My father’s greatest act of kindness

I’ve been busy planning a trip to New Zealand and Australia. I’ll be gone for about five weeks from mid-June, which is by some distance the longest holiday I’ve ever had. Except it won’t be a holiday, since I’ll be spending quite a bit of time raising money for the Free Speech Union’s sister organisations in the Antipodes. There will be dinners to attend, events to speak at, hands to shake. But I’ve also built in some down time, which will be an opportunity to do some sightseeing.

I’ve used Trailfinders to book my flights and hotels, which has made the process much easier. I’m flying out on Emirates to Auckland via Dubai, which means the total flying time, including the layover, is 23-and-a-half hours. The return leg, also via Dubai, is slightly shorter because I’ll be departing from Perth – but even that is a whopping 21 hours and five minutes. Given the distance and the expense, I suspect this will be the last time I visit Australia and New Zealand for the rest of my life, so I’m determined to make the most of it.

I think the evening ended with a drunken rendition of ‘The Red Flag’ though it could have been ‘Balls to the Bourgeoisie’

After three days in Auckland, I’m going to rent a car and drive to Wellington, stopping off at Tauranga, Hamilton and Taupo along the way. Among the highlights of this leg will be a visit to Hobbiton, the movie set which stood in for the town of the same name in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Not only am I a big fan of the books – a eulogy to the stout yeomen of England’s shires and the role they’ve played in saving western civilisation – but my children are fond of comparing me to a hobbit, so I look forward to sending them a photo of me posing in the doorway of Bag End.