Global Travel Writers: Articles

Islands of the Albatross

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:51:00 -0500

Equally rich in natural values, these islands also number amongst the world�s wildest places yet lack the mystique of their inhospitable Australian neighbour. They deserve much wider understanding.

Enderby Island teems with albatross, assorted penguins, petrels, parakeets, gulls, shags and skuas, and its treeless meadows are ablaze with distinctive flowering plants, particularly the subantarctic megaherbs like Bulbinella, with its striking yellow flowers. These are the world�s southernmost plants, evolution pushed to its limits in this punishing environment.

An easy walk on Campbell Island climbs away from Perseverance Harbour, following a wooden boardwalk across hillsides carpeted with tussocks, to reach a high saddle. Many southern royal albatross, snow white, spread across the windswept slopes, hunkered down on their nests to mind an egg whilst their partner is out foraging.

One evening we pass two distant naval frigates travelling in convoy. New Zealand�s governor general, a cabinet minister and a gaggle of scientists are bound for Campbell Island to inaugurate a national bicentennial research program.

Not so fast, chaps. Next day, HMNZS Otago breaks down in �a remote subantarctic fiord� � yes, that�s Perseverance Harbour � and the dignitaries must await transfer to the escort frigate. It�s twenty seconds of fame for a lonely, austerely-beautiful corner of New Zealand�s southernmost islands.

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Belem - city on the equator

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:25:00 -0500

At daybreak, thousands of parrots take to the skies over the murky waters of the Amazon near Bel�m, the capital of Par� state, in northern Brazil. Just as the ink washes out of the night sky and an eerie dawn tinges it yellow, the parrots leave their favourite roosting trees en masse, blotting out the sky as they go and squawking to find their mates.

Bel�m is not on everyone�s wish list when visiting the Amazon region. Most head straight for the jugular city of Manaus, 1400kms northwest on the junction of the Amazon and Rio Negro, but for those who do make the detour, the rewards can be surprising. The city�s beautiful buildings include the famous Opera House modeled on La Scala in Milan, the Basilica of Nazar� built after the style of St Peter�s in Rome, and the fresh fruit and produce market, Ver-O-Peso, with its decorative wrought-iron turret that was transported in sections from Britain and is now an icon of the city.

Laucala Langour

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:39:00 -0400

There is something decidedly exotic about hopping onboard a private jet and being whisked away to a far-flung South Pacific Island. Particularly so when your destination has been declared one of the 100 most beautiful hotels and resorts of the world.

Laucala Island, east of far-flung Taveuni in Fiji, opened in 2008 for just 50 discerning guests who don't mind shelling out upwards of 3800USD per night for a beachfront Plantation Residence. Set amidst a working coconut plantation, at this level of opulence, privacy, exclusivity and exquisite service is de riguer. With astounding attention to detail, assisted by a guest to staff ratio hovering around 7:1, Laucala Island has perfected the art of fine hospitality infused with an element of Fijian warmth.

Fiona Harper is one of few journalists invited to visit Laucala Island. Contact Fiona Harper to commission your exclusively crafted feature or puchase the article for immediate download.

Images are available.

My island home

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:56:00 -0400

Christine Anu comes from the saltwater people and sings about her island home, growing up in a small beachfront community in the Torres Strait. But it�s not necessary for you to venture that far to escape the ever-increasing crowds at popular island destinations. Perhaps you�re looking for a simple little piece of paradise in a world becoming ever more technical and complicated? Perhaps you�d like to slow down and actually smell those roses? Or sniff the salty scent of the sea at dawn. To awake beneath a forest canopy and listen as the wildlife erupts into its own operatic chorus. Perhaps then you�re tempted to enjoy the carefree life of a castaway on an island?

Daniel Defoe wrote a fictional autobiography based on an English castaway named Robinson Crusoe, who spent 28 years on a remote tropical island. So, while you probably don�t have 28 years to spare, possibly you do have a week or so to meld into an island existence. Where days revolve around the setting of the sun and the rising of the tide. Where evenings are spent beneath the stars watching clouds skitter across the moon. Where shoes are discarded and the only footprints on the beach are likely to be your own.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

www.fionaharper.com.au

Divine Docklands

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:46:00 -0400

There is an old proverb that decrees it is better to travel than to arrive. Robert Louis Stevenson was a great adventurer who said �I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel�s sake�. As a career gypsy who earns a living out of travelling the oceans and lands of the world, who am I to dispute such wisdom? However, I wonder if I�ve found my match at the end of a coastal voyage that terminates at the swanky Melbourne waterfront precinct of Docklands.

