Phil Ormsby is co-producer of Flaxworks, and a writer and performer for Conversations with Dead Relatives, premiering April 3-7 at The Basement theatre in Auckland.
What was your greatest holiday?
I have had lots of fantastic holidays but I did really love our most recent trip around the UK last year. I suppose it has been rolling around in my mind a lot as we have been writing our upcoming show called Conversations with Dead Relatives, which is all about ancestors and family stories. My partner and I both knew we had ancient connections all around the UK, so it was really exciting to go and find all these places. But I was unexpectedly moved finding the gravestones of some of these people, who have been dead for over a hundred years, and seem so removed from our lives today on the other side of the world. A highlight was standing in the churchyard where one of my partner's ancestors preached, just a few miles from a brewery bearing my family name.
And the worst? We drove for two hours to what a website called a "romantic stay in a genuine castle", which turned out to be 19th century folly recently bought by Russian mafioso, and with a "luxury en-suite" that consisted of a 1.2sq m pink plastic caravan loo and shower combo.
If we bump into you on holiday, what are you most likely to be doing? Exploring the streets, walking, walking, walking; looking for that hidden gem of an eatery or shop packed with the craft of some local artisan.
If we could teleport you to one place in New Zealand for a week-long holiday, where would it be? Milford Track. It's the only part of the country I've never been, and I feel a bit unpatriotic every time some visitor asks me about it.
