Catriona Reekie
Our Honeymoon at last, to New Zealand and Oz or bust!! Hope you enjoy our blog and that we find the time to keep it updated. Just two pasty Scots, well, one in particular, a sense of adventure and a campervan ......Cat and Big G
Travel Blog Posts
January 17th 2008
Blenheim is not much of place really.....give or take 40 plus boutique vinyards in the area ......yeh baby! The Marlborough region is famous for its sauv blancs and I was never a big fan of white wine .....but oo how my tastes have changed. After a nice chilled morning in Picton we drove to Blenheim ( 30 mins ) to join a wine tour. On the tour there was a young couple from Ireland who were a bit trollied already and a couple of American girls who were clearly spitting and not swallowing as they were sober and had neatly laid out tasting notes!! As they all took a lunch, Graham and I were driven to an organic winery to taste some goods.... Graham and I had never done this before and we pretty much finished ... read more
A late night road trip, two crabs and a man from san diego
Published: January 23rd 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » PictonJanuary 15th 2008
We were Knackered when we finished the Kayacking tour but decided to plod on to picton so we would have a day to enjoy the vinyards of the Marlboough region. Ken from our trip hitched a ride and sat up front while I lay up back on the bed so the coppers wouldnt see me......After an hour driving we stopped off in Nelson next to a chippy, as we were starving. Graham and I milled around outside eyeballing the menu and deciding if we were hungry enough for a full scoop of chips to accompany our deep fried battered blue cod mmm mmm mmm. Ken returned from the restroom and pronounced that he did not eat fried foods, which was very clear from the Man's physique, as being in his sixties, he had muscles on his ... read more
Kayaking through the Abel Tasman!
Published: January 15th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Abel Tasman National Park » MarahauJanuary 14th 2008
We woke to blazing sunshine and an equally blazing hangover for what was to be the start of our 2 day expedition by kayak through the Marine Reserve of the Abel Tasman Region. We arrived at the centre and met our Guide Dave and our fellow trippers - we travel all this way and we are coincedently on a trip with a couple from Dundee and another from Aviemore -!! The other two trippers was a cockney bloke and a guy from San Diego. After packing our gear ( the kayaks hold a ton of stuff BTW!! ) we jumped in a water taxi through the park to our starting point. Our Taxi driver was brilliant fun - insisting that he stop for his "apple break" half way through our journey in the middle of the ... read more
A Chilled out day at Last!
Published: January 15th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » KaiteriteriJanuary 13th 2008
Decided to just basically chill today and pottered around Nelson in the morning and did a wee bit of shopping and grabbed a great lunch! In the afternoon we drove to the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park - Kaiteriteri and camped right next to the beach. This place is a beach lovers paradise and we spent the afternoon just paddling around and lazing about on the golden sand. It was a welcome break after the hectic times we have had lately! Turns out we were camped right next to one of the best seafood restaurants in the region, as recommended by the lonely planet and locals alike! We were not dissapointed when we settled down for our meal at 8pm looking out too sea, it was fabulous. We had the green lipped mussels and ... read more
White Water Rafting down the Buller Gorge River!
Published: January 12th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » MurchisonJanuary 12th 2008
We are writing this in Nelson, having arrived a few days early, due to heli hike cancellation. That is the beauty of doing a trip by campervan, you can change your plans at the last minute. Murchison was not on our list of places to visit, but a chance meeting with a cool weegie backpacker who had tramped all over NZ for the past 15 years sent us in this direction. We arrived here at arround 11pm last night so could not tell what it was like until this morning. Murchison is one of the best places in NZ to white water raft and having not ticked that off our list yet, this was why we headed here. We trusted the weegie as the lonely planet also backed this up. In the morning we headed to ... read more
January 11th 2008
Today it was a wee bitty cloudy which meant that our trip by helicopter up to the Franz Josef Glacier was cancelled :(( I was really looking forward to it and we would have got some cracking piccies. We had the option to do a hike up to a wee bit of glacier which meant a 4.5 hour hike then only 45 minutes on the ice - too much like hard work for us so for the first time in ages we did nothing and chilled! Later in the day we drove over to the west coast and again it was a cracking night, the west of the south island is subtropical and once again very different in appearance from the Southland and Fiordland National parks. We hugged the coast for most of the drive and ... read more
Shooting, Puzzles and a great Road Trip again!!
Published: January 11th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Wanaka
January 10th 2008
It was a cracking day when we woke this morning so chilled by Lake Wanaka before heading to experience some of Wanaka's attractions. Puzzling world and Have a shot... Basically an attraction of optical illusions and then a shooting range...passed a few hours. It was G's turn to drive today and what a buzz, more stunning scenery, towering mountains with snow capped peaks, winding roads through rainforests, impressive bridges over fast flowing rivers - you get the picture!! It was sensory overload time again......I can honestly say the South Island is the most beautiful of all the places I have visited. We still continue to be blown away every corner we turn!! We stopped off at the Blue pools for a tramp through the rainforest, and over a swing bridge which was fun, suprisingly we still ... read more
Queenstown, The Land of the Plenty
Published: January 10th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown
January 9th 2008
When Graham and I thought of coming to Queenstown, we thought it would be just the place to come to do all the crazy adventure stuff, we just did not expect how beautiful a location it would be...the scenery is fantastic. Plenty Scenery, Plenty great walks to do, loadsa activities, and tons of great bars, and shops. Two days is simply not enough to take it all in. You could easily come here on holiday and just base yourself here for the duration. In fact G and I have spoken to loadsa ppl here that came here on there travels meaning to stop for a month or two and three years later they are still here!! Last night still buzzing from our jump we went to the minus 5 bar, which is basically a big walk ... read more
15,000FT at 200KMPH......................and still smiling!
Published: January 8th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown
January 8th 2008
(( apologies in advance for my rambling but 3 hours after our jumps I am still buzzing like never before ) We came to New Zealand with a big list of things to tick off our must do list and a skydive was on top! Now as a person who avoided the Rothesay fair big wheel because it tipped upside down and a bloke who has to ensure he maintains three points of contact on anything above 5 metres off the ground we are feeling pretty smug with ourselves. We are the biggest feardies we know and when booking it yesterday in the Info site we both suprised ourselves when asked how high we wanted to go and in unison our reply was "15,000ft", you have a choice of 9,000, or 12,000ft as well as the ... read more
Overnight Cruise in the Doubtful Sound
Published: January 9th 2008Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Fiordland National Park
January 6th 2008
This part of our trip was a Christmas present from Frank ( G's Dad ) and truly spectacular. The Fiordlands are really special, and we were lucky enough to experience them in two kinds of weather. The Boat trip was to take us through the sounds right out to the Abel Tasman Sea, this was after a short cruise over Manapouri Lake, and a coach journey over Arthurs pass - so so many photos We stopped of in a sheltered cove called deep cove and kayaked and swimmed in the afternoon, before continuing our journey out to sea. Although again it was a scorcher of a day, the sounds are really windy, which you will see in the piccies. Again teh scenery was stunning, but hopefuly this will show in the piccies That night we had ... read more
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