My holidays: Steven Carroll

Melbourne novelist Steven Carroll.

What was your greatest holiday: Probably my first international trip after my first year of teaching. We took the Trans-Siberian railway across Russia, going from an Australian summer to a Russian winter, and my friends and I were the only English-speaking Westerners on the train.

If we bump into you on holiday, what are you most likely to be doing: Either absolutely nothing, reading, attempting The Times' crossword - or having a really good evening meal.

If we could teleport you to one place in New Zealand for a week-long holiday where would it be? It might be to Picton. I've got very fond memories of being there on holidays in the late 70s. Although, a week might be stretching it - from there I'd go on to the Marlborough wine regions.

How about a dream holiday internationally: International holidays are usually dream-like. But Paris is always worth a mass.

What's the dumbest thing you've ever done while travelling? Getting casual about flight departure times and missing a plane from Paris to Venice. These days I'm at the airport, any airport, hours before.

Complete this sentence - I can't travel without ... More money than I think I actually need. Like to have that latitude so that I'm not constantly calculating what I've spent.

What's the best travel tip you've ever been given? That short, concentrated trips (say, two weeks overseas) can be just as satisfying and memorable as any grand tour.

What was the most memorable meal you've had while travelling? A baguette with camembert, and red wine in Paris.

What's the best thing you've brought back from a holiday? I suspect it was a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Favourite airport at which to land? Probably Sydney - the view never ceases to be breath-taking.

What's the next trip you've got planned? Boston, Cambridge, Massachusetts (T.S. Eliot territory) and New York.

Melbourne novelist Steven Carroll is appearing at the Tauranga Arts Festival on October 31 and November 1. He last year co-won the Australian Prime Minister's Literary Award for A World of Other People, based on one of TS Eliot's Four Quartets poems.