Catriona Cooks Up A Treat
Romantic Getaway
Catriona Comes Clean
Back home in North Sydney
this philosophy translates into regularly clearing her closets of anything
she hasn't worn in a year, drinking cleansing Chinese green tea instead
of coffee and buying thoughtful presents for her father. "This year,
I bought him a big compost bin for his birthday," she says. It
should come in handy. Her family recycles, has a garden and is very concerned
with development in their community, explains Catriona.
Catriona's
Beauty Secrets
Hair Care:
Hair History:
Top secrets:
Make-up:
Skin Toning:
Catriona's
Mini
Catriona's choice
Getaway's
beautiful Catriona Rowntree shares a few of her favourite things.
It works for me
To help
her survive life on the road, roving Getaway reporter Catriona Rowntree
has a sure-fire way of beating the blues - the nearest bookstore. "I love
wandering into a bookshop and losing myself among the books," says 27-year-old
Catriona. "It costs nothing and it's pure enjoyment. For me it's everything,
from constant education to immersing myself in somebody else's world. It's
the best way to relax and unwind," smiles Catriona, a self-confessed bookworm
from way back. "I'm a voracious reader -
I've always got two or three books on the go at once," she adds, laughing.
"I find I'm also a sucker for newsagencies. 1 can't spend much time in
one without someone saying, 'Excuse me, this is not a library.' I sometimes
think I should get myself a casual Saturday job at the local newsagent
so I can read everything from Fortune to Vanity Fair." And while most girls
fill their handbags with make-up, Catriona never leaves home without a
pocket dictionary and a thesaurus. "It sounds crazy, but I've
got an absolute passion for the English language. Often when I'm in the
middle of a long trip I'll pull out my dictionary and the crew will debate
the meaning of a word - it's really fun. "My grandmother has always lived
with us and every Sunday morning I would jump into bed with her and she'd
read me stories. I feel like she's given me this wonderful gift. Now I
just get so much pleasure from reading and learning. It's a wonderful way
to pick yourself up.' Catriona's Favourite Reading
Places:
The
Good, the Bad and the Unlikely
Australian
Penthouse asked 300 prominent Australian men, everyone from John
Howard to John Laws, who presses their buttons.
Australia's ten sexiest woman:
Catriona Rowntree - Getaway
Girl
Who wouldn't want to travel
the world with this tantalisingly tasty sort ? Currently globe trotting
for the Nine network's trave show, GETAWAY, the 24-year old former JJJ
radio announcer and kiddie program host is making quite an impact in the
sexy stakes. West Australian cricketer Damien Martin reckons 'Catriona
is a great conversationalist, has heaps of personality to go with a fabulous
figure... and sensational breasts!'
'She has stack of personality;
a very natural, good-natured woman, without the usual TV ego,' writes Channel
Nine's Brisbane news presenter, Mike London. According to another fan,
jewellery designer Stefano, 'Her intelligence, wit and charm compliment
her ravishingly beauty.'
Sexiest Moment
Any time she flashes that
sensational smile... or those magnificent mounds.
{Woman's Day - June,
1999}
Getaway's Catriona Rowntree has found her travel-jaded senses reawakened by the primitve beauty of the Cook Islands. "It's what every adventurous traveller wants, and a very special place", she says. "The appeal lay in what the Cook Islands didn't have. All the crew said this was one place they would return to, which is one of the highest complimentys a Getaway team can give".
Catriona feasted on sashimi (raw fish) every day. "It was almost bouncing off the plate because it had just been brought in from the ocean. And I became quite addicted to taro. It's very starchy, like a cross between a potato and dirt!" she laughs.
Catriona also recently returned from a NSW surfing safari, where she indulged another passion - using her mini-Malibu surfboard. "Whenever I get a spare moment, I put on my wetsuit and head out for the nearest beach break with my mini-Mal!" she grins.
{New Weekly - March,
1999}
Catriona Rowntree may have said she was single at last week's Cleo's Bachelor of the Year bash, but it seems she's snagged a bachelor of her own. The Getaway reporter and former Olympic backstroker Simon Upton are said to be Sydney's hottest new couple.
The twosome make an impressive pair. Catriona, 27, was once voted Australia's fourth most sexy woman by Australian Penthouse magazine, and tall, dark and handsome Simon, 30, was nominated himself as a former Cleo Bachelor of the Year. Simon, a Seoul Olympian and now photographer, was spotted hanging out with Catriona on Sydney's Northern beaches over Christinas, and they are believed to have spent a relaxing, romantic weekend away just last month. However, Catriona's publicist is being coy on the matter. When NW phoned she said, "I'm not too sure if they're an item. They've gone on a few dates. But Catriona never talks to the media about her private life?'
