1 comments about Insight Guide Australia (Insight Guides Australia).

1. Although I own and sell this book*, I've only browsed it quickly, but since there were no reviews up thought I'd at least tell you this much: this is a beautiful book, chock full of really great photos and the info seems totally up to date. I got a bunch by accident and thus can offer such a great deal.
   Enjoy mate!
   *(see "More Buying Choices" i.e. the used/new section from nonAmazon sellers for "such a deal"--truly perfect condition for less)

5 comments about Waltzing Australia.

1. I felt like I was along as Cynthia covers 20,000 miles of this fascinating continent. "We" visited deserts, rainforests, mountains, and parks. Small towns and cities alike unfolded before me as I was treated to discovery by someone who doesn't just look, but "sees." Unlike travelogues that just list the same old things over and over, I felt like I was actually visiting this bewitching place. (I'm pretty sure I got a tan just reading about hikes through the desert and dips in wilderness pools!)Waltzing Australia is a sparkling example of a writer who can use words to take you along on a wondrous adventure.



2. What a lovely book: a smart combination of memoir and a fresh view on the usual travel story. No one could write this well about travels in Australia without a true love for the country, its people, and its remarkable landscape. Cynthia Clampitt surprises us with a writing talent and story-telling technique that is tough to master, yet she is consistently compelling to read. She puts her full energy into explaining culture, history, anthropology, animal life, and the rigors of being a woman on a long solo journey. Honestly, I'm only 147 pages into this big book, but could not wait to share my enthusiasm for Waltzing Australia.
   
   Helen Gallagher, author: Release Your Writing: Book Publishing, Your Way



3. This is such a wonderful and compelling book! As a nature photographer, I have a sense of adventure and a love of the outdoors that is shared by Cynthia and expertly conveyed to the reader along the way. I was amazed at her journey and felt I was right there with her. I found myself reading slower during the last few chapters of the book as I didn't want the journey to end. This book really brings to life the wonders of Australia and I admire Cynthia's adventurous spirit and joy in discovering all that nature has to offer.



4. This is a compelling tale of adventure and dreaming. Cynthia takes us on a journey and climbs her 'Everest'. Many Australians make similar journeys to Cynthia- it is still a challenging country to travel through. Yet as we share her travels something becomes clear; there is one thing that most of us cannot do.... and that is to write about our adventures and dreams in such an engrossing way. This is what marks this travel book apart from other similar tales; it is a piece of literature. As an Australian I could almost smell the scent of eucalyptus leaves coming out of the page. (This is the highest praise an Australian can offer!)



5. I have been to Australia three times, from East to West. At least I thought I had been to Australia until reading Cynthia Clampitt's Waltzing Australia.
   
   Waltzing Australia is Cynthia Clampitt's record of a long trip she took to the world's largest island, the driest continent - the only nation that is a continent. Through her record we share this trip. This book is not your normal travel story...
   
   First of all Cynthia didn't go to Australia for vacation. She didn't go for altruistic reasons, to help the locals. And she damned sure didn't go for business opportunities.
   
   She had an obsession.
   
   Cynthia quit her job and off she was for five months in Australia. Starting out in Queensland she headed in a westerly direction then looped back around and headed East until she got to Sydney. And she soaked up everything. Nature. History. Geology. People.
   
   Waltzing Australia is a well written account of this trip, written almost as if it were a lengthy personal journal (just over 500 pages). But I say "almost as if" this were a journal because Cynthia didn't just keep track of her experiences - she kept track of the essence of this large, dry continent.
   
   When reading Waltzing Australia I got the distinct feeling that Cynthia Clampitt and I have lots in common. Well, then again, maybe not. I have traveled the world but have done it in a much different way. Cynthia started with Australia out of college. I started with the Navy after high school. Cynthia moved back into "normal life" in the United States. After a few decades, I, on the other hand, am still overseas. Cynthia chose a location to know well and chose to live frugally. I chose to build my businesses around an area so that coming and going were up to me. But we have that wanderlust in common. In reading her opening chapters I understood this obsession of Clampitt's. I had the same obsession growing up in rural Arkansas, wanting for the life of a world traveler. And of all the enchanting places that I have been, whether I lived there or only visited, I share the sentiment of the bittersweet description Cynthia Clampitt gave of leaving Australia.
   
