When an internationally recognized publication like ‘Travel + Leisure’ lists Waiheke Island as the Best Island in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, and the fifth-best island in the world in 2018—and “Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel’ lists it as one of the ten best regions in the world in 2016—then you know for sure …
Before I get too far away from it, I should add that I did not hate my brief time in Tahiti. While it was expensive and it did seem to overwhelm much of the experience, there were a few things I did enjoy. Poisson Cru. Before I left the island, I made sure I was …
I know you are all probably following along at home, but in case you didn’t know, the 2007 Pacific Games have started in Apia, Samoa. This has actually been a big deal everywhere I’ve been this summer. In Samoa, all the streets in Apia had banners for the games and every day in the paper …
In the United States, there are three parks which are considered to be the crown jewels in the National Parks system: Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. If you had to make a similar list for Australia, I don’t know what two of the parks would be, one one of them would have to be …
There are lots of places in the world you can go SCUBA diving, but Cairns just might have the biggest concentration of dive shops and and the largest diving industry in the world. The size of the industry is big enough that it has dedicated businesses devoted to underwater photography. I figured this would be …
Today is ANZAC* Day in Australia, New Zealand and several countries in the Pacific (Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji I think). It is the day which Australians and Kiwis remember their war dead. In the US it would be the equivalent of Memorial Day, or Remembrance Day in the UK. ANZAC Day, from what I’ve gathered, …
Palau Rocks. Pun intended. I’m not sure why Palau works, but it does. If you look at other Pacific nations with similar populations, they are pretty much basket cases politically and economically. Palau has managed to create a country with a standard of living higher than its neighbors (save for Guam) and a stable government. …
After having gone ga-ga over Pohnpei, I wouldn’t think I would have been as impressed with Kosrae, but I was. My stay on Kosrae was at the Kosrae Village which was very similar, at least in construction, to the Village in Pohnpei. All of the structures were built by locals out of local materials in …
Read part one of my Rennell adventure here. The “tourism” business on Rennell is informal to say the least. Not only was I the only real tourist on the island, but I really didn’t know how I could go about exploring the lake and the island once I was there. There are obviously no cars …