Scottish Express

Adventure Transport service to great destinations in the top of the South Island New Zealand

Real Meals

Real Meals

We believe that no matter where you are you should be able to eat a delicious meal. In a mountain hut, on a sailing boat with no land in sight, in a tent in the middle of a National Park, on a remote mountain bike mission, underground in a cave or in a snow cave. If you’re out there burning up calories on an excellent adventure, then you deserve food that will refuel and recharge you in everyway.

We know you can carry raw food, and on short trips this is possible. But for longer trips, or if you wish to travel light, save time and prepare healthy meals fast, Real Meals is your solution. We know from experience that raw food comes with some issues, it’s difficult to keep it fresh. Raw food can quickly sour and become unhealthy, making people sick, something nobody wants while in the wilderness. Or it simply gets squashed in your pack making a heck of a mess.

Real Meals solve this, we freeze-dry high quality meat, vegetables, grains and fruit. This means you get the nutrition you require without the hassle and risks of carrying raw food. Our freeze-dried process occurs at below-zero temperatures and retains 99% of its nutrition but weighs only 20% of its original weight.

Because of the new technology and process we use at Real Meals, all the range will cold water rehydrate, we know a cold curry isn’t going to excite everyone, but in an emergency situation or if getting hot water isn’t practical, you can still eat and get the nutrients you need.

Real Meals

Made in NZ

It’s the Kiwi way. We’re a bunch of Kiwi’s who wanted better food whilst out on our trips, our holidays and recreation. We figured our free time is precious and we wanted our escapades to be as good as they could be, and eating decent food is a big part of that, without having to carry insanely massive packs. We wanted to travel light but our problem was that the freeze dried food on the market was practically inedible. We reckoned we could do better than what was on the market so we started a company.

Real Meals was born, and 100% New Zealand made. It’s widely accepted that NASA made freeze dried food technology famous to feed their astronauts in space, and we won’t argue about that, but the Maori and Polynesians have been drying food for thousands of years long before a rocket scientist got excited about it. Founding owner, Nathan Fa’avae is half Samoan, it’s his ancestors and the Maori people of Aotearoa that made drying food not only a survival tool for epic ocean voyaging, but they made it an art form so that they could enjoy food out of season, or preserve food at one end of the country to be enjoyed at the other. Their drying skills meant they took meat, birds and fruit to sea and over land, which provided them the nutrition and energy to sail and paddle thousands of kilometres throughout the Pacific ocean, and traverse the volcanoes, plains and alps of New Zealand. The Maori took things even further using bull kelp to craft air tight bags to store their dried food in. How incredible is that! Hundreds of years ago with only basic tools, the Maori dried food and carried it around in air tight bags, the Pōhā bags they made could store their dried food for up to three years.

The Great Outdoors is a New Zealand way of life. About one third of our country is a national park, most people live close to accessible adventure opportunities, people love to go tramping, mountain biking, kayaking, sailing, take part in snow sports and enjoy the mountains., and beyond.

That’s why the team at Real Meals are passionate about what we do, making tasty food to enhance people’s experiences, we want people to enjoy their outdoor trips so much they can’t wait to plan another one and get out there.

It’s all about quality for us, that’s why we’re so careful about sourcing our meats and vegetables, and only cook with ingredients that meet our high standards. If it’s not good enough for us, it’s not good enough for you.

Every good business solves a problem, at Real Meals, as outdoor adventurers ourselves, we were disappointed with the quality of Freeze Dried Meals available not only in New Zealand, but throughout the whole world. So we decided to solve that, by creating the tastiest, all natural, most real meals possible.

Gilbert Robertson

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