‘Stars have aligned’ for Bachelorette’s Lesina
The Bachelorette’s Lesina NakhidSchuster may not have found love, but she has fallen head over heels for her new home of Taranaki.
The 33-year-old moved to the province last month to take up a position as an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgical registrar at Taranaki Base Hospital.
’’I really love Taranaki. I don’t know what it is. Is it the mountain that draws people in? Is there kind of like an energy to Taranaki? There’s just a good feel to it.’’
Born in America, NakhidSchuster has enjoyed a life of globetrotting but finds it comforting that in Taranaki, with its population of around 125,000, ‘‘everyone knows everyone’’.
She likened the North Island coastal province to Australia’s Byron Bay, in New South Wales, where she lived for a time in mid-2020.
‘‘It’s got a similar kind of energy. And I really wanted to stay [in Byron Bay] but obviously Covid hit so I came back.’’
After returning to New Zealand, Nakhid-Schuster spent time relieving at various hospitals, which included a three-month stint in Taranaki.
The region made a real impact on the reality star, because when an ENT position became available there she snapped up the year-long contract.
’’It all just worked out. The stars aligned... not for a man but for a job.’’
Nakhid-Schuster’s recruitment into the new role has been a beneficial career move as she studies towards becoming a consultant.
‘‘It’s fun because it’s just me and the boss. At bigger hospitals there would be a few registrars and the boss and you’re kind of fighting for operating time.
‘‘Here, you get to do a bit of everything. When you go to the bigger hospitals you get really subspecialised, where you’re only doing ears, or nose, or throat.’’
Nakhid-Schuster is appreciative of the learning opportunities that have come from the relentless flow of patients.
Last month, Taranaki District Health Board said it had one ENT surgeon and a second was expected to arrive in May.
It had been struggling to employ more due to a national shortage.
Nakhid-Schuster described ENT surgery as ‘‘artsy and dainty’’ and reckoned out of all of surgical specialities, while high volume, the role was low stress.
Which is probably a good thing, given the hectic reality of the TV star’s past year and a half.
As New Zealand’s first Bachelorette, Nakhid-Schuster hit the small screen early last year in her quest to find love. But after two months of reality TV dating, she made the decision to leave the show alone.
What followed was a whirlwind of publicity and an outcry of public opinion that Nakhid-Schuster ‘‘needed to give more’’ of herself or ‘‘let down’’ her walls.
‘‘I had to go away and really think about what people were saying because obviously there’s some truth to it if everyone’s saying it.’’
Nowadays, Nakhid-Schuster remains happily single and committed to her new social circle in Taranaki. But it’s not that she has closed the doors to finding love, she’s just yet to find the ‘‘right one’’.
‘‘I’m really happy being single and dating and meeting people.’’