Revamping Some Old Ambitions

On my recent holiday to Fiji, to cross off #88 Swim with Sharks, I began to read through my list again. It had been a while, at least four years, from around the time that Covid started. I shifted my focus away from the bucket list during this period, for obvious reasons. I knew travel wasn’t going to be possible for a while, so I dove into other activities in New Zealand. Also, these past four years have been extremely busy for me at work and with my studies. I helped my bosses to expand and establish their company in the Central North region of New Zealand and managed to leverage that to complete a Master of Applied Management. Booking the trip to Fiji was designed to help reinvigorate my love for chasing down bucket list items. And that it did!

While I was updating the website, I scrolled through the list to see which items I would aim for next. As I scrolled through, I cringed at a few of them. Not because they were particularly bad, but because I honestly had no desire of completing them anymore. I did in the past, but I have changed, and the love for those items has faded away. I have always said that everything on your bucket list must appeal to you. As you change, the list should change too. Now, let’s look at why I loved them previously, how that has changed, and what new items fill those spots on the list.

#46 Go to Brennan’s Restaurant and race a turtle changed to Swim with whales

You’re going to read this and think, “What does that even mean?” This one was on there as a tip-of-the-hat to Rob Dyrdek. I have written about Rob Dyrdek before and how he was a big inspiration for my bucket list. Rob became a professional skateboarder at 16 years old and is now a mogul, owning dozens of businesses and a truly inspirational person. One of his early shows was called Fantasy Factory, where he bought a factory and filled it with everything you could image, from ziplines, to foam pits, to exotic cars, and an office for him to conduct his business. He embodied the mentality that you can do anything you want in this life and that inspired me to live the same way.

In an episode from another one of his shows called Rob and Big, he went to Brennan’s Restaurant in Los Angeles and raced turtles. This is something that the restaurant has been doing for decades. All the turtles are placed in a small circular ring, which contains them. Outside of that, is a much larger circle painted on the floor. Picture a sumo ring for turtles. Before the race starts, everyone gets to bet on the turtle they think will win the race. Then, the race instructor lifts the circular ring containing them, and they’re off! The first turtle to breach to sumo circle in any direction is declared the winner.

It seemed like a big deal, with a lot of hype and they appeared to have a great time. I wanted to live this excitement as well, so I put it on the list. However, as I said, people change. When I read that item on the list, I felt nothing. It didn’t excite me in the slightest, and that is why I knew it had to go. The replacement of this one was easy. Ever since I moved to New Zealand, I knew that you could swim with humpback whales in Tonga. Then, my friend Sam, from work, returned from Tonga only two weeks before my Fiji trip and told me how she had manged to snorkel with them. Furthermore, everyone on the shark diving boats had been talking about swimming with the whales in Tonga. Coincidentally, the humpbacks transit through the Beqa Lagoon, and right past Shark Reef, on their way to Tonga. Safe to say that I was programmed, over a couple weeks, to add this one to my list, but I am okay with that.

#64 Go bull riding changed to Compete in the Clipper Round the World Race

This is kind of a classic item and has been on my list from the start. I was super enthusiastic to do this one day, but my experiences in life have carved my latest beliefs and opinions. After #27 Watch a Bull Fight, I published Why I Changed #33 Slap a Bull. However, I never removed bull riding from the list. When I re-read this one recently, I cringed, for a couple reasons. First, the punishment that was inflicted on those bulls during the fight was gruesome and stuck with me a lot more that I thought it would have. Second, after being knocked out by a bull in the arena in Pamplona, I questioned whether I needed to tangle with a bull again. In that arena, on that day, that bull chose me as a victim. So be it. But engaging in bull riding is me choosing to be the victim (potentially) again. When the choice is mine, I chose to avoid the situation.

Instead, I have chosen to replace it with something far safer… sailing around the world. Some people may choose five seconds on a bull, rather than sailing around the world, but risk is perceived differently by each person. The Clipper Round the World Race is a yachting race that involves teams circumnavigating the globe. What’s great about it is that they will take on complete beginners to be part of the crew. For someone with zero sailing experience, this is music to my ears. The whole race takes roughly 11 months to complete, but my goal is set on doing one leg, ideally an Atlantic or Pacific crossing. The idea of spending a long duration in the vastness of the open ocean excites me. Yes, read that sentence again, I know I am crazy. However, a bigger goal would be to complete the whole race over my lifetime, by doing different legs over different years. Even completing one leg is a big goal and one that I have reserved for when I finish up the multi-year project that I am currently working on. The race only happens every two years, so I will keep an eye on the timing and keep my fingers crossed.

#71 Bartend for a night changed to Visit the Galapagos Islands

I wrote the list when I was 19 years old, and what does every 19-year-old like to do? Go to the bars! Well, at least I did. And from that came the idea of how cool it would feel to be a bartender. Fast-forward 15 years and I truly don’t care anymore. I barely drink now, and enjoy being to bed early, so that I can get up early to go on an adventure. None of this supports the dream of bartending for a night, so it was easy to cut this one from the list.

The replacement has been at the back of my mind for a while. Seeing the Galapagos Islands in anything produced by David Attenborough, makes it seems like an amazing world, and so unique. I got close in 2013, when I was with my family in Ecuador. This is the closest you can get to the islands before actually making the leap to go over. We talked about it because we were on a flexi schedule, but in the end, it was a lot of admin for a last-minute adventure. We all agreed that there was plenty to see on the mainland and we continued our adventure through Ecuador.

When I do it, I want to plan it out thoroughly and make the most out of it. Money should be no object on an adventure like this, so I will have to save my pennies and lock in tours that show me the most special parts of the islands. Or perhaps do a volunteering programme, which allows me to interact with and learn about the islands. I’s say that the decision to include this one on the list also had some programming from a solid week of diving in Fiji. Sitting at the bottom of the ocean surrounded by bull sharks really highlighted that the marine world is spectacular, and it is worth chasing adventures to see creatures that you would otherwise not interact see up close. The Galapagos is full of these types of animals, and I intend to see them with my own eyes!

Have you completed any of my three, new items? Let me know in the comments below.

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