Elizabeth Olinger brings more than her considerable clinical expertise and teaching skills to a new life in Hawke’s Bay.

Happily settling into a job as Master of Nursing lecturer at EIT Hawke’s Bay, Elizabeth is now looking forward to introducing a rare breed of dog to this country.     

Her dog Thorri will soon be joined by the recently acquired Gala on the family’s lifestyle block south of Otane, creating New Zealand’s first registered pair of Eyjahunda Icelandic sheepdogs.

The female and male dogs both have Icelandic names, as do other examples of this rare breed.

Eyjahundur means “island dog” in the Icelandic language.  Used by the Vikings as a herding dog 2000 years ago, the Icelandic sheepdog teetered on the brink of extinction in the 1960s.  Careful breeding has seen numbers gradually recover.

Because the gene pool is very limited, would-be breeders work with a committee to create breeding pairs.  Icelandic sheepdogs were recently admitted to the New Zealand Kennel Club, and Elizabeth intends showing hers. 

They are amazing dogs, she says.

“They are intelligent, funny, good with children, swim well and are easy to house train.  Weighing 14kg at most, they come in a range of different colours.  Really, they are a fascinating breed.”

Passionate also about responsible dog ownership, she hopes to establish a good canine citizenship programme in collaboration with the SPCA.  

Like their owner, Thorri and Gala come to New Zealand from the USA.  English-born Elizabeth moved to California in the 1970s where she gained her more recent qualifications, a bachelor’s degree in nursing and Master of Nursing, from the University of San Diego.

Elizabeth was a registered nurse, and then qualified as a family nurse practitioner.  For the last 15 years, she has provided nurse practitioner services in a wide range of settings, including rural primary health care, pain management, neurology, aged care and student health services.

New Zealand, she says, has enough Englishness and civility to make her and teenage daughter Michelle feel very much at home here:  “It’s a much kinder and gentler environment than the USA.”

Elizabeth enthuses about the role of nurse practitioners in this country and sees benefits in the primary care providers meeting rural health needs.

“I see a lot of my function as promoting that role – with a New Zealand flavour, of course.”

Presently lecturing in advanced clinical assessment and diagnostic reasoning and the advanced practicum, Elizabeth anticipates teaching additional postgraduate nursing papers to be offered by EIT in the future.