About Visique Whakatane

Team

Our Optometrist’s 

Ian Finch

Optometrist

English trained but with a Kiwi heart- that’s Ian Finch in a nut shell! I have been an optometrist for 39years and I still love helping people with their eye problems. I am passionate about identifying people’s eye concerns and solving them in as simple way as possible. Over the years I have developed specialities in eye disease, in paediatrics ( children’s vision), in visual issues associated with Learning Difficulties and in brain injury rehabilitation. Optometry has changed so much over the last few decades – we now offer a far more holistic approach to eye care – that’s what makes it such fun!

In my personal life I have been married to Sue for 40 years. I have three adult children and 3 joyous grandchildren. I have a keen interest in sport having played and coached for many years. At present I have developed a passion for horse riding – unfortunately I do not have a natural aptitude but thankfully the horses are very forgiving! I am involved in many local charity organisations and have recently been elected to the BOPDHB where I hope to be able to support our community further.

Michael White

BA, BOptom, TAPIOT
Optometrist

Michael has over 30 years’ experience as an optometrist.  Initially working in Auckland  where he gained speciality contact lens experience, he moved to Whakatane with wife Denise to start a family and take over practice partnership from retiring optometrist stalwart John Wilson.

He maintains a passion for helping people with their eye care needs.  “I really enjoy the challenge of improving people’s quality of life by helping find solutions to eye and vision problems”.

Michael is interested in all areas of optometry although his special interests lie with contact lenses, ocular therapeutics, and glaucoma management.  He has completed several post-graduate courses over the years, most recently achieving an endorsement to treat glaucoma eye disease.

“I’ve actually been involved with optometry most of my life having first worn spectacles at age 5.  Now being a contact lenses wearer I feel I have a special affinity for my contact lens patients.”

In his spare time you might see him on the squash court or out on the road riding a classic motorbike.

Paul Stockman

Optometrist

As a university classmate of his work colleague Michael White, Paul has also been working in optometry for the past 30 years, and after spending some of his early days doing locum work in Whakatane, can now also claim to have worked at this same firm for three decades.

Paul finds it a real pleasure to now be testing the children and even occasional grandchildren of some of those early patients from the late 1980s. Several long term trips living and working in optometry in Europe, Africa, and around New Zealand, punctuated by frequent return trips back to the BOP, have given Paul a good insight into the quality eye care offered here in the Bay of Plenty.

Paul has an interest in all aspects of optometry but especially enjoys working in a rural environment with the challenges this often brings in diagnosis and treatment. Extra study in glaucoma and pathology treatment and diagnosis add to that enjoyment and work satisfaction.

Three young children, sailing, and the wonderful outdoors here in The Bay fill his hours out of work.