Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Three eye care experts who were all educated in Whanganui meet in Rarotonga

Whanganui Chronicle
9 Jul, 2018 02:14 AM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Mike Webber (left) poses with Whanganui-raised eye care experts, Richard Johnson and Dr Jo Sims.

Mike Webber (left) poses with Whanganui-raised eye care experts, Richard Johnson and Dr Jo Sims.

Retired optometrist Mike Webber could be mistaken for thinking he was in a clinic in Whanganui, not Rarotonga.

While doing a stint for the New Zealand Aid Eye team in the Cook Islands last month, he bumped into an optometrist and an opthalmologist whose last names he recognised.

"I was talking to them over a cup of tea," he said.

"I knew their parents lived here and I thought, hang on a minute, if your parents lived here where did you go to school?"

They were opthalmologist Dr Jo Sims, who studied at Whanganui Girls College, and optometrist Richard Johnson, who studied at Whanganui High School.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Alongside Webber, who was educated at Wanganui Collegiate, they made up half of the six eye specialists for the Aid Eye team in Rarotonga.

"The fact there were three out of the six educated here ... it was quite a story," Webber said.

The team holds clinics at a hospital in Rarotonga once a year and assess for eye pathology or cataract surgery.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Dr Sims conducts part-time private clinics at Auckland Eye and she also runs uveitis (an inflammatory eye disease) clinics for the Auckland region.

She is also a senior lecturer for the Department of Opthalmology at the University of Auckland.

Johnson worked for a number of years in Austria and the United Kingdom before returning to New Zealand in 2004.

He has since been a part-time lecturer at the Optometry School in Auckland and is now principal optometrist at Greenlane Hospital.

Discover more

Kiwi vision improves eyesight in Cambodia

15 Aug 09:00 PM

Wanganui helping Cambodians to see

07 Aug 09:00 PM

Trip opens benefactor's eyes

24 Nov 09:00 AM

Optometrist's Pacific work an eye-opener

13 Jul 09:05 PM

Webber had planned to go to Rarotonga for a holiday but was called into the New Zealand Aid Eye team at late notice after another optometrist had to pull out.

He's had a number of trips to the Cook Islands even before the Aid Eye team was established in the 1990s.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM
Whanganui Chronicle

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

07 Jul 03:39 AM
Whanganui Chronicle

Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

06 Jul 11:50 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

Seabed mining project sparks alarm over impact on South Taranaki fisheries

07 Jul 03:57 AM

Jamie Newell fears silt pollution will damage precious reef ecosystems.

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

Multiple purchase offers for pilot academy

07 Jul 03:39 AM
Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

Police seek sightings of car linked to missing person

06 Jul 11:50 PM
How a spray painter is mastering conflict resolution with NZ Army

How a spray painter is mastering conflict resolution with NZ Army

06 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP