There are a few travel rules Rachel Griffiths swears by. Get on local time as quickly as possible. And never forget your packing cubes. Travel is a necessary part of the job for an actor. Many gigs take her to Hollywood, but her latest took her to New Zealand. In the new TV show Madam, on Channel Nine, she stars as an American woman in small-town New Zealand who opens an ethical brothel to provide for her family. But Griffiths also loves to travel for pleasure — recent trips include a three-month stint in Italy.
I think you need the same appetite to be satiated. My brothers and I scampered straight up and hung there like monkeys until we were almost sick. It was like arriving at the Garden of Eden. Mangoes were really uncommon growing up [in Melbourne] it was such a special thing to get a mango! Describe your most memorable travel meal — good, bad or just surprising. My favourite travel meal of all time was in an Amtrak dining car with my mother and four-year-old daughter, Adelaide.
They were all sewing. Do I remember what I ate? Or, actually, we might have been in Kansas. I think we were in Kansas. But it was just one of those amazing travel experiences. So probably when I was pregnant with my first child and we went to this tiny little spot in Queensland called Oak Beach. We rented a house that I think might have once belonged to Peter Allen on the beach.
I found Florence pretty stressful because it was having a peak tourist moment when we went last year. Getting around, the crowds, and realising you either have to stay in line for a really long time or be so close but not be able to actually see the David [sculpture] was quite frazzling.
No matter what time I arrive, I dump the bags, have a shower and go out. In my carry-on, noise-cancelling headphones and a good eye mask.