   It will always still be there...

4 comments about The Solitude of the Open Sea.

1. In the nineteen-nineties, approaching the age of forty, Gregory Newell Smith gave up his career as a Seattle corporate lawyer, sold most everything he owned, bought an ocean-going sailboat, and set out to see the world. After logging more than 45,000 blue water miles, and circling the globe aboard his Fast Passage 39, Atlantean, Smith returned to the Northwest to write a book about his travels. It's a dream many of us have had, and few have followed through on.
   
   "I wanted to write about what it was really like to be out there," Smith said when I spoke to him recently about his newly published book The Solitude of the Open Sea. "Extended travel is a life changing event, but it didn't make sense to tell readers everything I did in the three and half years I was underway." Smith's solution was to craft a collection of seventeen stories from his journeys, each of them drawing upon a particular experience in order to address the themes of his book, which he describes as "broadening our horizons beyond the known and commonplace, freeing ourselves from cultural self-centeredness, and achieving self-discovery through perseverance, hardship, and solitude."
   
   Smith begins with the title essay, an account of his fifty-three day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii. Though Smith rarely traveled alone-he used pick-up crew for nearly all of his ocean passages, and the Hawaii passage actually takes place near the end of his journey-it's a good place for the reader to start, because Smith's perspective throughout the book is very much that of the lone traveler confronting a "world of strange customs . . . and people who don't look like us or speak our language." Almost all of Smith's stories address his experiences ashore (only three of them are set exclusively at sea), and they do not appear in chronological order, which may frustrate those readers looking for the typical "went there and did this" account. For this reason, I would say The Solitude of the Open Sea is more a collection of travel narratives than sailing stories, though I imagine it will be the armchair sailors who will be initially drawn to the title.
   
   Smith is a careful observer, and his descriptions of the traveling life ring true. There are highs and lows, ranging from the idyllic joys of exploring the "jeweled anchorages" of Tonga's Vava'u Group, to the depressing realities of Madagascar's descent into poverty and environmental devastation. But Smith rarely gives way to the easy cynicism of some travel writers who call our attention to the fact that the South Seas are hardly the paradise many of us would like to believe. He points out that exploring the world by sailboat gives the cruiser a unique advantage-the boat is home, a refuge for those times when life on foreign shores becomes too much to face on a daily basis.
   
   It's Smith's voice that impressed me from the outset and kept me reading. I never forgot that the author was a real person, willing to admit when he was terrified (climbing the mast to replace a broken halyard in the midst of a five-day gale) or lonely (overcome by nostalgic memories during night watch on the Indian Ocean). I appreciate that kind of honesty in a writer, but I was most surprised by Smith's lyrical prose, such as when he refers to Joseph Campbell's "rapture of life" upon hearing a lone bagpiper's sunset skirl on New Zealand's Great Barrier Island. Clearly this man cares about what's happening around him, and is unafraid to listen to his soul.
   
   One of the back cover reviews says, "This book will make the reader want to get out there and do it." I agree, but at age seventy, and with a "busted gut" (a hernia, in the parlance of the tars that inhabit the mess deck in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series), my most ambitious sailing days are probably behind me. At least with books like The Solitude of the Open Sea, readers like me can be there in our imaginations, as Smith puts it, "spending this precious gift we call life finding out how much the world has to offer, over the horizon and not so very far away."



