We quized 'Amazing Race' host and Kiwi Phil Keoghan on New Zealand, carry on essentials, and his most challenging adventure to date...
Recently named an ambassador for Christchurch and New Zealand’s Canterbury region, Phil Keoghan, host of the TV reality-challenge series The Amazing Race spilled about his own travel adventures.
How many countries have you visited?
I lost track when I hit 100 a few years back. I think there is some kind of club you can join if you hit the century mark.
Which ones have left the most indelible mark and why?
I really think Italy has it all when it comes to culture, people, lifestyle, architecture, food wine, style, landscape, the Dolomites …and of course cycling. Then of course there is nothing like home and for me New Zealand is the most unique place on earth.
The place you’d never return to?
I love seeing new countries, so it's not that I don't want to go back to a country, I just want to go forward and discover new places.
You present contestants with all manner of challenges. What has been your own greatest challenge?
The greatest physical and mental challenge for me was riding my bike across America last year - 160 kilometres a day for 40 days raising over $500,000 for the National MS Society. I teamed up with my Dad, best friend cameraman Scott, a California Highway Patrolman and a close friend who is in the cycling club.
Top Three on your own “things to do before I die” shortlist?
Five-star dinner on top of an erupting volcano.
Diving the world’s longest underwater caves.
Putting a golf ball across Scotland.
What would you never do again?
Drink warm Cobra blood!
How often do you get back to New Zealand?
On average six times a year but it can be up to 12. One month I went back and forth three times.
What sets NZ apart?
The people. There’s no doubt that we have some of the most incredible scenery and so on but ultimately what separates one place from another are the people.
What do you miss most when you’re away?
The Kiwi sense of humour. My friends and family. The clouds, light, weather, green landscapes and the smell of bush.
The Canterbury Region can’t be beaten for….
Braided rivers, wide open plains, rolling foothills, spectactular alps, distinctive wines.
But it could do with …
A world class velodrome. We have some of the best young cycling talent in the world.
Best kept secrets in Christchurch?
Bottle Lake Forest Park, covering over 800 hectares of coastal sand dunes, planted with Pinus radiata – four times the size of popular central Hagley Park, and 10 minutes’ drive from the city. It’s a bikers’ and walkers’ paradise.
Hector’s dolphins - you can view them more easily around Christchurch/Banks Peninsula than anywhere else in the world.
Christchurch’s position in the heart of the South Island makes it a huge multi-sport destination with some of the gnarliest and challenging tracks for cycling, running, skiing and kayaking in the world, sometimes all in the one day across plains, rivers and mountains.
What my father [agricultural scientist Dr John Keoghan] taught me about the region was …
How the region was formed. How the rivers have carried alluvial material from the alps down onto the planes connecting up with Banks Peninsula which was formed from two volcanoes.
If you could, what would you eradicate from the world?
Hunger, our dependence on oil, war, pollutants.
When flying, your essential carry-ons?
Moleskin diary, a good book, laptop computer, skipping rope, Now Energy Bars, earplugs, eyemask, movies, sunscreen, world phone, camera, i-pod.
Phil's documentary The Ride is available for download via Amazon and iTunes.
Thanks to Christchurch and Centerbury Tourism.
http://travelinsider.qantas.com.au/qa_phil_keoghan_the_amazing_race.htm
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