Well, they certainly look like more than just good friends to us ...
{Good Medicine - June,
1999}
The
Nine Network's Getaway presenter Catriona Rowntree recounts a recent trip
to China for the program, where she learned an important green lesson -
how to live simply with the environment. "Every morning at 7am when
you go into the park, everyone is out and into life," she says.
"All ages -it's zero degrees, and it's packed. There were people
doing ballroom dancing and singing opera. People would rub themselves against
a special tree to connect with the spirit that comes through the earth,
flows through the tree and into heaven. It seems to me that true happiness
belongs to those people, those with a simpler life."
{Woman's Day - November,
1997}
"Whatever Mum bought
was always good enough for my fine hair" Catriona rarely used conditioner
as a teenager and even today just puts it through the bottom half of her
hair. "I am still pretty relaxed about what I use, although I do
like Pantene products and TIGI hair gloss to make my hair look shiny."
Her father sometimes still
cuts her hair in the backyard using a ruler and a pair of scissors! She
uses a round brush when blow-drying it and Velcro rollers. "I also
use a shaper or curling iron to give it a bit of body. Every so often I
have some highlights put in."
"Mum encouraged a
healthy look. She always said never pick your pimples and always use a
hairbrush with natural bristles."
Catriona keeps her make-
up to a minimum. "I try to buy make-up with a built-in SPF because
I am outdoors every day," she says She loves Poppy lip gloss and
her Shiseido compact. She also likes to wear black mascara, a natural-coloured
eyeshadow and a cheek and lip stain. When on air, she uses a foundation.
"When 1 was 13, Mum
gave me an Elizabeth Arden cleanser, toner and moisturiser pack. Now I
use a Jurlique cleanser and exfoliator, an SPF15+ Pond's moisturiser, a
Chanel eye-firming cream and a Pond's night cream. If I'm on a job, I love
relaxing in a bath with baby oil in the evening."
{Mini Magic #5 - April,
1999}
REMOVED
{Woman's Day - June, 1997)
If only you could meet this
chubby baby, I'm sure you'd also fall in love with her. I have to stop
myself from pinching her huge pink cheeks and 1 miss her terribly when
I'm travelling. Don't worry, I'm not getting clucky.
I find getting down and
getting dirty in the garden quite relaxing. I've just planted a mass of
sweet peas and black-spotted roses, and our Camellia japonica trees are
flowering quite beautifully, thanks very much.
Ever since I started on
community radio, I've been collecting music - rare tunes that make you
want to get up and get back down again, tunes that tug at your heart strings.
To transport them from studio to studio and fro m party to party, I've
kept them in this really dodgy old carry bag.
What can I say ... she's
cute, she's hip, she's red, she answers to the name Purdey. She's HOT!
You just can't beat a roast.
I love it. Not a day goes
by where 1 don't appreciate my job.
{Woman's Day - December,
1998)
{Australian Penthouse -
May, 1997)
The
Long and Winding Road To Fame
{The Age Green Guide - September,
1996)
Like many who wanted a job in the media, Catriona Rowntree had to battle to get her first job. But, as Kym Saddler reports, once she talked her way in, she never stopped.
Catriona Rowntree is the first to admit that she can talk the leg off a chair. The enthusiasm she exudes on the small screen is just as unmistakable in the flesh and she is certain her success stems from being herself. The reporter for Channel's 9's Getaway and former Triple J announcer, is an incessant talker and seems to be always having fun.
And she has good reasons to be happy. At 25, Rowntree has hosted the children's programs Wonder World and What's Up Doc?, her own radio request show on Triple J and is now in the enviable position of travel reporter or Getaway. So it's hard to understand when Rowntree insists her road to fame has been painfully protracted. "I suppose if you were to read it on paper and to watch form a far it would seem it was relatively fast, but for me it has been tortuously long. So many people slammed doors in my face and I can actually lay claim to the joy of getting paid to do what I really love."
Rowntree takes delight in her new life in the limelight and welcomes public recognition as a sign of success. "I love it. Everywhere I go people want to stop and have a chat," she says. Rowntree originally hoped to be a journalist. After her HSC, she pounded the pavement and landed a job with Business Review Weekly. "I confirmed yes that this is definitely what I want to do with my life. I studied journalism but I couldn't get myself a job anywhere and I was basically told: Go and get yourself some wrinkles and come back and see us."
