SNN_April 2023 Issue_web
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NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 20<br />
FEATHERY FRIENDS—Christine visited Antarctica in 2014, which was an incredible experience.<br />
Christine subsequently found herself at the Auckland<br />
Spinal Rehabilitation Unit. I was thinking “I’m going to be<br />
fine” and being a woman of dogged determination, she<br />
threw herself into physio and her rehabilitation. “I was<br />
totally focused on it. I’d get up at 6am in the morning,<br />
much to the annoyance of the staff," she laughs. Not<br />
wanting to be the cause of annoyance, she brokered a<br />
reciprocal agreement with the nursing staff providing<br />
them with computer lessons in the evenings. Christine<br />
relished the pool sessions—loving the water and<br />
swimming but there was an unfortunate clash at times<br />
with her doctor’s appointments. With her priorities<br />
determined, she’d duly turn up for swimming lessons,<br />
advising the pool instructors her doctor’s appointment<br />
had been delayed.<br />
Christine at the time of her accident was at the height of<br />
her career, managing together with Ron their own very<br />
successful adventure travel business. Six weeks after<br />
arriving home from four months in the spinal unit and<br />
navigating a new life as a paraplegic, Christine and Ron set<br />
off on an overseas trip of their own. Air New Zealand had<br />
kindly upgraded tickets for flights to Vancouver, and they<br />
planned to join a cruise in Vancouver despite caution from<br />
those around them. They were determined to complete the<br />
holiday they didn’t have (Christine’s accident occurred on<br />
the first day of their holiday). “We had a really good time,”<br />
Christine says nonchalantly “we just kept going from<br />
there.” Christine has a mind and determination of steel<br />
and is very much in charge of her destiny with the support<br />
of her equally determined husband.<br />
Christine brushes off the challenges with a good dose of<br />
humour, describing some of the challenges she faced on<br />
the cruise from Vancouver. She describes an incident of<br />
heading back to her room on the lower deck, pushing the<br />
button on the lift only to discover, as she wheeled across<br />
Christine and Ron carry<br />
three things with them, a<br />
good sense of humour, a high<br />
degree of adaptability, and<br />
an ability to remain calm.<br />
the elevator bay, the doors closing in front of her. This<br />
process repeated itself three or four times before she<br />
finally caught the lift. Arriving back at the top deck nearly<br />
30 minutes later she is greeted by Ron asking, “what took<br />
you so long?” She then describes the challenge of what<br />
had happened, and they both share a laugh and carry on<br />
enjoying their trip. “Things just take longer” she says.<br />
One thing that wasn’t anticipated however was the<br />
reactions of other tourists. On a subsequent cruise to<br />
Antarctica in 2014, a fellow passenger exclaims, “I didn’t<br />
realise they took people like you on these trips?” Fighting<br />
back a reaction Christine decided a measured approach<br />
was in order by biding her time—knowing they were both<br />
not leaving this ship any time soon. Sure enough, three<br />
days later the ship hit rough seas, and not partial to<br />
sickness, Christine was hoisting herself up the railings of<br />
the stairs to the bridge to “get a better view of the waves<br />
crashing over the bow” where she encountered the<br />
woman again on the stairs of the narrow companionway.<br />
As the woman was gingerly and slowly coming down and<br />
looking very green Christine seized the moment by saying<br />
“see you’re just like me after all.” “We became friends<br />
after that," Christine chimes. They went on to explore the