I love this country. There's a connection to this place that feels like a mix of nostalgia and the new. The city of Auckland reminds me of Seattle, the weather makes me think of Humboldt (on its better days), but the people have a flair all their own.
It was another long day of travel to get here, and it was a long night of sitting in the Auckland airport on New Years while I waited for my hostel to open at 7 am. Everything went smoothly though and I grabbed an undisturbed nap once I had a bed to collapse into. After waking up, I walked down towards the ferry terminals to find some food as I had not had an actual meal that didn't consist of chocolate bars since Bangkok. I met one of my roommates when I returned to the hostel and we sipped beer (a German beer she recognized from home) and stayed up late chatting.
Yesterday, my roommate Michaela and I agreed to run some errands and then meet at noon to make our way to a beach. When I walked outside, I found some of my past coworkers hitch hiking in front of the building. I knew they were in town and had tried to get in touch the night before. Seems like they're heading south as well, so may bump into them later on!
Michaela and I had an awesome day of figuring out the public transit, laying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and hiking the local volcano to watch the sunset. She's a hilarious German soon-to-be PE teacher who is on the same wavelength. We shared jokes, eye rolls, and laughs the whole afternoon and evening. She headed south this morning, but I have my fingers crossed that we bump into each other again! There's talk of trying out the mountain biking in Queenstown.
Today I'm on my own and walking around until 7 tonight when I take a night bus bound for Wellington. It's more chilly and overcast today, so looking into museums and coffee shops. I tried to find a post office to ship my pack from Thailand home, but everything is closed for the holiday/weekend until Monday. Guessing that Picton has post and will just ship it from there.
In other news, my pack is heavy. Much heavier than I wanted. It seems like everything is the normal amount I take for backcountry, but it feels twice the weight. I'm hoping that it's just my clothing layers that I normally will be wearing that are the difference, but man. I'm nervous about what it will feel like with ten days of food added in. I also have some infected bug bites that aren't healing and have been going back and forth in my head whether to see a doctor. The worst of them are on my feet and make it more than slightly uncomfortable to walk, but moving consistently helps. We'll see how they look tomorrow and make a judgement call. 3 applications of Neosporin a day have to be doing some good, right?
Have been thinking a lot about my friends Sarah and Al who I came here last time with. Makes me smile every time I see an ad for a camper van or think about sky diving. I was lucky to have such good people around. Hope that luck continues.
Oh. One of the guys at the hostel insisted that I look like Demi Moore. This is a huge ego boost compared to my typical doppelganger, Ellen Page. No offense meant, Ellen.
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