Magnificent Mount Benson is one of the scenic wonders of Nanaimo, British Columbia, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Mount Benson is the city’s backdrop rising 1,019 meters above the Strait of Georgia. The mountain’s green forested slopes are favorites of hikers and wildlife, and there’s a sweeping view of the Coastal Mountain Range across the water from the rocky summit. Unfortunately, this paradise is threatened. Forestry companies want to harvest timber on the mountain, while development companies want to build luxury homes and resorts on the cleared lands. If the logging were to go ahead, the ugly clearcuts [View Full Entry]

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The Vancouver Island Conference Center in downtown Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, is an exciting new venue for meetings, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, receptions, and other events. Just complete, the Port of Nanaimo Centre opened on June 7, 2008, with 38,000 square feet available in a variety of modules, from the 13,697-square-foot ballroom to numerous smaller rooms accommodating groups of under a hundred. The ballroom forms the heart of the complex, with seating for 1,300 persons theatre style or 720 when set up as a classroom. As many as 1,400 people can attend receptions here, while 960 can be seated at banquets. The [View Full Entry]

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Over the years, Tahiti and Polynesia have provided novelists and moviemakers with colorful subject matter. Early travelers told of wanton women on tropical shores, and Fletcher Christian added drama to the plot by leading a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh. In 1934 American writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall brought out the Bounty Trilogy. This three-part novel deals with Christian's mutiny on the Bounty, the escape of Bligh and his loyal crew members to Dutch Timor, and the colonization of Pitcairn Island by Christian and his fellow mutineers. The novel was an instant bestseller, and director Frank Lloyd soon [View Full Entry]

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Ask me which Pacific island has the most to offer hikers and I'll probably answer Easter Island. Here on an island 11 km wide and 23 km long you'll find nearly a thousand ancient Polynesian statues strewn along a powerfully beautiful coastline or littering the slopes of an extinct volcano. The legends of Easter Island have been recounted many times. What's less known is that the island's assorted wonders are easily accessible on foot from the comfort of the only settlement, Hanga Roa. Before setting out see the sights, however, visit the excellent archaeological museum next to Ahu Tahai on the [View Full Entry]

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Boomtown Nanaimo, British Columbia, is currently one of the hottest housing markets in Canada. Baby boomers all across the country are casting their aging eyes west in their quest for a retirement haven, and the many advantages of Nanaimo, BC, are becoming known. First off, there's the mild climate moderated by warm Pacific currents arriving from Japan. Nanaimo only gets a couple of weeks of snow a year, quite a contrast to central and eastern Canada which can be snowed in from December to April. There's enough rain to keep the city's gardens and parks lush and green, but plenty of [View Full Entry]

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We've all heard about whalewatching from boats or shore, and a few companies are now offering the possibility of actually swimming and snorkeling with whales in the wild. Is this a good thing? Some whalewatching operators in the Kingdom of Tonga, South Pacific islands, advertise the possibility of swimming and snorkeling with humpback whales during the cetacean's annual migration from July to October. This activity sounds appealing, yet there are a number of things to consider. To drop clients off within snorkeling distance of a whale, the swim boats must come closer than the 30 meters laid down in Tongan government [View Full Entry]

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The islands of Samoa are emerging as an exciting new South Pacific travel destination between Hawaii and New Zealand. This "Heart of Polynesia" is politically split into two distinct entities 80 miles apart. The country Samoa is a former German colony, captured by New Zealand in 1914 and granted independence in 1962. In 1997 the name was changed from Western Samoa to Samoa. American Samoa is the only U.S. territory south of the equator. Annexed by the United States for use as a naval base in 1900, the territory no longer has any military significance. Instead, Pago Pago currently hosts the [View Full Entry]

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Avalon Travel Publishing announces the release of the 8th edition of Moon Fiji, the original travel guide to the 322-island Fiji archipelago. Since 1985, Moon Fiji has been the leading travel guidebook to Fiji. Author David Stanley began writing about the South Pacific in 1979, and over the years tens of thousands of Pacific travelers have used his guides to Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, Micronesia, and the South Pacific. In this 8th edition, the introductory material has been moved into Background and Essentials chapters at the back of the book. Background was updated with an account of the recent military coup [View Full Entry]

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Since the age of explorers Wallis, Bougainville, and Cook, legendary Tahiti has tickled imaginations worldwide. More recently, Tahiti became the most famous Polynesian island of all when Clark Gable (1935), Marlon Brando (1962), and Mel Gibson (1984) played the role of Fletcher Christian in three blockbuster Mutiny on the Bounty films. Even the horrendous French nuclear testing program from 1966-1996 did little to dampen this image. For the modern traveler, there’s no getting around the fact that French Polynesia is expensive. Bora Bora is easily the most upscale tourist destination in the South Pacific with 17 resorts charging over US$250 double [View Full Entry]

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