Rarotonga & Aitutaki, Cook Islands

June 7th, 2011 | By Lee | 4 Comments »

The Cook Islands, founded by Captain Cook of course, get lost in the South Pacific shuffle. You never hear too much about them because they are overshadowed by neighbors with more marketable sounding names like Tahiti and Fiji. The only things that I really knew about the Cook Islands before I got there were that my Grandparents went there in the 1980’s on a cruise and loved it; people launder money there; and the guy who tried to con everyone on my crappy Tokelau boat lives there too. That aside, the islands were sort of a mystery to me. But as always, upon closer inspection and some unreal scenery and great times, the Cooks are one of my favorite destinations and right there with Fiji for all around fun and beauty in the South Pacific.
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Norfolk Island

May 23rd, 2011 | By Lee | 3 Comments »

Norfolk Island is an interesting place. I don’t know exactly what to write about it because it is kind of baffling to me. I had always heard that it was essentially a vacation place for old people, mainly Aussies and Kiwis, who could catch direct flights and enjoy a low key beach vacation while still keeping the country feel. I have to say that’s pretty accurate. On my flight to Norfolk Island, I was easily the youngest person on the plane and I’d say the next youngest was about 65-no joke. My plane home had some grandchildren to mix it up a bit but 90% were still retirees. That aside, on the island there are some young people, the natives, if you will. It seems like a very incestuous island as you might imagine and hanging out at the local watering hole, I met many of them who were fascinated by me and why I was there. However, it was them who fascinated me.

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Lord Howe Island

May 23rd, 2011 | By Lee | 2 Comments »

Lord Howe Island (LHI) is simply put, a paradise. I had heard for years how wonderful a place it was and I was always a little skeptical because I usually don’t trust people’s opinions; I like to find out for myself, so that’s exactly what I did. Flying non-stop from Sydney on Qantaslink for the bargain basement price of $900 (that’s a joke, but it really does cost that much to fly round trip to LHI), you arrive into a veritable paradise. LHI has redefined the word paradise for me in two days and has shown me what the actual definition of an island paradise is.
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My Thoughts on the South Pacific

July 13th, 2010 | By Lee | 6 Comments »

After seven weeks on the road and at sea, I am finally back home in New York and enjoying the conveniences that come with being back in the States. Although the heat and humidity in New York City make me think I may be back in the Pacific sometimes! Seven weeks, 17 countries and 30ish flights later I have had some time to reflect on my time and experiences and I wanted to share a few with my readers.
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Where The Streets Have No Name

June 30th, 2010 | By Lee | 9 Comments »

‘Wallis and Futuna. Where? Wallis and Futuna. Never heard of it.’ This is a pretty good characterization of some of the conversations that I have had about Wallis and Futuna recently as nobody has ever heard of it. I must say, there’s no real reason to have heard of it unless you are fascinated by French overseas territories or you are a Travelers Century Club member. The two islands are linked together through French colonization only but trace their roots back to Tonga and Samoa. I visited the island of Wallis and found out it was a land of extremes. Extreme heat, extreme rain, extreme humidity, extreme amounts of dead pigs and extremely large money. And oh yeah, the streets have no names. In fact, there are no signs period. But that’s part of the fun.
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Fiji and Vanuatu

June 26th, 2010 | By Lee | 1 Comment »

The South Pacific is a wonderful place filled with beautiful islands and friendly people although getting around can be tough. For me, the best place is Fiji. The name Fiji alone sounds tropical and almost made up. The islands are beautiful and the country is easy to manage. Some might say it is too touristy and built up but you know what-if a lot of tourists go someplace it’s probably pretty good! Besides we’re not talking Cancun here in terms of numbers of tourists, we’re simply talking more than say…Tuvalu! Make of it what you like but there’s no debating that Fiji is pretty awesome. It’s easy; it has something for everyone, good restaurants, great scenery and the best sunsets I have ever seen. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it and learn the word “Bula” because you’ll be saying it a lot.
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The Most Boring Country on Earth

June 25th, 2010 | By Lee | 5 Comments »

I cannot believe that Tuvalu is a real United Nations member country. Technically, they have the same voting power as Germany or another large nation and that blows me away. It is technically the second smallest population wise country (less Vatican City) in the world behind nearby Nauru but with Tuvalu being split up over three atolls, it feels like the smallest. Fongafale, the main island, has about 4000 extremely nice people on it but they all pretty much do nothing all day and give new meaning to the word lazy. They sleep a lot; both on hammocks all over the road, on the ground or on the airstrip because that’s where they can get the crosswinds in the oppressive heat. It’s really amazing to watch. In fact, I will go ahead and call Tuvalu the single most boring place in the world. There is really nothing to do-at least anything that could sustain you for more than an hour or so. With that assessment, I will state for the record that I will never return to Tuvalu but I am mostly glad I came; mainly because they asked if I was carrying animal semen! see photo below row v…
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Guadalcanal

June 20th, 2010 | By Lee | 4 Comments »

The Solomon Islands don’t get a ton of tourists and quite frankly, there isn’t much to do. However, I guess that’s part of the charm as I’ve been quite content here the past few days just relaxing and taking in the culture and people on Guadalcanal Island, which is the home of the capital Honiara, some cool World War II relics and the main airport, Henderson Field. If any of the names I’ve just thrown out there sound familiar it’s because Guadalcanal is one of the most famous and the first Allied victory against the Japanese in World War II. Also, Henderson Field is the same guy who the airfield on Midway Island is named for as he was the first pilot shot down during that battle.
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The Tokelau Expedition

June 15th, 2010 | By Lee | 30 Comments »

I’m not sure where to begin here as the last five days have been exceptionally trying from a traveler perspective and a lot has happened; but in fact very little has happened. Let me try to clarify what that means and talk about my disorganized, botched, delayed, misled, trying, grueling, shocking and ultimately exhausting and relatively unfulfilling expedition to Tokelau.
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It Takes Two To Tonga

June 8th, 2010 | By Lee | 9 Comments »

Tonga is one of those places you’ve always heard about because it has a cool name and sounds really exotic. It seems so far (and it is) and you know they have some big Polynesian looking dudes that play Rugby and some even play in the NFL. You know it’s near Samoa and some of those other “ones” down in the Pacific somewhere but you really don’t know anything about it. Sound familiar? You may recall it was the first place to ring in the new Millenium as it’s essentially on the date line. Well I have to say that after two days on Tonga I can say, not much goes on here and this place is as laid back as anywhere I’ve been. There isn’t much to do but for what there is to do, I like the Tongan attitude and slogan…”Do it the Tongan way…Tomorrow”.
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