The Star: September 21, 2017

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38 Thursday September 21 2017 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi The Star Travel Gated paradise has much to offer •From page 37 With 393 rooms colourfully designed in traditional Balinese style, across five buildings, accommodation spans three categories – club, deluxe and suites, fresh from a major makeover. Balinese motifs of gold, wood, stone and soft red paintwork celebrate the sense of place. Suites boast acres of space with a separate living area and supersized bathtubs. All accommodations feature a lounge area and furnished terrace or balcony with day bed. The air-con is great if the weather gets steamy, you’ve got free wifi, a complimentary mini-bar, cable TV and a beautifully appointed bathroom with rain shower. Like Nusa Dua itself, Club Med is a sprawling and manicured place, far removed from the hustle and chaos of Bali’s choked streets. The lawns and gardens are impeccably maintained, bursting with tropical foliage, from the blaze of bougainvillea and birds of paradise to the fragrant radiance of the ginger plants. My runaway Club Med highlight was the aptly-named Zen pool. This multi-tiered hideaway is an adults-only, quiet-zoned watery sanctuary. SANCTUARY: Club Med Bali has many quiet-zoned areas. A triumphant celebration of luxury tropical tranquillity, the tinkling water feature feeding into the sky-blue pool, wrapped in hanging day beds, was my kind of perfect. Order up a drink and soak up the serenity. Club Med Bali lays its on thick with activity offerings. Families swoon over the smorgasbord of Kids’ Club activities, which are tailored to all junior guests, from babies to 17-year-olds. There’s kayak lessons, Balinese cooking classes, craft sessions, treasure hunts, pool games … all bases are covered. For kids and adults alike, the on-site Trapeze School is an incredible spectacle, bringing your inner-circus fantasies to life. But the full-tilt entertainment extravagance climaxes every night around 9pm with Showtime. The main pool and stage roll out a nightly production ranging from a Balinese cultural show and water ballet to an exuberant Wizard of Oz performance. Spilling out on to sun-kissed Nusa Dua Beach, with loungers and day beds at your disposal, I loved watching the local fisherman haul in a fresh catch, at twilight, from a surging water channel that intersects with the deep ocean. It’s also a dreamy spot to catch a sunrise, join a day-break yoga session or marvel over the locals’ PLUSH: Accommodation at Club Med Bali. ginormous kites. Fringing the beach, a gorgeous public boardwalk shadows Nusa Dua’s coastline, weaving past all of the area’s resort hotels and ending up at the fantastic shopping precinct, The Bali Collection. As much as Nusa Dua is a gated community of holiday resorts, if you want to immerse yourself in the region’s riches, Club Med offers a wide platter of excursions you can book. But with everything laid on, many guests, particularly families, seemed more than content to fly and flop for a week, during my visit to this ravishing Bali resort. www.clubmed.co.nz FAST FACTS •I travelled from Christchurch to Bali, via Brisbane, with Virgin Australia. Enjoy specially curated menus, wireless entertainment, spacious seating and sparkling service. Resident chef, Luke Mangan, oversees topnotch in-flight meal options, across all classes. If you crave extra legroom along with priority boarding and preferred overhead locker space, Economy X is just the ticket. Grab a great deal and seat to suit at www. virginaustralia.com ARA Bachelor of Midwifery New midwife, Becky Bangma, is excited about her career, but as a mother of three young children, she knows it’s important to balance her new job with family time. Midwives have the privilege of helping women bring their babies into the world, however working to nature’s timetable also means being on call 24/7. So Becky and her colleague, a fellow Bachelor of Midwifery at Ara Institute of Canterbury graduate, have teamed up to cover each other as necessary and take alternate weekends off. The arrangement works. Becky has supported over 15 women through births this year as part of the community-based practice where she works. She sees women from as early as from pre-conception through to six weeks after the birth. It’s hugely rewarding, she says. “It’s not a job for people who simply like babies because the main part of midwifery is supporting women; babies are just a small part of it. “I love seeing families being created. With first babies, there is a transformation of a woman into a mum. They can go from being quite shy to blossoming and becoming more confident.” A former beauty therapist of some seven years, Becky looked for a new direction after her third child. “I always enjoyed working with women, however I really only considered midwifery when I had my own children and I supported my sister in law with her first birth.” She wondered if she was “too old” to return to study. “My own midwife encouraged me to go for it,” she says. To prepare for the Bachelor of Midwifery, Becky enrolled in the Certificate in Pre Health also at Ara. Studying was challenging with three young children, she says, but she had the support of her tutors, husband and family to achieve her goal and start her new career.
1 The Star[Edition datE] Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Thursday September 21 2017 39 Readers’ photos WINNER: Don Parish, Parklands. If you want to win a double movie pass – get clicking. Each week The Star will give away a double movie pass to the best photo sent in by a reader. Send your photos to martin. hunter@starmedia.kiwi. Put ‘photo competition’ in the subject line and include your name, address and phone number FAMILY: Amber Scott, Lincoln. SHELL: Ben McGarvey, Casebook. Exciting times ahead for social workers Fiona Maurice is focused on whanau. Completing the Ara Bachelor of Social Work has given her the skills to take her career further and better support Māori families. “I believed that taking the time to study would give me more opportunities. I wanted to register as a social worker so that employers would take me more seriously,” she said. The profession needs Māori social workers to better work with Māori clients, she believes. Fiona worked at the Māori Women’s Welfare League as researcher and then as kaiawhina in 2011 to 2012. She loved community work but realised she need a qualification to progress. Enrolling at Ara was “the best move I ever made”, she says. “I learnt more about myself and what my strengths are and I realised that determination and perseverance are good skills to have.” The social work programme at Ara combines theory, practical assessments and a work placement; Fiona completed her placement at Child, Youth and Family (CYF), which was subsequently replaced by the Ministry of Vulnerable Children/Oranga Tamariki. “I put my hand up to go there. In terms of learning I could link a lot of my studies such as attachment theory and developmental theory to the work, but I also learned a lot in the office about the systems and processes.” It’s was an interesting time to be at CYF, she says. “The agency was in a transformation phase.” The placement led to employment ADVERTORIAL when Fiona graduated and another role supporting youth since then. Her studies supported her as a Māori woman (she affiliates to Tuahiwi Marae and Nga Ruahine/South Taranaki tribe). It is an exciting time for New Zealand, she believes. Qualifications now involve Treaty of Waitangi cultural awareness, for example. “More and more we will see that knowledge in action. Most of the social work students want to learn bicultural skills, but I already had that.” Māori students can succeed at Ara, Fiona says. Receiving the Eke Panuku award (for achievement by a Māori student) and other scholarships offered to Māori students was hugely helpful during her studies. For more information about studying at Ara see www.ara.ac.nz CHANGE LIVES FOR THE BETTER RUST: Jennie Coffey, Springston. Imagine having the knowledge and skills to help individuals and families overcome challenging situations in their lives. With a degree in social work from Ara, this can be your future. And we’ll help make it happen - with expert tutors, strong industry connections and extensive practical placement opportunities. ARTHUR’S PASS: Rachel van der Plas, Northwood. Apply now for Social Work, start February. ara.ac.nz CHRISTCHURCH | ASHBURTON | TIMARU | OAMARU | ONLINE
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The Star: September 21, 2017

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