BIOLOGY
The Hawaiian Islands have a wide variety of plant, marine and animal life. Vegetation zones include: coastal, dryland forest, mixed open forest, rain forest, subalpine and alpine. More than 90 percent of the native plants and animals living in Hawaii are found nowhere else in the world, and a greater variety of fish exist in Hawaiian waters than elsewhere. The humuhumunukunukuapuaa is the official state fish.
Hawaii is sometimes called the Endangered Species Capital of the World. At least one third of all the endangered species in the United States are found in Hawaii including th...
An unspoiled corner of Fiji, Kadavu is a beautiful mountainous island with waterfalls, rounded hilltops, outstanding beaches and high rocky cliffs. It offers interesting bush walks, charming rockpools, luxuriant native trees and fascinating birdlife, particularly the famous red and green Kadavu parrots.
Kadavu (pronounced Kahn-da-voo), has a population of approximately 8700 and lies only 88 kilometers south of Suva. Kadavu is approximately 48 kilometers in length and varies in width from 365 meters to 13 kilometers. Its area is 411 square kilometers, just a bit less than Taveuni. Kadavu ha...
This is an Ile des Pins story: During the world windsurfing championships held in New Caledonia in 1999, board sailors suddenly stopped in the middle of the competition and dropped their sails to take in the sheer beauty of the Isle of Pines…Yes, another contender for the most-beautiful-island-on-the-planet title.
Capt. James Cook named it in 1774 for the tree-rich landscape, but it’s the gloriously clear waters offshore, bordered by some of the most stunning beaches (Kuto and Kanumera are the best known) in the entire South Pacific, that enthrall travel-weary visitors. This is an island m...
Manuel Antonio National Park
The three sweeping strands of pristine white beach that flow into the Pacific Ocean are only part of what makes this place paradise. Manuel Antonio National Park is where the jungle meets the sea. The beaches are long, wide and covered with beautiful soft sand, bordered by tall evergreen jungle on one side, and blue Pacific Ocean on the other. Cliffs overgrown by dense jungle vegetation surround the beaches and in spots the forest sweeps down to the edge of the water sheltering swimmers from the sun. In order to protect the parks eco-system, entrance to the park...
Several islands lay claim to their own “Bali Hai,” but it was on Vanuatu’s largest island, Espiritu Santo, that James Michener, gazing over the blue Pacific toward a nearby island during WWII, found his original South Pacific inspiration.
Like Fiji, Vanuatu is not actually an island but rather a chain of islands. Once known as the New Hebrides, the archipelago is an endless chain of fine beaches, amazing diving, volcanoes, the scent of frangipani in the air…in other words, all the stage settings for a few classic tales of the South Pacific. On the main island, Efate, the capital of Port Vi...
At the very center of Polynesia, Upolu and Savaii are the twin islands that truly fulfill the South Seas vision of palm-lined, white-sand beaches and blue ocean beyond the reef. And in the capital of Apia, which has at least some of the trappings of a modern city, you’ll also find a slightly timeworn, sultry townscape out of the old South Pacific.
Until 1997, the country was known as Western Samoa – long famous throughout the South Pacific for Fa’a Samoa, a way of life in which traditional customs (dance, a love of kava, and the art of tattooing among them) and strong community ties shape ...
The Spanish may have once ruled this Micronesian island for more than three centuries, but the modern world has definitely left its stamp here. Consider this: With nearly a dozen golf courses (some designed by Nicklaus and Palmer), Guam has become a favorite golfing holiday for Japanese unable to find playing time on the exclusive and pricey courses at home. Or this: Islanders boast that the world’s largest K-Mart store is located here near Tumon – and is open 24 hours a day.
The Second World War was the turning point for modern Guam, and for a little history primer of this U.S. Territory,...
Stand on the rim of the volcanic crater at Orongo, a thousand feet above the sea. Look around the endless Pacific Ocean visibly curving along the horizon. Ask yourself how those early Polynesian navigators ever found this isolated volcanic rock surrounded by thousands of square miles of empty sea. And then ask yourself what drove them here – and what happened to them?
Easter Island (known locally as Rapa Nui) is the original mysterious island. The islanders developed the only written language in Oceania, but the meaning of the script has been lost. The island itself is best known, of cours...
Each of the four San Juan Islands that mark the watery border of the Pacific Northwest has its own character, but Orcas – the largest at more than 55 square miles, is the most spectacular scenically – and has the widest range of ways to play.
Car ferry lines can be several hours long in summer, so if you're the active/outdoors type, the best bet is to arrive not in an SUV but on a bike. B&Bs are the mainstay here, but there are a couple of noted resorts, even a nicely maintained 9-hole golf course. Still, this is an island nature-made for hikers, kayakers, and campers. There's real...
In 1940, author John Steinbeck and his marine biologist friend, Ed Ricketts, journeyed into the seldom-visited Gulf of California to begin a Baja collecting expedition that was later immortalized in the book The Log from the Sea of Cortez. And what makes Baja’s many islands magical is that now, six decades after Steinbeck’s visit, they remain virtually unchanged.
Which is why these remote, mostly uninhabited islands have become a prime destination for adventurous travelers looking for that rare combination of desert and blue sea.
Not all of isles bordering the 800-mile-long peninsula a...
South Pacific
