Gillian writes freelance travel and feature articles for magazines and newspapers. Here are a few of examples...
newspaper articles
Inside NZ: Under the sea (published in the New Zealand Herald Nov 19, 2008
For many New Zealanders, summer is defined by unveiling the barbecue packed away on a corner of the deck, followed by a game of beach rugby or cricket while fresh scallops and crayfish sizzle on the coals. If you're lucky those delicacies will have been plucked fresh from the sea that morning by an intrepid Kiwi bloke or blokette.We are, it would seem, a country of scuba divers. But, unlike many other countries, New Zealand hasn't had a great tradition of just look-see divers. We have a very high rate of diver training and participation, but they mostly become the hunter gatherers.
A good dive is determinedly the number and size of the crays.
But this isn't the case in many other countries. Perhaps because they don't have our abundant kaimoana, but more likely because they have developed dive tourism industries and a well-established no-take dive culture.
However, we do have the dive tourism industry. The Poor Knights, and especially Dive Tutukaka - under the stewardship of astute Aussie Malcolm and his daughter, Kate - have developed a busy dive tourism operation servicing the Poor Knights Islands.
This should never have been a hard task.....
For many New Zealanders, summer is defined by unveiling the barbecue packed away on a corner of the deck, followed by a game of beach rugby or cricket while fresh scallops and crayfish sizzle on the coals. If you're lucky those delicacies will have been plucked fresh from the sea that morning by an intrepid Kiwi bloke or blokette.We are, it would seem, a country of scuba divers. But, unlike many other countries, New Zealand hasn't had a great tradition of just look-see divers. We have a very high rate of diver training and participation, but they mostly become the hunter gatherers.
A good dive is determinedly the number and size of the crays.
But this isn't the case in many other countries. Perhaps because they don't have our abundant kaimoana, but more likely because they have developed dive tourism industries and a well-established no-take dive culture.
However, we do have the dive tourism industry. The Poor Knights, and especially Dive Tutukaka - under the stewardship of astute Aussie Malcolm and his daughter, Kate - have developed a busy dive tourism operation servicing the Poor Knights Islands.
This should never have been a hard task.....
magazine articles
Magical Fiji: Diving Aboard Nai'a (published in Dive New Zealand Magazine)
Imagine your perfect dive holiday: a genie has popped up in front of you and said Okay, you can have anything you want! Where would you start? Wonderful dive sites and plenty of them. Sharks, rays, schools of fish and barracuda. Awesome little creatures. Fantastic coral formations - soft and hard. Unlimited diving, no bottom time restrictions, four dives a day. Hardly any other divers in the water. A great boat, great food, like-minded people. Impossible? Well, think again....
Imagine your perfect dive holiday: a genie has popped up in front of you and said Okay, you can have anything you want! Where would you start? Wonderful dive sites and plenty of them. Sharks, rays, schools of fish and barracuda. Awesome little creatures. Fantastic coral formations - soft and hard. Unlimited diving, no bottom time restrictions, four dives a day. Hardly any other divers in the water. A great boat, great food, like-minded people. Impossible? Well, think again....
Underwater Transect (published In New Zealand Geographic Issue 100, November-December 2009)
New Zealand extends through a wide range of latitudes—from semi-tropical waters off the Kermadec Islands in the north, to frigid, tempestuous seas that lash subantarctic islands in the south.
Here, unique marine organisms inhabit an equally strange underwater terrain, a product of the volcanism that accompanies seafloor subduction to form ridges, reefs, pinnacles and a network of large underwater canyons and trenches....
New Zealand extends through a wide range of latitudes—from semi-tropical waters off the Kermadec Islands in the north, to frigid, tempestuous seas that lash subantarctic islands in the south.
Here, unique marine organisms inhabit an equally strange underwater terrain, a product of the volcanism that accompanies seafloor subduction to form ridges, reefs, pinnacles and a network of large underwater canyons and trenches....
