''To me, it's an adventure,'' Ray Grubb said, almost tentatively.
''Other people might not regard it as such, but I think that it's an adventure.''
The ''adventure'' he is talking about is a months-long 13,000km journey along parts of the Silk Road, from Singapore to London, in a 2009 Land Rover.
Mr Grubb (67), of Karitane, said he had never done anything quite like this, although he had done something vaguely similar.
In 2002, he went on a six-month trip across Australia with his late wife, Marian van der Goes, also in a Land Rover.
''It was hot, dusty, and great,'' he said, laughing.
''It was magic.''
Ms van der Goes died in December 2013.
This trip, which he will start from Singapore on April 10 - the Land Rover is already there - was probably one they would have done together.
But, he added, ''it's not about that''.
It was about adventure.
Mr Grubb, who is retired and is taking leave of absence from the Otago Fish and Game Council, decided about six months to go on the trip, attracted by the region's history.
''Here in New Zealand, we're only three or four generations old, or whatever ... they've got 7000 years of civilisation behind them.''
And the choice to travel in his own vehicle - rather than sign up for an organised trip - was a deliberate one.
''I've been a tourism operator; I owned a luxury lodge for 17 years.
''I didn't want to do that. The tourism industry is fantastic, but I want to go to places I've never been ... With the car, you can get off the beaten tourist track.''
However, he admitted actually being in the Land Rover was ''a bit of a pain - you're rumbling along for days at a time''.
''You have to do these things before you die, otherwise, you stagnate.''
When Mr Grubb told his two children about the trip, they were ''bemused'' - but happy for him.
He was not sure how long he would be away, but he was definitely coming back.
''I'm a New Zealander,'' he said.
''This is my home.''