She then set her sites on the electronic media and discovered a love for community radio. She later picked up a spot with the ABC's Triple J, which evolved into her own Saturday night show, the popular Request Fest. She also began the push into television. She answered a newspaper advertisement for a job on Wonder World and competed against 8000 to make the final five but did not land it.
"They didn't want to know me. Thy thought I was too experienced, which was strange to me because I had no experience. I think they were looking for someone they could mould. I though it was pretty unfair on the day, but you can see it all works out in the end." Rowntree continued to hound the Wonder World's executive producer and 12 months later was appointed as a researcher. Persistent request gave her a chance at reporting. It just steamrolled.
"It was really wonderful to be in job where I was encouraged to be myself. I was given confidence in my own personality. There was never any pressure for me o be something I wasn't. I didn't have to wear any clothes I didn't want to wear, I didn't have to ut my hair, I didn't have to speak in any newsreader style, I could just be me. Through that, thing have gone my way."
Despite her apparent determination and focus on career, she retains a certain humility: "If you had asked me six years ago did I ever think I would be working at Channel 9, I would never have thought it possible. It slowly appeared to me that if you're an OK person, if you work your bum off and you genuinely love what you are doing then, eventually, by the laws of averages, god things must come your way."
When What's Up Doc? came her way, Rowntree says she felt "a sort of reticence over how this would affect (her) credibility". She pondered the gamble of hosting a children's cartoon sho in the wake of Sophie Lee's bruising experience on The Bugs Bunny Show.
"You are constantly thinking how will people perceive me because I definitely don't want to be perceived as being the "Bugs Bunny girl" - it was something I was really aware of," she concedes. Rowntree contributes a youthful perspective to getaway. She joined the show in February and assignments have taken her to Bali, Thailand and Egypt.
"Getaway is a definite step forward, but I'm not consciously thinking about my credibility", she says. And as for the future: "When it gets down to it, I can do radio and print at any age, and I'm not sure how long I can do TV. So, while the opportunity is there, I'm going to take it for everything I can."
Taking
it! Celebrities confess...
Cleo (December 1996)
Which
self-tanners are streaks ahead at giving you a glow?
We asked nine top names
to do a road test for us.
Catriona - Le Tan Fast Pump
Spray
"I used to be a sun junkie,
but my baking days are over. Now my friends call me the Queen of Streak.
I do the lot: exfoliate, moisturise, but still end up one big streak. But
after two applications of this... no streaks. I'm onto a winner!"
Work
is a Holiday
{Sunday Herald-Sun TV Extra
- May, 1996)
Catriona has taken to her new job like a travel junkie with an open ticket. "Not only do I love to travel but I travel well," she enthused. "I genuinely love flying . i like the view from planes and I genuinely like aeroplane food (although she means the lo-cal type)."
Her latest trip will see her away for six weeks. "I pack the biggest bag I can possibly find." she said. "Then I through in as many clothes as I can, a couple of photo frames, my CD player, some CDs, a couple of books and the world's biggest toiletry bag." The frames represents something from home because, although Catriona loves travelling, her biggest stumbling block is homesickness.
The 24-year-old has recently bought he own house in Sydney, but still lives at home with mum, dad and grandma. "There's also a cat, dog, and I'm one of four kids. I'm very close to my family." The Rowntree family is indeed tight-knit and Catriona delights in being constantly embarrassed by father. Stephen, who keeps a scrapbook of his daughter's rapidly expanding career. "He has me cowering in the corner when he pulls out the scrapbook," she says. Mum Heather is less demonstrative but equally supportive and she says, with a family like hers, there is no danger of her developing an ego problem. "For my family I'm quiet. Although women rule the house, I'm the youngest and I've had to learn to yell the loudest." She describes her grandmother, Riria as her best friend. "She's the world's best financial adviser. She takes all my Nine cheques and hands them over to a stockbroker to invest for me."
But if there is one downside to this story, it is one "that no-one wants to hear, and that it is I have no real life other than my job. Still, it suits me for the moment."
Catriona's
Clothes
{New Weekly - May, 1996)
Style:
'Comfortable clothing
for work is necessary but for that one big event of the whole year - like
the Logies - I love to go all out and dress in something amazing.'
Fave Clothing:
'Second-hand Levi's and,
because I have difficulty finding shoes for my big feet, I love all my
Donna-May Bollinger shoes.'
Love or Loathe Shopping?:
'I hate it. it's so frustrating.'
Shops:
'From one end of Oxford
Street to the other.'
Australian Fashion is:
'Wonderful, original,
and suits our attitude and climate perfectly.'
Fantasy outfit:
'Something designed by
Nelson Leong that squashes into a suitcase, never has to be washed or ironed
and makes me look like a million dollars!'
