QT: What are you having for lunch today?
TS: Bluff oysters.
QT: What do you normally have for lunch?
TS: Low-carb snacks. I'm in a weight loss competition against Suzanne Prentice.
QT: What is your favourite food?
TS: Seafood.
QT: What is your favourite spot in Queenstown?
TS: [Watching the] Shotover Jet. In the early 1970s, we camped on the river for two months.
QT: Queenstown needs more...
TS: Cycleway from Queenstown to Invercargill.
QT: Queenstown needs less...
TS: Office space.
QT: What are your favourite hobbies or interests?
TS: Fight for causes that have a 99% chance of failing.
QT: How do you relax?
TS: I don't. My preference is for tension, debate, pressure and drama.
QT: What winds you up?
TS: Cave dwellers - Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
QT: What cracks you up?
TS: Politicians losing the plot, like Richard Worth, MP, claiming in Parliament that he had no "erection" rather than no "recollection" regarding his trip to India.
QT: What's your favourite quote and why?
TS: "Everything is relative" - Einstein. It helps put your life in perspective.
QT: What are you reading at the moment?
TS: Dan Davin's novels.
QT: What's the last CD or DVD you bought?
TS: I'm not keen on shopping, but I have lots of CDs and DVDs sent to me by friends.
QT: What's something people may not know about you?
TS: As mayor, I've sustained more injuries than in my life as a radical protester and concrete contractor. Two major car accidents; heli-bungy jumping; police dog exhibition and celebrity rugby all caused severe injuries.
QT: Who do you most admire and why?
TS: Justice Mahon for having the courage to tell us the truth about the tragedy at Erebus.
QT: If you had to live anywhere else, where would it be?
TS: Holland - I'm half Dutch and have a lot of family there.
QT: If you could do anything, what would it be?
TS: I would like to write "The Great New Zealand Novel". Something like War and Peace that helps define our nation.
