The intrepid travels of Christine and Ron Blake - SNN April 2023

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