors recently returned from a short stay at the hospital, I found her at home cushioning her injured leg on a comfortable chair that the hospital had provided so she could get the rest she needed to recover. 
  

• Patients are appreciative. This is a subjective and intangible one, but something that I’ve heard Matt and his colleagues mention again and again: patients here openly appreciate the care they get from their doctors and nurses. People seem to have a realistic expectation of what is available and feasible within the health system and appreciate the effort that the medical staff makes. I’ve heard doctors nearing retirement say that it reminds them why they got into medicine in the first place.

From my point of view outside the healthcare system, I see one more small but remarkable difference: I run into Matt’s co-workers on the waterfront trail or see them catching up with friends at a coffee shop in town. The work schedule for doctors here leaves time to take care of your own well-being, too.

Up next: putting that free time to good use and exploring New Zealand!

Tara Kennon is an American writer living and working in New Zealand’s beautiful Coromandel peninsula. While she interviews macadamia farmers and attempts to learn proper British spelling, her partner Matt is learning the ins and outs of New Zealand’s healthcare system as an emergency physician in a regional rural hospital. This series shares an on-the-ground perspective of their journey from Chicago to this gorgeous little corner of the Southern Hemisphere.

Commutes, Budgets, Coffee and Schedules: Observations on Day-to-Day Life Outside of Work as a Doctor in New Zealand

Epic landscapes, incredible new friends, easy travel to Pacific islands: when people ask me about living and working in New Zealand, I love to focus on the most exciting parts of the experience.

But when Matt and I were sitting at our kitchen table in Chicago starting to talk seriously about the idea of moving here, our conversation tended toward questions that were a lot more mundane. What would our commutes be like? Is the coffee any good? Would we have time to see the country? Could we even afford it? And of course: was this idea totally crazy?

If you’re thinking about a working as a doctor in New Zealand, you’ve probably already checked out photos of its breathtaking natural beauty and heard about New Zealand’s friendly and down-to-earth culture. But what about the day-to-day stuff that really shapes our experiences?

With this post (and a few more on the way), I’m hoping to share the experiences -- both the boring ones and the amazing ones -- that Matt and I have had since we packed our suitcases and made the move from Chicago to Thames, a little town with a regional hospital on the Coromandel peninsula. Matt is working as an emergency physician in New Zealand and I’m working as a writer. I’m living the experience of adjusting to a totally different lifestyle here and also see how different Matt’s day-to-day life is, both professionally and outside of work. We now have lots of conversations around a new kitchen table on the other side of the world about the differences between working as a doctor in the U.S. and New Zealand.

Here are a few quick observations I wish I’d heard when we were back in Chicago trying to imagine the logistics of life in a different hemisphere:

Working as a doctor in New Zealand is a serious job, but Matt has a lot of free time to travel and enjoy life. Matt still works hard here but he has a reasonable schedule with a lot of long weekends, plus plenty of vacation and professional leave to attend conferences. He rarely works nights and is often home for dinner. It’s a bit of a cliche, but work-life balance seems very real here. He does work late from time to time, but for the most part is expected to go home on time, use his vacation days and take leave for professional development.  

We really do get outside a lot. It’s ridiculously easy to access well-kept hiking tracks, running trails, cycle paths, swimming beaches and excellent picnic spots. I’m almost expecting to pick up surfing and diving skills by osmosis. Even if we only have an afternoon off, we can hike to a waterfall or go for a swim.

The commute can’t be beat. The town where we live, like a lot of small towns in New Zealand, is compact and walkable. Matt walks about three minutes to work, a stroll that includes passing a little stream and hearing native birds sing from their trees. If I have meetings in another town, I drive or hop on one of the buses that seem to connect every tiny town in New Zealand.

The technology is totally fine. My cousin who works in IT literally gasped when I told him I was moving to New Zealand. He said: “But they only have one internet cable!” I still hear from people back home who think we must be living in the technological dark ages. But rest assured: the internet connection is A-OK and everyone back home looks pretty good on Skype.

We can afford a good lifestyle in New Zealand and still pay our bills back home. If you’re considering work as a doctor in New Zealand, you’re probably already thinking about what it would mean financially. In our case, the reality is that we both make less here than we did in the U.S. But it’s more than enough to live very comfortably, save a little bit, travel a lot and still pay the bills (hi there, medical school loans!) back home. While some consumer goods like clothes and books have been more expensive here, the basics -- like good food and a nice place to live -- have been very affordable.

The culture really is warm and down-to-earth. Before Matt had even started his job, one of his colleagues had loaned us her beach house for the weekend. We’ve experienced amazing hospitality and the type of practical neighborly support that makes a difference no matter how far you’ve moved.

The coffee is excellent. So is the food, and so is the wine. We get great produce at the farmers’ market and fresh fish from the wharf. I spend a lot of time writing in coffee shops and am constantly tempted by warm scones.

Nobody here thinks we’re crazy for doing this. Spending a few years living and working in a different culture is almost a rite of passage for a lot of Kiwis. Plus, the medical community here is very international. When I talk to my neighbors or colleagues about what’s on my mind as I’m adjusting, a lot of them easily relate because their own life stories include a stint overseas.  

When we started thinking about moving to New Zealand, there were moments when it seemed completely far-fetched. It took a lot of effort to uproot ourselves. But last weekend I was again struck by a thought that’s hit me every so often since we’ve moved. Sitting on a rock outcropping at the top of a gorgeous sea cliff after camping by the beach and walking through a field of little lambs, the effort and logistics seemed very small. I just thought: I can’t believe we ever considered not doing this.

Tara Kennon is an American writer living and working in New Zealand’s beautiful Coromandel peninsula. While she interviews macadamia farmers and attempts to learn proper British spelling, her partner Matt is learning the ins and outs of New Zealand’s healthcare system as an emergency physician in a regional rural hospital. This series shares an on-the-ground perspective of their journey from Chicago to this gorgeous little corner of the Southern Hemisphere.