The Bonus List

Hi, I’m Katie and I’m currently travelling around New Zealand with my boyfriend, in a camper van we bought on Facebook marketplace.

If you’re back again this week to hear about how else I could possibly bugger up what should be a very simple task, completing a beautifully curated and emotionally tainted bucket list, you are in for another treat. 

Last week I left you in Kaikoura, if I painted the picture perfectly, you were imagining me having a whale related breakdown in the back of a camper van. I did eventually manage to pull myself together enough to pack everything up and get on the road. For our next adventure and bucket list activity, we headed in land to Hanmer Springs. 

Hanmer Springs is a small ski resort town, famous for it’s thermal pools. The thermal pools are really quite self explanatory; Hot pools, spa vibes. When you live in a camper van you’ll romanticise even the most basic of luxuries i.e. hot water. This felt like a cosy activity and I was gearing up for an emotional week, mentally preparing myself for Eleanor’s funeral, for some reason I thought the pools would help. It turns out the real way I would combat my feelings about the week was to get hideously wine drunk then cry on ft to my sister with an equally hideous hangover but that’s a whole different story. 

Tom took a little more convincing when it came to the pools, not a fan of baths or sitting still, reluctant to spend around $170 for the privilege. However, as I reiterated to him, emotional week, warm fuzzy feeling on a cold day, bucket list tasks take priority over all else! 

When we arrived it was slightly less spa and a little more water park, that’s okay, I’m partial to a water park, let’s be honest, we all are. Only it was also the school holidays, okay fine, I’ll avoid the slides and the lazy river. It also happened to be about 6°c. In my mind visiting on a cold, wet day made sense because we’d be getting wet anyway, and we’d really feel the benefit of the warm water. It was a good idea, I know it was because it was the same idea that everyone else in a 50 miles radius had had. 

I did very much enjoy the pools despite the crowds, our favourites were the hexagonal pools and the fairy pools. They’re big on their sulphur pools too, which were the hottest if you could stand the eggy smell. We stayed for around 3 ish hours, by then it had become quite busy and Tom, you guessed it, was fed up of sitting still in multiple different baths. All that I needed was a picture of me at the thermal pools for my bucket list scrap book, before joining the queue for the free unlimited hot showers, another luxury you definitely do not take for granted as a permanent camper. 

Taking a photo was a task that involved leaving the confines of the hot pools, queuing to get to our locker, to find a phone buried in a coat pocket, returning to the pools and standing out of the water to take the photo. As I would be the subject of said photo, I nominated Tom to brace the cold for his phone. I did feel for him slightly, taking photos of me completing these bucket list tasks has been somewhat of a task in itself, I am terrible at having my photo taken and this time was no different to any other. Eyes closed, upset about how large my arms looked, too low in the water, too out of the water, upper body looks normal-parts of body submerged in the water resemble that of a 6 month old baby, you know when that happens? 

It was just as well really that I wasn’t keen on any of the photos, as it turns out that visiting thermal pools was a bucket list activity that was very much missing from my bucket list. But I do look forward to completing the actual bucket list activity of ‘VISIT THE BUBBLING MUD POOLS’ when I’m back in the North island. 

No tears this time, although I thought Tom might shed a few when I told him. 

It’s fine, it makes for good memories, hopefully it makes for good reading. I know Eleanor would have a laughed and asked if I did it on purpose, that’s what Lydia did anyway. I added it to my scrap book as a bucket list bonus activity… without a photograph! 

You will be pleased to know I have since studied the bucket list to familiarise myself with the actual activities I need to complete. Unsurprisingly though, despite the importance I have placed on this list of activities, not before at least a few more mishaps! 

Total tasks completed: still 1 

Total number of screaming children encountered: felt like thousands

Total number of photos taken: far too many for there to have been no good ones! 

This week’s most listened to: 

1. Weather With You, Crowded House 
2. Real Gone Kid, Deacon Blue 
3. Ever Since New York, Harry Styles 

Songs that were immediately vetoed: 

1. Barely Legal, The Strokes 
2. You’re a Pink Toothbrush, I’m a Blue Toothbrush, Max Bygraves (this one felt like a personal attack while I recited the whole song word for word including the spoken sections)