He and his colleagues had been starting to wonder where the dispute was heading, since there had been no progress on negotiations following two 48-hour strikes in April and May.
Although reluctant to strike, the doctors felt they had had no choice when negotiations failed.
"I'd prefer negotiation any day," he said.
Union general secretary Dr Deborah Powell said the association was looking for meaningful discussions and hoped "the employers, like us, come to the table with an intention to resolve this dispute."
The dispute has been dogged by public claims and counter-claims about what is being sought by the union and what is being offered by boards.
Last night, Dr Powell said the association's current claim was 8% over three years and had been for some time, although boards had been saying it was still 10 % over three years.
District Health Boards New Zealand spokesman David Meates told NZPA the claim had come back to just under 30% over three years. He also expressed the hope there could be progress in the talks.
Dr Powell said the money DHBs were paying for temporary solutions to the medical workforce crisis, including recruitment trips to the United Kingdom and locums, would have paid for all the resident doctors' claims and made the system sustainable.
DHBs wanted to engage with the director-general of health on a new independent commission into the way junior doctors were employed, Mr Meates said.
They had appealed an Employment Relations Authority request they hand over senior doctors' pay information to back up their claim that the offer to junior doctors was in line with the senior doctors' collective agreement.
DHBs did not believe it was the authority's intention for confidential details of one union to be shared with another, he said.
The appeal would be heard by the Employment Court in Auckland early next month.