Passing beneath the skyward reaching pylons of the Bolte Bridge and into Victoria Harbour with its waterfront promenade chock full of restaurants, bars and entertainment, as twilight falls upon the city backdrop, I quietly start swallowing my words. "Perhaps, after all, it is better to arrive", I ponder as we dock at Waterfront City Marina. Amid the tinkling of wine glasses and the heady restaurant aromas wafting across the dock, Docklands throws open its arms in an exuberant welcome.

Contact Fiona Harper to commission this article. Images are available.

www.fionaharper.com.au

Vanuatu cruising

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:45:00 -0400

Cruising into Port Vila Harbour I�m reminded of those romantic South Pacific voyages I dreamt of as a teenager, having secured by chance a berth on a yacht through the Kimberleys. This tantalizing coastal passage introduced me to sailing, whetting my appetite for further adventures at sea. Reluctantly disembarking in Darwin, I left the yacht with my head filled with dreams to travel to far-flung exotic ports. The idyllic islands of the Pacific Ocean were then, as now, high on my �must see� list. I wasn�t alone as it turned out. Pulitzer Prize winning novelist James Michener long before was also seduced by similar dreams, crafting his epic novel Tales of the South Pacific based on his experiences in Samoa and Vanuatu......

Contact Fiona Harper to commission this article, or others along a similar theme from this yachting enthusiast.

Tales from a Tall Ship

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:35:00 -0400

Admiring the graceful elegance of this grand old lady of the sea, guests onboard Star Clipper watch languidly from their sunlounges as the crew scrabble up the rigging, unfurling yards and yards of billowing sail cloth. As the sheets that control the sails tighten, it feels as though Star Clipper lifts slightly higher in the water, picking up her skirts as she scoots across the deep blue Indian Ocean.

Star Clipper is a 115m Tall Ship, carrying just 170 guests in pampered comfort. She cruises out of Phuket during the southern summer, relocating to the Med in March to cruise the Med during the northern summer.

Onboard for an Indian Ocean crossing, Fiona Harper will join Star Clipper in March 2010 on her repositioning cruise. Contact Fiona (fiona@fionaharper.com.au) to confirm in principle support in commissioning an article based on this voyage.

Images will be available from Fiona Harper and Star Clipper.

Aground off the Pilbara coast

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:07:00 -0400

Living onboard a cruising yacht is a remarkably satisfying experience, offering the rare opportunity to be totally self-supporting. Daily life revolves around keeping the ship safe, the complex essential systems operating and the yacht moving towards its destination. Oh, and there�s plenty of sundowners on arrival, usually beneath an unashamedly scarlet sky as the sun disappears over the horizon. Arriving at an anchorage late afternoon, its not unusual to run into cruising buddies who we may not have seen for months, but who immediately invite us to join them on the beach to share a cold beer or two as soon as our anchor is down and secure.

But there is a frustratingly accurate saying amongst these same yachties: there are those who have run aground and those who soon will. As I found out just a few months into our Australian circumnavigation.....

Please contact Fiona Harper to commission this article or others along a yachting theme. Images are available.

Racing around the Rock

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:36:00 -0400

With a balmy 10 to 15 knot tropical breeze wafting across Cleveland Bay, near Townsville in north Queensland, almost 50 yachts competed in the third Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week in September.

Join avid sailor and island resident Fiona Harper for an exciting yachting regatta on Magnetic Island, affectionately known by locals as 'the rock'.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.

Sails and Saxophones

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:41:00 -0400

Now in its 13th year the Great Tropical Jazz Party is three nights and two days of cool jazz beneath the palms on Magnetic Island in north Queensland. Held annually on the second weekend in September, highly acclaimed musicans clamour to be invited to attend this unique festival created by the late Max Brown.

Held poolside amidst the tropical gardens of the All Seasons Resort Magnetic Island, the intimate venue creates an easy going ambience that brings out the best in the musicians, all of whom perform for no fee. With the jazz party following on closely from Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week, September is a lively time on this usually laid back island of 3000 residents, just off the coast from Townsville.

Contact Fiona Harper if you'd like to commission this article. Images are available.