Entry to Grafton Station

Grafton Station is a comfortable 15 minute walk to or from Te Whetu Tawera, where I work. As I came up the steps from the platform to the entry to the station, the sun was btight, bouncing off the painting on the retaining wall . Behind the wall is Outhwaite Park; the edge of the crater of a long quiescent volcano. This morning many other passengers left the train at Grafton. I was the only one to pause and admire the mural.

It was good to be back at the unit. I discovered that a number of the patients in the Intensive care ward are in isolation because they have tested positive for COVID. I do not enter the ICU, and I wear a mask all day except when working in my office with the door shut. 

A few days ago I heard part of an interview with an English researcher who has published on the association between trees, open spaces, gardens and the like with pulse rate, blood pressure, tension, and anxiety. She told the interviewer that within minutes (if not seconds) of entering such an environment, pulse rate and blood pressure fall and anxiety and tension reduce. 

 The unit was designed to be built on an odd-shaped piece of land on the Auckland City Hospital campus.There are windows, but almost all look out into enclosed areas into which no patient ventures. None give a view of Pukekawa/Auckland Domain. Many of our patients feel better when they spend time in the domain sitting or walking.