"So I spent a very nice three or four weeks with Gloria [Poupard-Walbridge, Cotter House's landlady] ... and I just learned how to relax for a bit. You don't often get that time off."
With the end of the Stones' tour in Auckland, which effectively finishes their 50th anniversary commitments, and no further Stones dates in the offing, Richards faces another hiatus. Could Auckland, in the words of the band's early song, be the last time for the veteran group?
"It's impossible to say with this band, considering how long it's been going on. Everyone seems to be 'where are we playing next' so I'm letting it roll with these boys. I'll hang in with them."
He said the band had recovered the momentum on the tour lost after it was postponed due to the death in March of frontman Mick Jagger's partner L'Wren Scott, but conceded it had been "a bit of a funny year".
Richards says the final Brisbane show was "fantastic" and promised Kiwi fans were in for a treat.
"With this band every show tends to get a little better, a little tighter. So far, par for the course. We're hoping in New Zealand we give you the topper."
Richards joked he was going to check in on whatever bits of his brain he might have left behind last time through Auckland, while paying tribute to his surgeon. "I'm going to inspect it. I'm going to have a good look at it when I get back.
"Doctor Andrew Law - he's a great guy. Anybody who can take the top of your head off in two hours and plop it back on ... you've got to say, that's what I call genius."
And no, he's not going back to sit in a palm tree in Fiji - he went there on the way to Australia. "And I took a chainsaw just in case."
