The Scottish Highlands- July 2010

In late July we headed to Scotland for 5 days. We stayed with our family friends, Jill and Colin McColl in Fort Augusta. Fort Augusta sits just at the bottom of Lochness which is about a 45 minute drive from Inverness. We had a great time, so much of the scenery reminded us of the South Island and the weather reminded me even more of Invercargill. We literally had 4 seasons in one day, most days. Over our time there we visited may spots, including heading south to Fort William & Glencoe, East to Avimore and all the way west to the Isle of Skye.

You can never be too old to take advantage of this little gem it seems.

A top the Cairngorms mountain range- a popular skiing location just out of Avimore.

The highest red telephone box in the UK- what better time for Nadia to check in with Donna

The little wooden fences is how they collect all their snow- if they don't have fences the snow tends to just get blown off the mountain.

The Fanicular railway up the mountain.

The Foyers waterfall

Above- Plokton- A little off the beaten path to get to (literally a beaten path for a road!) but well worth it once getting there, you are greeted by a quaint little town with a splendid little bay.

The beach on the Loch just out of Avimore in the Cairngorn National Park - it was a pity for these optimistic beach goers that within 50 minutes of this picture being taken there was horizontal rain practically blowing them off the beach. But hey they were probably prepared, becauseas we learnt, that's a typical Scottish day.

A lovely night out with Jill & Colin at the local pub in Fort Augusta.

The Highland cattle (Kyloe) are not shy. I spent much of my time honking on the horn to try and move these beasts along- it seems the Scots don't really believe in fences so it is not unusual to see the wild life just parked up on the road.

Dalwhinnie Distillery- if I was a whiskey man this would be my drop.

Above- On the east coast of the Trotternish peninsula on the Isle of Skye Kilt rock and waterfall.

The gravestone of Flora MacDonald right at the top of the isle of Skye just out of Kilmuir- to say the road around the top was dicey would be a huge understatement, it was only one lane for 95% of it and you had to just pull in to little bays to let traffic through or go off road, this included the tourist buses up there!

Above - Portree on the Isle of Skye - generally regarded as the capital of the Totternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye.

In the western highlands lies Eilean Donan Castle which was originally build in the 13th century by the vikings, demolished in the 1700's and then rebuilt in the 1920's.

Just out of Spean Bridge lies the war memorial dedicated to the fallen commandos who died during the second world war. The hills that lie behind is Ben Nevis the tallest mountain in the UK.

The monument at Glenfinnan has an unknown Scottish highlander on its top and is dedicated to the Jacobite rising. Directly behind this lies the Glenfinnan viaduct which is famous for featuring in the Harry Potter films.

So much lush greenery in Scotland!

One of the walks we went on took us into the hills of Glencoe which once up high enough gave great views of the valley.

Above- Walking around Glencoe and overlooking the island cemetery where many of the MacDonald clan are buried.

Our rental car - the Ford Focus was so good at dodging sheep, cows & other cars it has inspired me to looking into buying one.

Above- nestled on the shores of Loch ness lies Urquhart castle.

This was as close as we got to spotting the Loch ness monster- hilarious exhibition centre though.

Above Inverness- This is a great place to fly into as it is accessible to all parts of the Highlands.

Wimbledon- June 2010

Once again for the third year running we were unsuccessful in the Wimbledon ballot, so we headed down at the crack of dawn to to join many, all queing to get into see the live tennis action at the lawn tennis championship. Being the second week, we were well and truly into the business end of the tournament and our visit was for the womens 1/4 finals. We were stoked to secure court one tickets. When we arrived it absolutely poured down and an hour later it was 30 degrees and we were struggling to deal with the heat!

The draw....

It was not Venus' day as she was out played by Pironkova, much to the crowds delight who were definately backing the under dog. The other womens quarterfinal we watched was against 2 relatively unknowns, neither of whom could stop Serena Williams from winning the Wimbeldon title.



The video shows our ridiculously good seats on court one- 5 rows back right in the centre!


The womens quarters were followed by the mens doubles - above is Tommy Robredo.