Catriona finally returns to TV as a reporter for GETAWAY, Thursdays at 7:30pm on Channel 9. Her first story is a 'road-test' of Queensland's Theme Parks.
"Basically I went home every night feeling like my insides were having a party and hadn't invited the rest of me. It has been a brilliant assignment because I genuinely love scary rides. The scarier the better. But I'm incredibly embarassed that they are using this one as one of my first stories, because it is going to blow ny serious image completely."
Why
Catriona left "What's Up Doc?"
TV Week, February, 1996
"I haven't had a holiday
since 1989".
On
Saturday February 10, 1996 Catriona hosted her last show on What's Up Doc?
She will now been seen on the Nine Networks Getaway program as a new reporter.
In an interview for TV Week she explains her latest career move. "I'm just
growing up," she says. "Sooner or later I have to move out of children's
TV and throw myself into the fire of prime time." "My contract was coming
up for renewal with JJJ and I had been doing three jobs in three states
(What's Up Doc? in Melbourne, Triple J in Sydney and Wonder World! in Brisbane)
and had been very, very happy." "I was loving every second of it, but I
hadn't been able to take up other opportunities. I couldn't give anything
more to radio because of TV and I couldn't give more to TV because of radio."
On her new position as reporter on getaway Catriona says "I'm not taking
the position of anybody -the position was created".
Australia's
50 Most Eligible Women
[Metropolitan Style
- December, 1995]
Catriona lives on Sydney's North Shore and is 24 years old. She loves her nan, whom she says is like Wonder Woman with wrinkles. She would love a bottomless bowl of creme brulee, and she knows she has succeeded when she gets that small feeling that she is making the most of her self.
What do you do for a living
?
Hmmm. I suppose I get paid
to talk on the telly.
What sort of qualities
do you look for in a partner ?
Like most girls, I look
for three basic things: the body of Tarzan, the brain of Einstein, and
a lad who'll kiss the ground I walk on. (I'd settle for just one of the
above.)
What is your best and
worst quality?
Positivity, and some say
that my nose blowing is so bad it's scary.
What is the biggest misconception
about you?
That Claudia Schiffer and
I were separated at birth! (Just joking).
How do you relieve stress?
Jumping out of a plane at
10,000 feet shuts me up pretty quickly.
Describe a great night
out ?
Dinner with friends who
know exactly how to make you giggle and devouring a meal that's truly mouth
watering. And finishing off with a great flick and/or dancing off into
the night.
What's you're favorite
car?
Definitely a red 1975 Leyland
mini.
Catriona's
Holiday List
[TV HITS - December,
1995]
Catriona's
Favourite Thing
[Herald-Sun - 1995]
Family is my fave, but on a material level these boots take the cake! I found this really great lady, Donna-May Bolinger, and all I have to do is throw some words at her and she creates yor dream shoes. For this pair I wanted something with heaps of character so we put a heart on the chisel toe, a secret heart at the back of the shoe and beautiful wine glass heels. So these are definitely my favourite thing...until my next pair of shoes.
Catriona
On Computers
[Computer Living
- Summer 1996]
"I began using computers when I was in school. I taught myself most of the skills. Later when I studied journalism, the course required that we get right up there with our computer knowledge. At the moment, computers are really just a tool to let me get my work done more efficiently. Channel Nine has recently given me a computer for home. I write all of my own scripts. I used to go down to Melbourne the day before a show and write them up there, but know I get to do everything from home."
Where were you born?.....Sydney, born and bred
Starsign.....Cancer, with Leo rising, but I have the Cancerian traits... worry too much, work too much, way too emotional and I love my home.
What did you want to grow up to be?.....That depends on what mood you catch me in
Favourite food.....Chicken, of course
Who is your all time idol?.....My granny. You'd love her, she's cuddly, admirable, intelligent and generally just a cool nanny.
What was your first paying job?.....Stuffing the stuffing up chickens bums at the local chicken shop. They eventually fired me because I was incapable of putting the chickens in those special oven bags without ripping them - it's bloody hard.
What was your most embarrassing time on air?.....A real doozy was when I accidentally left my microphone on and yelled out "Can someone please mind the panel - I'm busting to go to the dunny!"
How do you want to be remembered?.....I'd settle for just being remembered
Catriona's Hi-5.....Once
again they change all the time: Stevie Wonder - Masterblaster (Jammin'),
REM - Night Swimming, Donna Summer - I Feel Love, Anything off the soundtrack
to Betty Blue, ummm, ohhh anything to get down and get back up again to.
Updated: March 1, 1999