Happy brain chemicals
Dr Tom Mulholland is an Emergency Department Doctor and GP with over 25 years’ experience in New Zealand. He’s currently a man on a mission, tackling health missions around the world.
There are five pillars of happiness, and without any of these it’s hard to be happy in my view. These pillars are friends, family, health, financial security and a sense of purpose. So, as we board the plane to the Chatham Islands on our latest medical mission, we find plenty of reasons to be happy. We have an ultrasound machine to scan a few livers, the latest mobile skin cancer screening app that can transmit pictures of potentially fatal moles to dermatologists, and for the local farmers, some slides and talks on managing the top paddocks: the mind and the brain. This will be my fifth trip to the Chatham Islands, one of my favourite places on the planet. Having done a stint here as the local doctor a few years back, I am returning to see old friends and that is exciting. Boarding the plane with good mates Quentin and Ferg, a radiologist and a cameraman, their sons and my own, it’s fatherand-son trips that create dopamine and oxytocin: brain chemicals that promote happiness and love. One can certainly become addicted to these islands and the adventure they offer. As we get our first glimpse of the rocks that emerge 800 kilometres off the coast of Christchurch, the excitement is palpable. The old volcano is the same size as Banks Peninsula, with other islands sculpted by God’s chisel into an adventure theme park. As we disembark my son comments it feels like Jurassic Park, which in a way it is. Loading the van with an ultrasound machine, camera gear and a few wetsuits, we head to Waitangi, and the spectacular Hotel Chatham. The Chathams are home to about 600 people, striking landscapes, prehistoric creatures, fossilised shark teeth, monster crayfish and paua, it is heaven on Earth. It’s also Saturday night and we dine on island delicacies and are made welcome at a local Christmas party, while the pub steadies itself for the Joseph Parker v Andy Ruiz fight. Sunday morning, back on the boat, we steam through a gale, heading for some sheltered bays and our morning’s exercise regime, surrounded by family and friends. I reflect on how my friends have become family and waves of contentment augment the green ones crashing over our bow. As the anchor goes down so does my fishing line. With a morsel of our wild pork brunch on the hook, a blue cod almost the size of my lower leg takes the bait and is on board in less than 60 seconds.
The talk of recent months is now real, and my buddies realise the truth that is the Chathams: pure adrenaline. We have been entertained, educated and enthralled by stories of Great White Sharks that inhabit these waters, and with personal anecdotes of close encounters it’s eerie enough to get the heart racing. A tachycardia is the last thing you want as you slip into the cool waters with visibility to die for, kelp forests and blues and greens you can only imagine, as the theme song from the movie Jaws erupts from your subconscious.
The catch bag contains some trophy crayfish and my son dives with me as the fathers try and show our boys the best technique to prise perfect paua from rocky shelves... it’s the fresh, choice supermarket of the South Pacific ocean.
The wind drops and so does the adrenaline, our grown boys are now closer to men and sleep soundly as we steam back to port. Healthy and happy, we have ticked off three of the pillars of happiness and are ready for some work tomorrow.
Sunday morning, back on the boat, we steam through a gale, heading for some sheltered bays... I reflect on how my friends have become family and waves of contentment augment the green ones crashing over our bow.