Happy New Year y’all. I hope you all welcomed in the new year in whichever way suited you best. I’m not too bothered about NYE but as the kids are getting older, we’ve started to make it through to midnight again which sets my heart a flutter with such a late bed time.
This year we rang in the new year at Hagley Park in Christchurch with thousands of Cantaberians. It was a last minute plan which has proven to be the theme of our New Zealand holiday. Coincidently being flexible and not being concerned when things don't go to plan is going to be my focus for 2026 as well, so we started the year on point.
‘Pick Up Stix 2026’ is my WIP analogy. If you recall, ‘Pick Up Stix’ is about collecting as many sticks (opportunities) as you can without disrupting the pile. Acquiring some of the sticks is easy while others take skilled precision to obtain. You need to be flexible and adaptive because one move can affect everything else. The thing is, the most impactful moves, the ones that get you the most sticks, will disrupt everything.
In 2026, I don’t want to leave a single stick/opportunity on the table which means I have to embrace the chaos of creating change. I want to live an interesting life and am convinced that diversity is the key. Instead of having one or two massive goals or plans I’d like to achieve, I want to have heaps of them.
Not all Pick Up Stix are valued equally and not all goals have the same weight. Some are small like drinking more water everyday. Some are big, like writing a book. Having multiple goals is more forgiving than having one or two because you can switch between them more frequently. It also allows space for spontaneous inputs which is also something I want to attract more of this year.
We got some of that input while waiting in line for mini doughnuts at the NYE celebrations. We started chatting to the guy in front of us who was from the Hutt - Matt’s convinced that everyone we meet is from Lower Hutt (the town I grew up in) and this guy actually was but I didn’t know him. He was a super friendly dude - like most people in NZ, and had some great advice about what to do with kids in Christchurch.
He suggested we go to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools which are about a 1.5 hour drive from Christchurch. It wasn’t on our radar at all but we decided, last minute, that we would go on new years day. Within 10 hours we were on the road to Hanmer Springs. It poured with rain the whole day but the beauty of thermal hot pools is that the water is always warm! We had an absolute blast. There were water slides and hot pools and the rain meant we were submerged for hours. I haven't been that pruney since I was a kid!
I also got the best pie I’ve ever had for lunch from a local pie shop (the hangover pie - beef brisket, cheese and jalapeno) to top off our fun spontaneous adventure to Hanmer Springs. Being able to change our plans and take some random ‘dude in a doughnut line’ advice is a real privilege. Our kids are at an age where we can pivot easily and we were on holiday so we had the time and capacity.
You don’t have to be on holiday to make the most of random opportunities. They’re around us all the time if you look for them. In amongst the massive, messy pile of Pick Up Stix with the known goals and plans for 2026 sitting in front of you, there are an unlimited amount of these random moments just waiting to be picked up.
