Next
month a new series of Air New Zealand Holiday hits our screen.
So for the past few months Lucy Lawless and Jeremy Coney have
been on a working holiday
Who said going on holiday was easy? For Jeremy Coney and Lucy
Lawless it has definitely been hard work. The duo, who landed
plum jobs as reporters for TVNZ's travel show, now called Air
New Zealand Holiday, have been so busy zooming around the world
that they have not yet had time to meet!
"I've seen Lucy on the ASB ads," says Jeremy. "...I guess we
will catch up sooner or later!"
For the past few months actor Lucy and Jeremy, a TVNZ
sports-caster, have been flying to exotic locations to bring
home a slice of the local life. They have been everywhere from
Berlin and the Grand Canyon to the Catlins.
It sounds like a job to kill for -but it's not all a matter of
slurping pina colada under a sun umbrella.
"I know it sounds rather glamorous," says Jeremy, "but the
reality is we're up at 6.30 every morning and work until the end
of the light - which is about 8pm. Then it's back to the hotel
to see what we have shot."
There may not be a lot of time spare for lingering in the shops
or developing a suntan but the pair have managed to fit in some
fun.
"In the Catlins I was hunting a moa," says Jeremy... but I can
tell you now that I went into a dairy and asked for a moa pie
-and they only had steak mince and cheese!"
In Fiji, however, it was Jeremy who was being hunted. "I was
doing a wee bit of snorkelling with a couple of people when
someone yelled 'shark!' I exited the water tout vitesse!"
New Idea caught up with the former cricket champ en route from
Hollywood to the Grand Canyon, where mules were waiting to take
him on a trek to a local Indian tribe.
"I've never been to Hollywood," says Jeremy. "This job is very
good practice for when I come back. You know, things like
driving on the right side of the road..."
Lucy, meanwhile, has been experiencing life in Berlin, Prague,
Switzerland and Queenstown - where she leaped out of "something
with rotor blades." (We're not sure if she was paid danger
money.)
It's a big jump from the days when she set off for Europe at the
age of 18. "I lugged around this humungous yellow suitcase full
of everything surplus to requirements which my mother made me
pack. In the end most of it got dumped. It was the year of the
heatwave and people were dropping like flies.
"From there I went to the. Australian Outback which was also
quite uncomfortable."
As for Lucy's pick of places she has visited with Holiday, it
has to be Prague, the capital of former Czechoslovakia.
"It is steeped in the middle ages, like a fairytale. But all I
can say is go soon! Things are a-changihg there pretty fast.
People are into making money .there hand over fist."
The new series of Air New Zealand Holiday, a joint production
between New Zealand and Australia, starts on Saturday, September
4 on TV One and also includes reports from Australians David de
Vos and Sarah Henderson.
As well as screening in New Zealand and Australia, it has been
bought by an Asian channel, Star TV, with a potential 40 million
viewers.
Story: Megan McChesney
