Becoming a Backpacker

 Today was a pleasantly uneventful day. I tried being able to sleep later in the morning by staying up later. I walked home from the bar at 9pm, then went to the hot tub at 9:30 and took a shower around 10pm. I stayed up typing until 11pm and read for a few minutes before falling asleep. I woke up after 3am and was able to fall asleep again right away, but I wasn't able to sleep past 5am, which was a bit frustrating. At first I was comfortable laying in bed relaxing, and then the flood of thoughts and memories and anxiety came back to me, and even though I tried to clear my head, my mind would pick a new track and run with it. I did force myself to stay in bed until about 8am, though I had gotten up to eat my banana and try to take my mind off of life by doing various things around the room.

After a while I did get up and sat myself at the desk to type again. Around 9am I got ready to go outside; the rain had subsided quite a bit. I walked along the lake up to Man St. I chose to walk up the super steep street that led right up to the hostel. I think if I walk or hike up sections of road like that I'll keep fit no problem. They had a bed for me at the hostel in a 4-share dorm with 2 girls from Finland who had worked in Auckland for two months before making their way down to Queenstown for a few weeks.

My new home at Deco Backpackers!

I went back to the Novotel and packed up my things. I was tempted to take a pillow since they were so soft and perfect, but I decided to settle for loading up on teas and soaps and took a towel instead. I got the car from up behind the gardens and packed everything away. I'm lucky that my large suitcase fits underneath the bed here. I have a top bunk, but I generally prefer the top bunk anyway. When the curtains are open I have a view of the lake from my bed, only slightly obscured by a tree out front. My only real complaint, other than the fact that the internet doesn't reach to the room, is that there is only one bathroom and you need to walk outside to reach it. Therefore, same rules as apply to camping apply here: it's too cold to use the bathroom in the middle of the night! For the most part staying here seems comfortable. Hopefully I won't get woken up too much tonight, though I know it's Saturday and most of the hostel will probably be out and coming in at all hours, but I have no where to be at any given time, and I am enjoying relaxing and working on the computer and reading my book, so I don't need to have anxiety over my sleep.

View from my bedroom

I walked to the supermarket today. It was a pleasant 15min walk up the road. The middle of the day here is quite nice. You don't really need a heavy jacket when the sun is out. I bought some fruits and vegetables, as well as oatmeal for breakfast, and I really couldn't resist getting some honey. I'm trying not to use any kind of sweeteners in my foods anymore, but I know that I am going to fill my suitcase with bottles of honey before I go back – at the very least they would make nice gifts, or sit in my mom's house for the next 4 years before getting used.

For dinner tonight I made some couscous – I really need to get used to how much couscous to use because I ended up with a heaping pile of food on my plate. I boiled carrots, cauliflower and beetroot together, then added the couscous and then the pieces of ham. There were spices for general use at the hostel, so I added a touch of curry and chili powders, though I couldn't really taste it, and overall the dish was rather bland, considering the beetroot turned the entire dish orange, and I would have expected it to sweeten it a bit. I also got multi-grain rolls from the supermarket, something to curb my seemingly insatiable hunger. I feel like when I limit my eating to how much energy I feel I need to take in my stomach tends to be quite hungry. I think it's difficult to sleep with that feeling, though after the huge plate of couscous I'm hoping I won't get hungry in the morning. I know I'll probably wake up around 5am, or if I'm lucky, 6am, but I am determined to stay in bed until the sun starts to peek through the window!

Other than change rooms I didn't really do anything largely productive today. I suppose as long as I'm comfortable here there isn't any immediate hurry to do anything, and just enjoying my free time is probably the best thing. Right now I'm going to do whatever I feel like, and for the most part I'm being pretty boring. I'm sure when everyone gets into town and I start working I'll be crazy again, but lately I'm happy being rather mellow. I think that for the most part I am working on the first part of my project, documenting my travels through writing and photos, and there is a lot to do.