2. Gregory Newell Smith's The Solitude of the Open Sea, a collection of narrative essays drawn from Smith's around-the- world sailing adventures, is much more than a sailing book: it is an insightful reflection on cross-cultural misunderstandings and the problems of cultural isolation; an album of portraits of fascinating people (his account of a young English woman, "Florence," was my favorite); and, most of all, the book is a philosophical examination of solitude and how being alone on his journey shaped his experiences.
   The title essay, which tells of Smith's 53-day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii, explains how a full appreciation of solitude goes beyond merely being alone, away from other people. On the contrary, it is through solitude that Smith is able to experience communion with nature and all of its power, a sublimity that, for Smith, is inspired by the breadth and majesty of the open sea. The experience of the sublime is a distinctive aesthetic that overwhelms the observer in a way that ordinary perception cannot.
   The sense of what Smith calls "wonder and awe" is difficult to apprehend outside of nature, though it is perhaps approached in some Chinese and Western landscape paintings. As Smith writes, "It took the sea's total freedom and the solitude I found there to finally achieve the communion I'd sought for so many years. When I found that communion, . . . it was a communion with Nature, with the universe beheld each day, with the wind, the waves, the sky, and the creatures of the sea. . . . For a brief time I was at peace. There was nothing I truly desired, no other person I needed to make me feel whole. My world was complete."
   What Smith experienced on the open sea was nature mysticism, which differs from traditional mysticism in at least two ways. First, nature mystics are extroverted, by which I mean that all their senses, including the kinesthetic, are stimulated. By contrast, other mystics turn inward and deliberately shut down their senses. Second, traditional mystics, rather than merging with nature, experience a fusion with God or the universal soul (atman) of the Hindus.
   Both types of mysticism, however, do draw a person into the Eternal Now. Smith writes, "I can think of no more immediate experience than sailing by oneself. . . . we feel bored or lonely when we are no longer living in the present moment. We want a change of circumstances, to be somewhere else or doing something else. We separate ourselves from our immediate reality by positing an alternate. We react rather than respond." The mystics and the sea teach us the same lesson: "The key is acceptance: eventually the sea will get you to admit that one of the few things you can change in life is your attitude. A successful ocean passage is therefore nothing short of the union of the boat and its crew with the natural environment, and exemplifies the difference between reacting and responding."
   By the end of the book, however, Smith has learned that he really needs soul fusion and not just nature mysticism. "I know I should be savoring each and every moment of this wonderful sailing-around-the-world life, but my willingness to experience wonder and awe has been drained by the absence of a soul mate with whom to share it." This confession appears at odds with his claim that the open sea is a cure for loneliness and boredom, but now, although he has "increased [his] capacity for solitude," he admits that he is lonely.
   Smith fears that his profound experiences of the sublime have made him less than fit for ordinary human fellowship. Nature accepts us unconditionally and she is fair and faithful, "treating us with he same care and respect she affords all." But most human beings want more than this-they are after all social animals-and each of us desires a special someone in a unique relationship of love and trust.
   Smith is able to admit that his life is not complete, and that he really does need another person to make him whole. He acknowledges that he has been "nursing [a] resentment about having no partner, no soul mate, no special person with whom to share the journey." Furthermore, he has discovered that other lands, such as New Zealand, even though very much like his own Pacific Northwest, could not really be his home. "I'll leave those places to their own natives, to those people who, as Terry Tempest Williams writes, naturally comprehend their landscapes and hold them as sanctuary inside their unguarded hearts."
   In addition to insightful ruminations on solitude, the author also reflects on the difficulties of cross-cultural understanding. The reader gets the impression that Smith initially assumed that Euro-American "cruisers"-those who sail leisurely from island to island, continent to continent-would be ideal emissaries for international understanding. The actual experience, however, was far from what he expected.
   Though he is not as cynical as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ("One culture misunderstands another; and a petty culture misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way") he still comes to some rather negative conclusions: "There is little meaningful interaction between the cultures, as if both sides recognize the impossibility of either being able to fathom the other. Notions of universal brotherhood are pragmatically reduced to simple acceptance, without any real understanding of each other's lives."
   He expresses his frustration at his failure to make further inroads into the native environment, but recognizes that his frustration is equally a measure of his own society's values and their hold on him. Nor does Smith believe that we westerners can hope to "go native;" no matter how much we may try, they will always remain at a distance from the culture we would embrace, forever identified by the locals as the outsider, the "Other."
   The Solitude of the Open Sea is a marvelous book, both philosophically astute and a constant pleasure to read. Through a series of carefully chosen snapshots, Gregory Newell Smith has ably recreated the daily realities of extended travel and the insights it provides, ranging from the depths of despair, to the humdrum quotidian rituals, to the dizzying heights of rapture. The book is also a portrait of a caring, deeply introspective man-a nature mystic if you will-searching for peace with himself and with the world.



