If you're living in New Zealand and your child starts complaining about a strange noise in their ear, be prepared for a long journey through the public health system. This is our real experience — no sugarcoating.
It Started With a Ringing Sound
My daughter came to me one day saying she could hear a sound inside her ear. Looking at it from the outside, her ear looked red and slightly inflamed — like some kind of infection. Naturally, I panicked a little. You always do when it comes to your kids.
So we did what you're supposed to do in New Zealand: we went to the GP first.
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Step 1: The GP Visit
Our GP had a look, couldn't find anything obviously wrong, but referred us to an Ear Health Clinic for an ear wax removal — just in case a blockage was causing the sound or the redness. Fair enough, we thought. Let's rule it out.
Step 2: Ear Health Clinic — Ear Wax Removal
We got an appointment, they did the ear wax removal procedure, and it was actually pretty quick and professional. But... nothing changed. The redness was still there. My daughter was still saying she could hear a noise.
Back to square one.
Step 3: Back to the GP (Again)
We went back to the GP to report that the ear wax removal hadn't made any difference. At this point, the GP referred us on to Wakari Hospital for further investigation. Okay, progress — or so we thought.
Step 4: Wakari Hospital — Multiple Appointments
At Wakari Hospital, we had a series of tests done over several visits. Hearing tests, checks, the works. Each appointment was weeks apart, of course — this is the public health system. You wait. A lot.
And then we were referred again — this time to a public hospital for even more tests.
Step 5: Public Hospital Tests
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More appointments. More waiting rooms. More forms. More tests.
By now, several months had passed since this whole thing started.
The Conclusion? She Was Fine.
After all of that — the GP visits, the ear wax removal, the Wakari appointments, the hospital tests — the verdict was essentially: everything looks normal. The noise she was hearing? The specialists suggested she might just be a sensitive kid who was more aware of sounds that most people tune out. Tinnitus-like symptoms, possibly nothing serious at all.
The redness had also cleared up completely by this point. Which, honestly, was inevitable — given that months had passed.
My Honest Thoughts on the NZ Health System
I want to be fair here. The staff at every single step were kind, thorough, and genuinely caring. No complaints there at all.
But here's my frustration: why does it take this many steps, this many referrals, and this many months to get a conclusion? In New Zealand, the system is structured so that everything flows through the GP first, then outward to specialists. It makes sense on paper. But in practice, when you have a worried parent and a child with a symptom, the fragmented nature of it all is genuinely exhausting.
By the time we got our final answer, the problem had resolved itself naturally. We'll never actually know if it was a minor infection that cleared on its own, or if she's just sensitive to ear sounds, or something else entirely — because the timeline was so drawn out.
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Would I Do Anything Differently?
Honestly, not much — because in NZ, you don't really have a choice unless you go private. The system is the system. You follow the referral chain. You wait. You show up to appointments. You hope the issue is still present by the time a specialist actually sees your child (spoiler: sometimes it's not).
If I had one piece of advice for other parents in New Zealand going through something similar: keep a written log. Note down every symptom, when it started, how it changed over time. Because by the time you're sitting in front of a specialist three months later, you'll need to remember the details — and the symptoms you came in with might be long gone.
That's our audiology journey in New Zealand. Real, unfiltered, and very, very slow. 😅
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