1. The most important thing I'll want to do is to relax. I might even be able to achieve that in this part of New Zealand.
After all, a prominent New Zealander has been saying that this is the best country in the world to live in.
This must be paradise! Therefore, a fantastic place to holiday in.
Does that mean it'll only rain, softly, at night, and the sun will shine all day? We'll see.
2. Many associate the holiday season with particular rituals.
One of mine is to buy a very juicy, well cured, uncooked ham from Neville [Estrick] at the Gardens shopping area.
After it's been, soaked, foil wrapped, cooked, decorated and basted, all by the Holst method, it becomes a tasty, easy-to-serve part of the holiday.
An important part of this season is eating . . . might have a beverage or two as well.
3. After the above, good walks are necessary.
They are anyway, but there should be more time to not only do them, but to travel further afield and try some new ones.
Going to Central Otago I'll do the recently refurbished Bannockburn track through the historic goldfields reserve.
Walking though this man-made canyon is similar to visiting the Wild West . . . or, in the words of the old commercial, like taking your sinuses to Arizona.
Visiting my old stamping ground around Makarora, I'll do the new Blue Pools walk that links the mouths of the Blue and Young Rivers.
And if I go northwest of Queenstown I'll certainly do the just opened Routeburn Nature Walk, a loop that includes a section of the famed Routeburn Track.
4. I'll certainly be reading. But I'll not bore you with what titles I'll allegedly be delving into.
That'd be like a personality survey that asks what one always has in the fridge.
Invariably, the reply includes an exotic cheese and something else that sounds upper crust.
Perhaps they lie.
So would I be, if I included some scholarly volumes that look imposing when listed here.
And if I did turn the pages for a while, any one of them would only serve to send me to sleep.
But then, nodding off on the veranda on a summer's day is not a bad way to spend a holiday.
5. I think I should have a seemingly improbable intention for this holiday.
This could be in, say, Cambodia, catching a ferry at Phnom Penh's main wharf and heading down the mighty Mekong.
At some point I'll get off and climb on my brand new, locally made, $80 mountain bike and ride into Vietnam, do bit of a loop trip through the flat, lush green countryside and a day or three later, catch a return ferry and go back to face the challenges of the city.
That's another thing you can do on holiday . . . dream the unlikely . . . sometimes they happen.