3. Most sailing books are the I got here using this sail with the wind from the south, etc. variety. This is quite different. It is a single, male in self imposed exile on a sailboat. Interacting with the local cultures to some degree, but never a part of it, and thus an observer. A sharp, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes sad observer. Most are stories and observations at his various longer stops along the way.
   
   True to what any of us might experience going solo, with assorted crew, around the world. A couple would have had a different experience, and perhaps fit in better, but would not notice what he does.
   Highly recommended.



4. I recommend that you pass on this book. I purchased it based on an advertisement and the current Amazon recommendations, but I found the author to be myopic and condescending. In one chapter, he describes some short stature tourists as "munchkins." In another, he discusses his thought process on turning back to New Zealand during a gale, and decides against it because his crew might flee and he would have difficulty finding new crew. Obviously, the primary concern should be protection of crew and not the convenience of the captain. He seems obsessed with money and the cost of items to the point of being miserly. For example, when a crew member with whom he has been romantically involved takes her leave, he makes a point of explaining how he offered to buy from her a pair of swim fins to give her some road money. He continually discusses his purchase of food from street vendors and its low cost - while commenting on the unsanitary manner in which it is served. Most of the travel discussions are little more than tourist bus rides. Frankly, I found the author's egocentric point of view distracting to the point of being offensive. Pass.

No comments about Oceania: The Geography of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

No comments about Australia Travel Pack (Globetrotter Travel Packs).

1 comments about Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia.

1. This is another book everybody ought to have in their library. Why?
   
   (1) The Polynesian double-canoe was the great voyaging craft of the human race. Not that other boats were not great too, but these people had so little -- little land, only a few precious trees, no metals, no compass -- and yet in a remarkably short period of time they populated a territory of Earth that would astound you. With a stellar navigation system stored in their brains (not on charts or in complicated sextants or chronometers) they found their way across a vast ocean. The double-canoe was the least boat (the least amount of materials, the least environmental impact for a given need for reliable sailcraft) that could be made to do the most work in the harshest of conditions -- just for those reasons the boats and their crews deserve recognition.
   
   (2) The book chronicles the several voyages of a reconstructed canoe in order to hypothesize about the ways in which the ancient crews used information about seasonal variations in winds and currents to make destinations that, during some parts of the year, would not have been accessible given the heading angles these boats could sail (about as good as a well-designed European square-rigger, though other Polynsesian outrigger canoes -- proas -- gradually developed after the great voyaging period and would eventually sail closer to the wind and astound the early European explorers with their sailing qualities). These voyages were adventures of thinking, training, and sailing a boat of unknown qualities and using a native type of non-instrument navigation -- those adventures are now a testament to the accomplishments of the native people of Oceania. (In a goofy kind of way, you can also remember such accomplishments when you are feeling a bit down on the human race).
   
   I hope those are good enough reasons to buy this book. There are others, but I'm tired, and I want you to write a review about the ones I have not covered.
   
   Flaws? Who has none? The author rightly desires to document the accomplishments of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, but some cultural/racial tensions arose during this long experiment, which is understandable given the state of things in territories whose historical development was altered by colonization and colonial administration. It was no doubt a difficult thing that some of the first impetus and funding for the adventure came from the 'White'-American "establishment" so to speak. But it would be fair to learn more about the total story of this cultural revival project, both the accomplishments and the tensions. [Note 1/8/08: Finney's later book, "Sailing in the Wake of the Ancestors," which I just received, addresses this issue] --wt

No comments about Pacific Ocean Map by Hema (Hema Maps International).