Nadia and Amruta eating snacks on Murray mound (Henman Hill)

HSBC were offering free strawberries and cream for those that have an HSBC debit card- brilliantly we have 6, so may have slightly taken advantage there. An awesome day at the tennis, here's hoping were 4th year lucky in the ballot!

Normandy, France, June 2010

After a successful weekend away in the Champagne region, 2 weeks before, it was back into France for the weekend, for a trip to Normandy. Once again we were with our Australian friends who were trying to cram in as much travel before they went home, so we literally just jumped on the band wagon. We stayed in a town call Honfleur which was a very quaint French seaside town.

The port in Honfleur which is lined with restaurants. A great spot for a croissant whilst soaking up the French sunshine.

Our apartment was a really good size and a great location right in the heart of Honfleur- in fact we had a food market outside the apartment which was well frequented.

Above- ....and that was just the tomato section at the market!

On the Saturday night we treated ourselves to a Michelin star restaurant in the town - the pictures might not show it but the food was amazing !

Chocolate overdose and the end of our 5th course! There were a few buttons loosened that night to get it all that in- but I would not be defeated!


The monument at Utah beach - this is one of the most famous of the beaches (Utah, Omaha, Juno, Sword and Gold) and this is where the allies had the majority of their success.

Museum at Utah beach

Antipodean picnic

What a history lesson you get when you visit these places! I learned more in 2 days than I think you could pick up in 3 years studying history at school- that's of course not trying to take a cheap shot at Southland Boys' scholastic brilliance!

The American cemetery at Omaha beach, it is the biggest cemetery from WWII where close to 10,000 soldiers are remembered on a stretch of over 17 acres. This is the same cemetery that is featured at the end of saving private Ryan, a pretty sombre but amazing place.

Above - the crew

Champagne region France- May'2010

With the weather starting to come good but not quite, we decided it best to head to France where sunshine would be more assured. We drove over with our Australian friends Am & Suso. It takes about 45minutes to get from St Albans to Dover and then you load your car on the train ferry and go through the channel tunnel and pop out in France, in about 30 minutes.

We stayed in a town called Eppernay which was about 2 1/2 hours drive from Calais. We found Eppernay much nicer than Reims which is where many of the champagne houses are, but it is also very commercial.

Driving through the winding vineyards just south of Hautvillers.

Tasting session at in Eppernay, it was quite reasonably priced to try the different varieties.

MUMM Champagne house in Reims.

All the major houses offer you tours where they tell you about the champagne making process and then you obviously finish with the mandatory tastings! Whilst it is very interesting hearing the process the first time around by the time we had heard this 3 times we felt like we could take the tour ourselves. Unfortunately, not many houses just offer you tastings so the tour is sometimes an addition you can't avoid.

The secret vault- in here they keep bottles of champagne which are over 100 years old. These bottles still have the sediment in them which allows them to last so long, they then need to go through the last stage of champagne making (freezing the neck and release the sediment and capping).

There are literally 100's of rooms full of bottles of champagne such as this going through the aging process. Back in the day they used people called 'riddlers' whose job it was to twist the bottle slightly and change the angle of the bottle slightly more vertical- what a job!

The picturesque Church at Eppernay which was visible from our bedroom window.

The town of Hautvillers.

In a lot of the towns they had these bushes with blue, white and red plastic flower lookalikes tied on to them- quite nice but kind of strange- why not just have flowers? French eh?

Our apartment in Eppernay was lovely - the owners (Eric) came and meet us and talked about the area and then invited us around to theirs for some champers- which we took them up on.

French fine dining- courtesy of Carrefour and the local markets- Champagne, strawberries, prawns, scallops, cheese and cured meats- yum!

The man himself, Don Perignon, the monk famous for making Champagne. This statue sits outside the Moet and Chandon House. The french pronounce Moet like Mo-itt rather than Mo-ah.

Don Perignon's final resting place in the Monestary Abbey.

In one of the houses there was an exhibition on at the same time, which was cool. The trip to the champagne region was wonderful- it was easy to get there, relaxing, interesting and thirst quenching.