Celebrity Traveller: ITV's Ben Shephard on New Zealand backpacking and banana plantations

TV presenter BEN SHEPHARD, 38, lives in London with his wife Annie and their sons, Jack, nine, and eight-year-old Sam

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Ben presents the ITV morning show from 6am weekdays

Most memorable holiday? The year I went travelling when I left school. Plenty of scrapes and near misses but incredible moments too.

I ran out of money in New Zealand, worked in snake/ spider/rat-infested banana plantations in Australia and lived off bread, Wotsits and rice whiskey in Thailand.

And your worst? Too many kite-surfing trips where there's been no wind. It's like going to the pub and finding out that they've got no beer.

I did a trip to Dubai a few years ago. It was supposed to combine work with a bit of a break for the wife. The work bit was great, the hotel was incredible but the weather was shocking. It rained every single day, which is unheard of, and Annie managed to break the world record for the number of spa treatments in a day.

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Ben Shephard would like to revisit New Zealand with his two children

Essential gadget? An all-purpose, multi-country adaptor. I hate not being able to charge my appliances so it's the first thing I pack.

Best book? Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts but it's so big it nearly cost me in excess baggage.

How do you spend your time? Our most recent holiday was to Montauk on Long Island on America's East Coast. With two boys, holidays mostly involve jumping in and out of swimming pools, building sandcastles, being buried, being dug up then doing it all over again. Usually I need a holiday to get over the holiday.

Where would you revisit? I would love to take the children to New Zealand. The beaches in the north, the mountains in the south and the general, getoutside-and-get-stuck-in nature of the place make it special.

The boys are really getting into Lord Of The Rings so it would be a great excuse to show them the country where it was all filmed.

It would also be brilliant to experience the country again and not run out of money.

Where next? I love the south west of UK, so Devon or Cornwall for a nice family break. It doesn't get much better than that.

Ben is one of the presenters of ITV's Good Morning Britain, weekdays at 6am.

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