Most Friday mornings, Stephen Potter can be found at Southland Hospital, performing his duties in his day job as a doctor. On Friday, however, Lance-corporal Potter traded his white coat for full camouflage, shouldered his rifle and went out to survey the Waikaia landscape as part of Exercise Tauwharenīkau, the New Zealand Army Reserve Force’s premier war-fighting exercise.. He is one of 500 commanders, soldiers and reservists from New Zealand taking part in the 10-day exercise in Southland and West Otago, along with 50 Australian Army reservists. The Invercargill-based doctor said he joined the reserves in his second year at university, looking for “something a bit out of the ordinary”. Lcpl Potter puts his experience to work as he occupies the role of medic for the reserve forces, which he said wasn’t necessary but was a common theme in the reserves. “A lot of us bring our civilian skill set to the role of being a medic. I can give teaching on physiology, the anatomy, surgical procedures. “Nurses have an incredible knowledge of wound care; the physios are really good with our muscle and skeletal injuries. “We all just bounce off each other and actually work in really good, effective, teams to provide good health support to our infantry friends,” he said. Roughing it on a freezing cold weekend in Southland before heading back to the hospital on Monday would be a tall task for most, but Lcpl Potter said he found the two roles were complementary. “The army has its moments where it can be very stressful, and doctoring is kind of perpetually stressful. “But I think they kind of compliment each other, in the sense of they allow you to be a bit more resilient. “It’s same same, but different,” he said. It helped being in his home territory, as Lcpl Potter said he was used to some of the more harsh conditions in Southland. “It’s pretty rough terrain, I think the North Islanders are finding it a bit cold. Being local, I don’t find it too bad. “It’s been pretty rough, having to make sure the warm kit is ready, making sure our Australian comrades are wrapped up as well. “I think being a Southlander gives a really good training ground to actually build a good amount of resilience and I think that it’s nice being in my own backyard,” he said.