5 comments about First Light: A Magical Journey.

1. I bought this book when I was visiting New Zealand in 1988 where people kept recommending it, and I am just now rereading it for something like the fifth time--including one time with a discussion group. This time through I am finding new delights that I must have skimmed over before. Parts of the book are naively New-Agey, but even those parts are personal and honest and fun to read. It is the story of a woman whose job takes her into the middle of an enormous cultural shift, and she manages to stay in the middle--between the world views of American bureaucracy and a traditional people's values, and somehow to walk that precarious boundary and to be receptive to the ways it changes her. It's an amazing story.



2. My mother mailed me this book from America to New Zealand because I have recently arrived in NZ and I will be living in New Zealand for the next year. I find Carol O'Bistro's insights about New Zealand culture relevent and insightful for a current long-term visitor. Her writing is lyrical and fun to read. I wonder what she is doing now.



3. Thought provoking, moving and fun. The story is told in a masterful way that made me laugh, cry and sit-up thinking about it for a week after I read it. The author takes you along on her own personal journey and as her New York City eyes and heart transform into something miraculous so does the readers'. It touches the heart and reminds us of our humanity in the most magnificent way. Read it slowly; you won't want it to end!



4. Perhaps the best book ever to explain why New Zealand is not the USA with minor differences. There are considerable cultural and societal differences which may escape the visitor unless and until they experience New Zealand on a deep level. Some find the mysterious aspects of her experience of the Maori culture to be doubtful or merely coincidence. Those born in New Zealand will understand them and will not be surprised.



5. On September 10, 1984, at first light, New York's Fifth Avenue was the scene of an unusual ceremony. On the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art a group of Maori women wailed the ritual welcome: HAERE MAI !! Their calls were answered and taken up by a group of Maori elders down the avenue, their leader in a feathered cloak, their path cleared of evil spirits by a small band of tattooed warriors ferociously thrusting their spears.
   
   It was opening day of a groundbreaking exhibition at the Met: Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections. The elders were in New York to lift the tapu and open the exhibition. Their greeting was for their ancestors, spiritually residing in the 174 taonga (treasures) on display outside New Zealand for the first time. Nine years in the planning, Te Maori was the culmination of a massive exercise in politics and logistics.
   
   Carol O'Biso was the registrar of the exhibition, responsible for the packing and safe passage of these treasures collected from a number of New Zealand museums. First Light: A Magical Journey is her lyrical story of this great adventure.
   
   The "cultural artifacts" are believed by the Maori to be sacred and powerful. Carol, overwhelmed at first by the vast divide between her New York self and the ancient Maori beliefs, struggled to do her job in the midst of controversy over the exhibition. She was excluded by Maori custom from speaking at the many ritual gatherings in museums and meeting houses. Frustration was her constant companion, in those early days. Gradually the power of the collection became entirely real to her and she found herself honoring the treasures in ways she would not have found possible.
   
   Carol spent several years packing, shipping and unpacking the irreplaceable treasures and was under their spell when she returned them to New Zealand in 1986. She handed them over, in yet another ceremony that left her in tears, to a New Zealand registrar for their awe-inspiring progress through New Zealand museums.
   
   Carol's story is a very personal one and some of her early impressions of New Zealand were less than favorable. However the country's charm and especially the strength of the Maoris' respect for their culture led her to a deep appreciation of The Land of the Long White Cloud.
   
   I had the privilege of seeing Te Maori in New Zealand, and First Light brought back vivid memories of its power. I read the book in the early 1990s and then gave it away (read it! you'll love it!), and when I found a copy on Amazon this month I was delighted to be reacquainted with it.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008

No comments about In Tasmania.

No comments about 2008 Country Profile and Guide to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)- National Travel Guidebook and Handbook - Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap, Earthquakes, Typhoons (Two CD-ROM Set).