“I wonder if one day that you’ll say that you care? If you say you love me madly, I’ll gladly be there like a puppet on a string.” Puppet shows are common the world over – and for those of us in the west, whether its the traditional Punch and Judy show, or something more modern…
“The morning light teaches the most basic of truths: Light chases away darkness.” There’s much to be said for Jared Diamond’s environmental call-to-action, “The Collapse” .. it was a book that certainly shook up our views on how weather interacts with sociology. It considers how changes in the climate can lead to massive changes in human…
This week’s series of pictures are those that remind me of some favourite quotes – like Joyce Kilmer’s famous poem “Trees”. “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the earth’s sweet flowing breast” The tree ‘prest against the earth’ here is in Portland,…
It was Ferdinand Magellan who coined the name Pacific (peaceful) for the largest ocean in the world – despite the fact that it can be anything but, at times. It seems he had just sailed around Cape Horn, at the southern end of South America – and after the storms of the Southern Atlantic ocean,…
I don’t know what it is about churches that attracts me when we travel – after all, I’ve been an agnostic since my teenage years. But there is no doubt that churches, temples, shrines and mosques draw me like a moth to a flame. And that was true in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia,…
Back in 2006, on our first overseas trip, My wife (Shirley) and I were joined by my sister and her husband as we stayed at a Worldmark resort on Denarau Island in Nadi, Fiji. We were already owners in the ‘time-share’ holiday company but my sister and her hubby were not – so they were invited to…
For many Australians, a flight to a holiday island destination in the Pacific means flying to Fiji – a flight of around five hours. But for North Americans, Fiji is 12 hours or more by plane … whereas Hawaii is only 5, and has the benefit that you don’t even need a passport. 6.45…
See that boat through the rock arch in today’s picture? That’s bobbing about in the Pacific Ocean. Whereas the boat in the foreground is in the Gulf of California – and the arch marks the end of the Baja Peninsula – or Lands End. The point where a sea, or gulf, meets an ocean…
The old saying goes “Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight, Red Sky at Morning, Sailor’s Warning” .. Apparently, it’s all to do with moisture (or dust) concentration in the lower atmosphere which blocks the shorter blue light-waves, but allows the longer red light-waves through. At sunset, red rays mean that there’s probably a high…
We recently went on a Mexican Riviera cruise (now, I know that sounds like I am showing off, but there is a point to my story, honestly!) Anyway, while chatting with other cruisers (almost all of whom were North Americans), I said that we had cruised to the South Pacific 4 times. One of them said how…
Cairns Communications 