HIT
I spent seven weeks in Fiji at the beginning of this year working on a film and had the best time ever. Fiji is so beautiful, the locals are incredibly welcoming and helpful and the weather was amazing. I got to take my little family (fiancee Luci and baby son Beaumont) with me and although I was filming for the better part of each day, there was still time to hang out and enjoy all the local sights and experiences during the evening. The weather was so warm, you'd hardly have known it was evening. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel and it was great. There was many a night hanging with the contingent of awesome NZ actors, watching local cultural performances, participating in kava ceremonies and immersing ourselves in the Fijian experience. I'd go back to Fiji in a heartbeat.
MISS
A few years back, I went on tour with Red Leap productions, taking a show to China and Macau. On the whole, the trip was amazing, but I took a week at the end and went off to do my own thing. I was warned by others to be careful when out and about by myself because robberies of tourists were quite a big thing. I was in Zuhai and got in a taxi to get to the local markets. With the reminder of being careful in the back of my head, I was a little freaked out when the taxi driver left the main roads and started driving down these narrow dark alleys. Next thing you know, the driver stopped the car in an alley and got out and I had all sorts of terrifying thoughts of what he had planned to do to me. When he bent down to pick something up beside the car, I freaked out and gapped it from the taxi. Turns out he was actually just checking to see if his car had a flat tyre, but with all the warnings I'd had, I jumped straight to worst-case scenario. It was definitely not a relaxing trip.
Alex Tarrant plays Ike in 800 Words (Wednesdays, 8.50pm, TVNZ 1) and Lincoln in Shortland Street (Sundays to Fridays, 7pm, TVNZ 2).
