Showing titles in Australia & Oceania

Australia es mucho más que un enorme país. Y mucho más que la isla más grande del mundo. Es un universo aparte. Árida, con una climatología extrema y una fauna atípica (y en muchos casos muy peligrosa), Australia también tiene gentes hospitalarias, ciudades muy modernas y otros muchos secretos por descubrir. ¿Cómo no enamorarse de un lugar fascinante que no se parece a ningún otro?

A mid-career American Emergency Doc goes off the deep end and relocates with his bewildered wife and five school-aged kids from Upstate New York to exotic Australia. Chaos, hilarity and wild Oz adventures ensue. Briskly paced; informative, insightful and entertaining in equal measure, "Doc Down Under" covers a wide array of timely topics including Australian/ New Zealand family adventure travel and natural history; contemporary Aussie lifestyle and culture, as well as US/ Australian comparative healthcare systems. Doc's philosophical musings focus on the realities of expat family life; the ...

After half a century of travel, from Ethiopia to Tibet, from Belfast to Jerusalem, Pico Iyer asks himself what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict. In a spectacular journey, both inward and outward, Iyer roams from crowded mosques in Iran to a film studio in North Korea, from a holy mountain in Japan to the sometimes spooky emptiness of the Australian outback.

Tim Flannery is one of the world's most influential scientists, credited with discovering more species than Darwin. In Among the Islands, Flannery recounts a series of expeditions he made at the dawn of his career to the strange tropical islands of the South Pacific, a great arc stretching nearly 4,000 miles from the postcard perfection of Polynesia to some of the largest, highest, most ancient, and most rugged islands on Earth.

Greater Than a Tourist - Brisbane Queensland Australia, by Claire Heath, offers the inside scoop on Queensland’s capital city, which basks in a year-round great climate.

Paradise is Larry McMurtry's most original and personal work to date. From the harsh violent landscape of west Texas to the lush sensuality and easy living of Tahiti, McMurtry answers some of the questions of what paradise is, whether it exists, and how different it is from life in his hometown.

Lovers of fine travel and adventure relish Scott Smith’s rich tale as a Peace Corps volunteer. Smith’s keen observations never sag in human interest as he confronts living on the edge of Pacific island paradise. It is a must listen for island lovers and anyone considering a journey to change the world or themselves.

The Cook Islands, named after the British Captain who seems to have been everywhere in the Pacific, are scattered like tiny jewels over a large stretch of sea between Tahiti and Samoa. Rarotonga, the principal island, is 2,500 miles due south of Honolulu - as far south of the equator as Honolulu is north of it - a similarity that provides both places with ideal climates. But that's as far as the similarity goes, for in spite of their recently built international airport, the Cooks remain off the beaten path.

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.

This charming account of the voyage of two men in a small boat half way round the world from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 is a rare insight into a time, not long ago, when sailors had no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons that we take for granted today. Without lifejacket or a life raft, they 'just took what came along', hand steering all the way, navigating by sextant, hand-cranking their engine and using oil lamps for light at night and for navigation. Sailors will be staggered how primitive conditions were only a few decades ago, even though it was the norm at the time.

In New Guinea pidgin, "throwim way leg" means to kick out your leg on the first step of a long journey. Full of adventure, wit, and natural wonders, Flannery's narrative is just such a spectacular trip - a tour de force of travel, anthropology, and natural history.

Take a self-guided audio walk from Sydney's Circular Quay -- the spot where European Australia had its beginnings. The walk takes in the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and winds its way along Sydney Harbour into the Royal Botanic Gardens. It finishes at Mrs Macquarie's Chair, with views of Fort Denison, Garden Island and down harbour. As you enjoy spectacular views and iconic landmarks, you'll enjoy a breezy commentary on 200 years of Australian history.

Ten years after returning from the New Zealand outback, Jon receives a mysterious manuscript in the post. Narrated by Jon's former home, the lone caravan (RV), Squashed Possums reveals what it's like to live in the wild through four seasons, including New Zealand's coldest winter in decades. Discover how Jon finds himself reversing off the edge of a cliff, meet the Maori chef who survived 9/11, the pioneers who paved the way, and catch sight of the elusive kiwi bird. Encounter hedgehogs that fly, possums that scream, and perhaps most importantly, the lone RV with a story to tell....

The pull of the ocean was too strong to ignore any longer. Four years prior, they'd circumnavigated the globe on their 33-foot boat, Mariah. Now they wanted a new challenge. So they sold all their belongings and flew to America from New South Wales in search of a boat. Then Jackie and Noel set sail south, meeting descendants of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn, taking in the grand statues of Easter Island, and finally visiting the remotest inhabited island in the world.

The photographs stop you in your tracks. Five children and their grandmother sheltering under an old wooden jetty as the air around them burns a fierce orange. Seen around the world, these were the images from the heart of the inferno that showed the Tasmanian township of Dunalley fighting for survival. On the morning of 4 January 2013, the people of Dunalley had watched with caution as a bush fire burned slowly on top of the hill. It was not an unusual occurrence - fires are a part of Australian life - and Dunalley had never been troubled before.

Nature is excessive, lovely, and ominous in the Solomons and the Melanesians who live there, often blond or redheaded, are the blackest of all people. Before World War II such names as Guadalcanal, Savo, Munda were rarely heard. Guadalcanal, over 100 miles long by 30 miles wide, is the largest island. Then in descending order there's Malaita, San Cristobal, Choiseul, New Georgia, and Santa Ysabel. All of them are mountainous, covered with rain forest, and laced with rivers.

Learn about Australia in this amusing and entertaining children’s book, which will appeal to adults too. You will laugh and you will gasp, and then you will want to explore Australia and see its amazing animals and places for yourself.

Julia is granted a working holiday visa and heads to Australia. Never one to do things quietly, she tours the country via a jumble of hostels, road trips, and randomness, indulging in more than her fair share of debauchery along the way. She attempts and fails to learn to surf, attends her very first festival, and explores the open-minded village of Nimbin.

Patrick, Meg and their family had built a happy, sustainable life in regional Victoria. But in late 2013, they found themselves craving an adventure: a road trip. But theirs was a road trip with a difference. With Zephyr (10), Woody (1) and Zero, their Jack Russell, they set off on an epic 6,000km yearlong cycling journey along Australia’s east coast, from Daylesford to Cape York and back.

Was ist das für ein Land, in dem sich fliegende Füchse tummeln und Schweinefußnasenbeutler einst ihr Unwesen trieben? In seinem ebenso amüsanten wie informativen Streifzug durch ein unbekanntes Australien erzählt Bill Bryson von den historischen Hintergründen der Entdeckung dieses faszinierenden Kontinents...