The last time Lavina Good went to India she got so sick she started hallucinating her husband Dave was Spider-Man.
"I think someone put something very special in the special lassi," she said.
Twelve years on, the Tauranga woman is returning to India but on her own and this time with a microphone in hand.
The television news starlet is one of five presenters who will head to India on September 29 to cover the Commonwealth Games for Sky TV, who for the first time has the rights for the games.
Sky will have five uninterrupted channels covering the various sports and Mrs Good's job is to offer commentary for the opening and closing ceremony and report on track and field, hockey and diving.
The Bethlehem woman will farewell her husband and children Chelsea, 6, Toby, 4, and Liam, 3, for a fortnight.
The 38-year-old has been a prominent face on our television sets for a decade and is best known for covering netball for four years for TVNZ.
She works as a freelancer for Sky and is the only female covering rugby league for television in New Zealand - interviewing Warriors players and their coach before and after games.
Having covered three Olympic Games and one Commonwealth Games, Mrs Good expects 18-hour days in India but isn't fazed.
"I eat, live and breathe sport and my husband hates it. Occasionally he'll watch me on TV but if I'm watching cricket, he'll still get the vacuum cleaner out."
Mrs Good, who professes to watching eight rugby league games a weekend, said she felt "privileged" to be covering the Commonwealth Games and was especially excited to be covering track and field, which she says outside the Commonwealth and Olympic Games, doesn't get much international coverage.
"We're starved of athletics in New Zealand."
Mrs Good has spent close to nine months doing research in order to ask the questions she knows viewers will want answered.
"The pressure of live television is immense and if you haven't done your homework it's an insult."
Mrs Good, who is training for her private pilot's licence, has interviewed everyone from swimmer Michael Phelps to golfer Tiger Woods and worked in New Zealand, Australia and London. She said the thrill of interviewing a medal winner was something else.
"I interviewed [world champion and paralympic gold medallist] Adam Hall just as he came over the finish line at the Vancouver Winter Paralympics in March.
"I couldn't sleep that night. You can't buy that sort of emotion."
FIVE MINUTES WITH LAVINA
What are you packing for India?
iPad, camera, dental floss, baby wipes, tummy tablets, Nurofen, running shoes, snapshots of my kids, a language book, notepad and pen, my watch.
What's your top tip for travelling?
Bloody Marys. Works for me on a flight every time. And try and speak the local lingo, even if you sound ridiculous.
What's your packing style - roll or fold?
Chuck it in and hope it gets there.
Jetlag - how do you cope?
Stay awake until local night time, then sleep through the night.
