Travel talk with Kathy Lette

stuff.co.nz -  23/05/2012

LET'S GO: Kathy Lette would like to scuba in Cuba.

Australian writer and funnygirl Kathy Lette travels about once a month, and thinks Kiwis are the most zealous people on the planet.

How often do you get away?
The best thing about getting older is that you're no longer tethered to the kitchen sink by your apron strings. With no more parent-teacher nights to attend or projects to make at short notice (how many nights have I sat up gluing the Acropolis together with paddle pop sticks?), a mother can hit the road. I travel at least once a month.
Where was your first trip?
On mushrooms? When I was a hippie in the 70s. But if you mean my first holiday, well, as a child, post birth canal, it was a family holiday to my grandma's beach-side cottage in Gerringong, a little town south of Sydney. (Like many Australian place names, Gerringong is Aboriginal for "get lost white ratbags").
Why do you travel – business or pleasure?
Often my business is my pleasure and vice versa, as I write a lot of travel pieces and go on book tours. Travel pieces have taken me to the Maldives, Turks and Cacois, Tasmania, cruising the Med. Book tours have taken me to South Africa, America, Croatia, Russia and to literary festivals from Edinburgh to Auckland. I also travel for charities, such as Plan International, which sent me to Brazil to write about the work they do in the favellas. (I know, it's a long way to go for a wax!)
What is your favourite destination overseas?
Mankind spent millions of years evolving out of the water. Australians spend all our time trying to get back in. As an ex-surfie chick, I am partial to anywhere I can swim without fear of being used as a shark's toothpick – the Caribbean and the Maldives. Here the resorts are so exclusive, not even the tide can get in.
And here in New Zealand?
Everyone agrees that New Zealand is the most beautiful country. The fact that you can surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon must be unique. Which is possibly why you have "Zeal" in your name. You are the most zealous people on the planet. Everyone is either canoeing or jogging or hang gliding to work, having already abseiled a few mountains. The only thing I run up are bills.
Full interview at stuff.co.nz

Footnote: Kathy Lette was a star at the recent Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.