Travel hits and misses: Loughlan Prior

Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer Loughlan Prior.

Ballet dancer Loughlan Prior hit the Airbnb jackpot in Barcelona but frigid weather in New York caught him unawares.

Hit

I've been fortunate enough to travel to some great places with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, touring and performing all across the world. After a month long performance tour up and down the UK and Italy I met up with my best friend in Rome and we travelled together across Spain and the Netherlands. The highlight of the trip was our stay in Barcelona, a city we had both wanted to experience together since primary school. We stayed at an incredible AirBnB which had private rooftop access overlooking the whole city. The architecture, food and culture was truly inspiring. My favourite memory was dancing on the rooftop to Shakira's She Wolf, whilst hanging up the washing, to a view of Antoni Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia.

Miss

I was travelling to New York for the premiere of a short film I had screening at the

Dance on Camera Festival

. We flew into Newark to be welcomed by a vicious blizzard - snow, sleet and high, bone chilling winds. To make maters worse my suitcase had been lost in transit and, because I like to travel light, all I had in my carry on luggage was a thin jacket. Ive never been so cold in all my life! Thankfully I was able to borrow some warm waterproof clothes from the friend I was staying with until my luggage arrived two days later, containing a welcome coat, gloves and thermals. I learnt my leason the hard way - always travel with a warm coat in the overhead compartment, you never know what weather is going to be thrown your way.

Royal New Zealand Ballet dancer Loughlan Prior's work EVE will be performed at Tempo Dance Festival, October 4-16, tempo.co.nz