My holidays: Yvonne Lorkin

Television host Yvonne Lorkin with a good-sized crayfish.

What was your greatest holiday?

Our honeymoon holiday, a week on Fiji's Plantation Island with our kids - then just four and six years old. Beachfront bure, sun, sand, lagoon fishing for Dad, children at kids' club all day and loads of massages and facials at the spa for me.

And the worst?

A long, rainy weekend in Wanganui when I was 19. I'd flown from Auckland to surprise a love interest who promptly revealed he had a girlfriend. I couldn't change flights, didn't want to hitchhike, didn't know a soul in town and had to sleep on the couch in their grotty flat for two days, heartbroken, bored senseless and really embarrassed.

If we bump into you on holiday, what are you most likely to be doing?

Probably asking where the toilets are.

If we could teleport you to one place in New Zealand for a week-long holiday, where would it be?

The jaw-droppingly beautiful Boathouse at The Landing Residences in Northland's Purerua Peninsula. An incredible combination of architectural mastery, effortless luxe, right on the waters edge of one of the most perfect beaches I've ever seen.

How about for a dream holiday internationally?

I would tootle over to Necker Island to hang out with Richard Branson before exploring some exotic island in the Caribbean. Then I'd zoom over to Jimbaran in Bali to take the family to Ayana Resort - it looks insanely beautiful and luxurious.

What's the dumbest thing you've ever done when travelling?

Losing my power of speech when (Mr Funky Cold Medina himself) Tone Loc told me he liked my outfit one afternoon at the Foot Locker store in the Beverly Centre in LA. We could've become buddies.

Complete this sentence: I can't travel without ... Lipstick.

What's the best travel tip you've ever been given?

Be patient, stay cool, smile nicely and say please and thank you to everyone, everywhere. Oh, and don't open your mouth in the shower.

What was the most memorable meal you've had while travelling?

Breakfast of organic bacon, eggs and bubbly prepared for me at dawn on the banks of a billabong on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

What's the best thing you've brought back from a trip?

A pair of magic black Red or Dead leather ankle boots that I bought from Harrods in 1997 - good things happen when I wear those boots.

Favourite airport to land at?

Gisborne, because I love the scenery as you fly in: beaches, rolling landscapes, bushland - gorgeous.

What's the next trip you've got planned?

Very soon I'll be heading back to the family bach at Waimarama Beach in Hawkes Bay and I intend to slay gurnard and crayfish and go pipi hunting and rock-pool fossicking until the sun goes down; then I'll do it all again the next day and the day after that.

Yvonne Lorkin hosts 'Thirsty Work' on Food TV on Wednesdays at 9.30pm.