My holidays: Nic Sampson

Actor Nic Sampson. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Best thing you've ever done when travelling?

My girlfriend and I went to New York over Christmas and, boy oh boy, it's a magical place that time of year. Some of the highlights were: going up the Empire State Building on a day with thick clouds and zero visibility, biking across the city and being called morons by a real New York traffic cop, seeing a thousand rats, and watching a live recording of The Daily Show with a guest appearance by Will Smith. He waved at us and I was like "OMG Jim West from Wild Wild West is waving at us!" Best day ever.

Complete this sentence: I can't travel without ...

My passport! Unless it's domestic travel ...

What's the best travel tip you've ever been given?

"Take only footprints and leave only photographs." I have some good casts of footprints from my travels if you ever want to see them.

What was the most memorable meal you've had while travelling?

Either ramen from Afuri Ebisu, in Tokyo, or the meal we had at Prune in New York. Every mouthful was like...a hug?? (I'm not good at describing food.) We savoured the hell out of it though, partly because of how expensive it was.

What's the best thing you've brought back from a trip?

An unearned sense of worldliness and entitlement.

Favourite airport to land at?

I'm told landing in Edinburgh is beautiful because of the view of the hills. Unfortunately when I landed there it was night. So I'm going to go with Wellington, because I like to start every trip to my hometown with a violent reminder of how close to death we are at any one moment.

What's the next trip you have planned?

I would really like to travel the southern states of America next. Have you seen the movie Chef? I would like to go to a lot of the places the chef in the movie Chef goes. But hopefully unlike watching the movie Chef, I will enjoy myself.

Nic Sampson performs in Perplex at Herald Theatre, Auckland from November 10 to December 3.