Taking a Holiday !

I just came back from a holiday in New Zealand with my husband (SS), sister in law and her 2 sons. We very ambitiously undertook to explore North and South island in 16 days. We spent 5 days in North Island and 11 days in South Island. 

We landed in Auckland as the start of our journey, with the difference of 5 hours in time, the getting into and out of airplanes, the transit at Sydney, not sleeping on the flight, a new place , unfamiliar car and having to find our way around..... all this was the perfect recipe for loosing the mind and allowing emotions like confusion, anger, worry to take over. I think i was more stressed than relaxed on our first day.

Luckily SS is skilled in navigating and we finally managed to find our accommodations place in Auckland. Next we had to look for food. Luckily its walking distance and there were a lot of asian food but roads at Auckland was steep. After dinner, we walked around and found a supermarket that we could buy stuff for breakfast tomorrow. We did not realised the time as it was still very bright at 8pm. But the body was getting tired and was glad to go back to the room , shower and sleep.
All this while, i could notice a sense of uneasiness as so much for my senses to take in. I kept on remembering to watch my breath and check that i do not add any more drama in my mind.

The next day we took in the sights at Auckland like Mt Eden and Victoria Market. We hiked up Mt Eden to look at volcanic craters. Weather was lovely and we had a good view of Auckland city on top of the hill. Throughout the trip, i observed that i was rather impatient and worried that we were not dilly dallying. I thought i was strange as we are on holiday, why am i acting so uptight and controlling?? 

We left Auckland for Rotorua and stopped by a highway stop for lunch. When we took a long time to decide what to eat... i noticed the impatience coming up again. I just observed it without too much attachment to it. I realised that though I'm taking a holiday, it does not mean my ego takes a holiday too. Its still playing its role of wanting its way though it does not know what is the right way. It still wants to be right eventhough there is no right or wrong. so i came to a conclusion, that there is no place to hide from our ego even if i go to the furthest place on earth. Luckily for me, being mindful of what I'm experiencing, its a great way to allow wisdom to come in and lend a helping hand.