Opinion: Here's to 2018

Sonya Bateson made it to Thailand last year - but still hasn't made it up Mauao. Photo/supplied

It's nearly 2018.

I'm sure many of you will join me in wondering how it can possibly be the end of the year already, wondering where all the months went and feeling a tad guilty about the things we haven't managed to tick off our to-do lists.

It was a big year for me. I got married, I started in my new position as head of news, I became an aunty to a gorgeous wee nephew.

I knocked off some travel bucket-list items: went snorkelling at Phi Phi Island in Thailand, travelled the Forgotten World Highway from Taumaranui to Stratford, sipped some delicious wine in Martinborough.

It was also a year of goals unfulfilled.

We were planning to buy a house but have decided not to. We don't want to spend half a million dollars on something we feel isn't worth that small fortune.

My bookshelf contains unread books - a worry for someone like me who usually devours at least a book a week.

I still can't cook a meal to save myself.

This year will be a hard one to top, but I'm hoping 2018 will be just as good.

I don't like to make proper New Year's resolutions, but here are a few things I'd like to do next year.

Tick a few of the items off my to-do list that I missed this year: Read those books on my shelf. Learn to cook a meal without burning the house down.

A few new items: Travel somewhere new. Visit my family more often. Stop looking at unaffordable and unattainable properties on Trade Me. Climb Mauao for the first time - I've lived here five years and never done it.

But if I don't achieve all those, there's one thing I know I can achieve.

I can wake up each morning with a smile on my face, knowing I live a good life with even better people.

Here's to 2018.