The Bucket List Update

I’m taking a break from the Queenstown posts to link up with Denyse Whelan today about birthdays.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a big one just around the corner. Yep, it begins with 5. I don’t feel like I’m anywhere near as old as my birth certificate tells me – even though my body (in its current state of disrepair) absolutely feels it.

Anyways, it’s the perfect prompt to revisit the bucket list. I quite like bucket lists – I’ve written about them before. In fact, I wrote a whole novel about one: Baby, It’s You.

Somehow, despite the chaos of the last 12 months – or maybe because of the chaos of the last 12 months – I’ve managed to cross quite a bit off my bucket list:

• Tramp the Milford Track – you can find the post series here. Tick.
• Resign from a job – yep, something I’d never done before. It was traumatic and messy. Tick.
• Check out the Victorian High Country – Man from Snowy River country. I did that last weekend – the post is on its way. Tick. The main pic today is a teaser.
• Walk to Mt Kosciusko. Ok, didn’t quite get there, but I saw it and I took the photo. I’m calling that one as close enough. Tick.
• If you count Mackinnon Pass (day 3 on Milford Track) I’ve also walked up something very high – possibly not quite a mountain, but as close as I’ve decided I’ll now get. Half tick.
• I wore a bikini on a tropical island. It was accidental – our luggage stayed in Abu Dhabi when we went to Phuket and a (very large) bikini was all I could buy – but I’ve now done it. And yes, there were lots of over-hanging bits. Too much information? Tick.
• I’ve self-published my 3^rd book – Wish You Were Here…I happen to think it’s the best thing I’ve written (so far)… Tick.
• Although we didn’t actually spend Christmas somewhere cold and wintery, we were in England last year for the lead up to Christmas. I’ll never forget the lights, the Christmas markets, the window displays, the ads (deck the bowls with thai green curry), the feeling in the air that is so very different to pre- Christmas here in Australia. Snowing me, snowing you…ah hah… I’m calling that a tick.
• Walk some of the coastal track in Cornwall. Sure, it was just Tintagel, but yep, that’s a tick.
• I finally saw a whale breach – at Mollymook in October. Tick.
• We travelled through England for 6 weeks. Having done that I’m ticking off the live in another country for at least a month entry.

I’m also deleting few things from the list – it’s my bucket list and I can do with it as I will. So there.

• Climb a mountain. I’d been thinking Mt Kinabalu in Borneo or Mt Fuji in Japan. After the physical and mental impact that Mackinnon Pass had on me, this one is now off the list…although I’d still like to see the cherry blossoms in Japan
• Climb a volcano. I was thinking Togariro in NZ. Yeah, nah, that isn’t going to happen. I might take a helicopter flight over the top, but I no longer have the inclination to walk up a mountain only to take a few pics and then walk back down it.
• Walk the Overland Track. I’m crossing this off…for now. Who knows, maybe once my body heals, my knees are repaired, and my toenails have grown back I could get the urge to walk a very long way again.

• Spend a week at a posh health retreat- something like Gaia or Gwinganna where you do yoga at the crack of dawn, complain about there being no alcohol, and eat gourmet health food. Yeah, I’ve gone off this idea.
• Ride a horse in the Victorian high country or Snowy Mountains. I’d still like to do a trail ride up there, but there are weight restrictions that I wouldn’t pass at present.

My list as it stands today is below*. The fine print is that I continue to reserve the right to add things as I see fit – I happen to think it’s karmicly (yes, that’s a made up word) dangerous to have just a handful of things on a list. The fine fine print is that this doesn’t include all the places I want to go to – just the things I want to do…there’s a whole other list for travel!

1. Make a proper living from writing (yes, there’s a $$ amount attached to this). I’m not sure if this is a bucket list item or a goal. Perhaps it’s both.
2. Be invited to speak at a writing (and/ or astro) conference (again – not sure whether this is a bucket list or a goal).
3. See the cherry blossoms in Japan
4. Ride a camel on the beach at Broome at sunset
5. Swim with whale sharks somewhere
6. Swim with sea turtles somewhere
7. Whale watch from a boat…I’m thinking Hervey Bay…
8. Snorkel in the Barrier Reef
9. Attend an AFL Grand Final at the MCG. It would be an added bonus if St Kilda or Richmond were playing. I’d consider the Anzac Day match a tick.
10. Learn to cook a steak…to order… and get it right
11. See the northern (or southern) aurora…lights, that is…and photograph them.
12. Have pho in Vietnam
13. Cruise through Halong Bay in Vietnam
14. Stay on a deserted (ok, not really deserted- not heavily populated but still with all the trimmings) island in the South Pacific.
15. Get to my goal weight – and have a photo shoot (not one of those “glamour” ones) to mark the occasion.

*There are a couple of others that aren’t for public view…and no, I’m not telling!