Better half a century late than never. The children's book my Grandpa wrote in the early 1970s and firmly intended to publish, but for various reasons never did. Having brought out my own first book this year (which is of course far simpler and easier than it would have been back then), it seemed fitting to bring his work to completion. With the help of a hand-typed anotated final draft, and two specially comissioned illustrations, the story needed very little extra work. It's all about a ...

Vanuatu, a cluster of 13 large islands and 80 small ones in the southwest Pacific, 1,300 miles east of Australia, has had a kaleidoscopic past. Formerly known as the New Hebrides, it was administered as a British-French Condominium, referred to as "pandemonium" and the events surrounding independence in 1980 had Gilbert and Sullivan qualities. Then there are the languages they speak: French, English, 105 indigenous tongues, and the wonderful common language, Bislama. The islands of Vanuatu, f...

Each time I see a new place I privately play the game of, "Would I be happy living here permanently?" My reactions for Fiji, mostly happy ones, aren't based entirely on Fiji's miles of white beaches, her rattling palms, the variety of her villages, or the dramatic hill country. I can find these things in dozens of Pacific destinations and, as much as I love most of them, none are choices for my declining years. Fiji has the required qualities among them, space and lots of it. Viti Levu, the ...

Tourism, while still small, will surely be a big thing in this kingdom by the sea. It has many attractions the king himself, his palace, the beaches, lagoons, flying foxes, blowholes, ruins, exquisite outer islands, and convenient transport. There's good food, perhaps the best in the Pacific, and the weather is cooler than many other Pacific islands. Tonga has good things to bring home: tapa cloth, wood carvings, beautiful baskets, mats and, best of all, prices for everything are low. Tong...

These fascinating and stunningly beautiful Pacific islands lie midway between Hawaii and the Philippines. Seen from the air, Kosrae is a mountainous green craggy island with curious pointed peaks thick with jungle, fringed with white sandy beaches and a system of close-in mangrove-covered reef islands. The beauty of this high island can only be described as magnificent. Coming from the low atoll islands of the Marshalls I got the feeling that here was a mini-continent, a fragment of land, alb...

The Marshall Islands, named after a British sea captain who explored the group in 1788, are scattered like flung necklaces over about 750,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean. Positioned 2,200 miles southwest of Hawaii, they occupy an area between four and 20 degrees north of the equator. The islands are aligned in two groups. Those to the west are the Ralik Chain; to the east they're in the Ratak Chain. Altogether they total 34 islands and 850 sea-washed reefs. All the islands are coral, but fi...

Guam is a special place for a number of reasons. At 212 square miles, it's the largest island in Micronesia, and its status as a territory of the U.S. makes it our most westerly possession. It is 6,000 miles west of San Francisco, and is truly where America's day begins. The geology of this apostrophe-shaped island, which is 30 miles long and four to twelve miles wide, is volcanic. Much of the north ern part has cliffs along the coast that drop sharply to the sea, as well as a few mountain...

Papua New Guinea, the eastern half of the second-largest island in the world, includes a cluster of islands off its northeast coast New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, Manus, the Trobriands, and scores of smaller islands. The other half of the island, the western part Indonesian Irian Jaya is another story and, other than brief remarks about it, this chapter is confined to Papua New Guinea. However, when you put both halves of the island together, notice how in profile it resembles a h...

This is the official Holiday FM Guide to Auckland. This handy bitesize guide gives you everything you might want for the ideal trip to the big city. Background information about the history of the City will hopefully give you a better understanding of its origins and make your visit more enjoyable. Get local information about the must see sightseeing places to visit to help make your trip amazing and memorable. The guide also covers tips on where to eat and drink and what to expect the we...

Alice Springs, Alice, The Alice, Mparntwe, is the most talked about but least familiar place in Australia. It is a town of extremes and contradictions: searingly hot and bitterly cold, thousands of miles from anywhere, the heart of black Australia and the headquarters of the controversial NT Intervention. It's seen as a place where blokes are blokes, yet the town has a high lesbian population. It is the gateway to the red centre, but relatively few Australians have been there. Its striking...

"a delicious taste of life in New Zealand" - Monica, AmazonTold with grace and style, alive with insight and intriguing facts, Once a Land of Birds captures the joys and challenges, struggles and awakenings experienced by a Canadian family that hits the ground running in New Zealand and finds its feet in a land of volcanoes, giant trees, mammalian pests, and endangered flightless birds.In 2000 Magi Nams was a harried home schooling...

Marlborough, Nelson, Mt. Cook, the glaciers, Fiordland, Otago, Stewart Island, Rakiura National Park - here is the ultimate guide to the magical South Island. The South Island is dominated by the 500-km (300-mile) spine of the Southern Alps. The western side of the Alps is punctuated with rainforest, glaciers and fast-flowing rivers; the eastern side of the Alps is home to the vast, flat Canterbury Plains and the rolling Otago farmland. All of the detailed information you need is here abou...