Locums for a Small World Blog

Ningaloo is the home of giants. These nutrient-rich, radiant blue waters off the coast of Western Australia play host to the world's largest fish — whale sharks — who return each year to gorge on plankton (and swim with humans). Pods of orcas here stalk humpback whales as they pass. Black marlin cruise the currents. Tiger sharks roam the deep. And that’s just the tip of the coral. Last June, the World Heritage Committee inscribed Australia’s Ningaloo Coast as an official World Heritage Site and it’s absolutely deserving of a spot on your bucket list. 

Lonely Planet's annual travel list of top cities to visit is backed by globe-trotting researchers and fierce debate.
Some picks have been known to raise a few eyebrows. When Wellington made the 2011 list, though, we weren't
a bit surprised—Wellington is Cool with a capital "C".

The Māori word for this place is turangawaewae, which means place where I stand, and its majestic, near-perfect peak gazes down at you wherever you go. The geographic and spiritual heart of this slice of heaven is the eponymous (and dormant) volcano. Can you name it? 

We're talking about Mount Taranaki, of course, and our last trip here was so incredible, we’re making a return visit. The Kiwis of Taranaki are incredibly proud of their homeland and love living in the lush region. It's a place that boasts a mild climate, plenty of sunshine and abundant rainfall—making it luxuriously green. The surf’s up here, too. Outdoor adventurists from all over the world head to Taranaki to ski or board, then ride the classic waves along Surf Highway 45. As a matter of fact, Taranaki is one of the few places on earth where you can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon.

Tasmania. Mountain bikers have kept quiet about the outstanding trails here, but on an island crawling with outdoor adventurers a secret like this is tough to keep quiet.

The characteristic dolerite columns so prized by rock-climbers and rapellers (abseilers) are especially dramatic here. Wildflowers abound in summer, and despite the stony plateaus there are also dense forests and moorlands that make most of us think of, say, Scotland. Mention Tasmania and most people think of skiing. Yet Ben Lomond National Park, which encompasses the Mountain Range of the same name, offers a challenge for anyone who loves pedal power. It’s called Jacob’s Ladder.

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the boab tree. With its bulbous trunk and spider web-like branches, boab trees are a dark an otherworldly sight. Also called bottle trees, Aussies simply refer to them as “boabs” and you’ll see a lot of these gnarled beasts Down Under.

Those Aussies are an ingenious bunch. Thousands of years ago, they came up with the didjeridu and the boomerang. Then there's prepaid postage and the military tank. They also gave birth to the plastic spectacle lens, the pop-top can, and the electronic pacemaker. In fact, Australians are the single source of many notable world firsts, including the inflatable aircraft escape slide, the dual flush toilet and - one of our favorites - the refrigerator. You may be using an Aussie invention right now.


1. WiFi anyone? In 1992, an Australian named John O'Sullivan was trying to detect the radio pulse of exploding mini black holes when he and his colleagues discovered WiFi technology and realized its potential. Like the estimated 1 billion devices worldwide?

2. Then there are the two audacious Australian brothers named Lars and Jens Rasmussen. In 2004, they were jobless and had $16 between them. They also had a "sophomore product" which they said, quite audaciously, would "kill e-mail and forever change online communication."  So they flew from Sydney to Silicon Valley and managed to sell their web application to a little company called Google. The Rasmussen boys found a home for "Wave" with Google Maps - and a cushy job.

3. Listen up: A bionic ear does exist and it has nothing to do with the Six Million Dollar Man's girlfriend, though it has a lot to do with an Australian named Graeme Clark. As a young boy, Clark's father lost his hearing, and it inspired a lifelong mission to help deaf people, culminating in the Cochlear implant or "bionic ear." The electronic device is implanted into the head to stimulate the auditory nerve and provides a sense of sound even for the profoundly deaf. The first surgery - in 1978 - was a success, and today nearly 200,000 people benefit from the bionic ear.

4. Now here's something Qantas Airways can appreciate: When Dr. David Warren, a scientist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratory, was asked to investigate the mysterious crash of the world's first jet-powered aircraft in 1953, he argued that a cockpit voice recorder would be a useful way to solve otherwise unexplainable aircraft accidents. Hmmm, let's see: a durable box designed to record and replay flight data and audio from the final moments before a plane crash, revealing what went wrong. Warren was the only one who thought the idea had merit, so he went ahead and built one. It took several years and an airliner crash in 1960 to get noticed, but then Australia became the first country to make the ruling that all airlines must carry flight recorders. Imagine a world without a "black box" - which, by the way, is never, ever black.