Journey with giants

Christmas Island is also home to the world’s rarest booby and frigatebird, the Abbott’s Booby and the Christmas Island Frigatebird. The Cocos Buff-banded Rail is only found on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Coconut-lined castaway beaches, rugged coastlines, dense tropical jungles, serene waterfalls and wildlife largely unafraid of humans, provide photographers dream vistas and subjects at every turn.

In addition to terrestrial experiences, Christmas Island boasts over 60 dive sites and some of the biggest drop-offs in the world, with visibility regularly up to 50 metres providing a lens to an underwater world of marine mammals, 650 species of tropical fish, manta rays and 88 species of coral.

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands provide world-renowned diving and snorkelling, with the Cocos Lagoon home to an estimated 15,000 green turtles and 15,000 hawksbill turtles (listed as critically endangered worldwide).

In conjunction with Christmas Island National Park, Indian Ocean Experiences offers a hands-on Citizen Science program in February & July, contributing to the conservation of Christmas Island’s endemic Blue-tailed Skink and Lister’s Gecko, along with beach clean-ups, tree planting and other rainforest rehabilitation activities.

Pacific Whale Foundation Eco-Adventures Australia offers whale watching tours from Hervey Bay’s Great Sandy Straits Marina. Based on over 35 years of local Humpback Whale research and more than four decades of global marine animal research and ocean conservation, the eco-cruises are led by dedicated experts in the field.

Part of the Great Sandy Marine Park, the waters of Hervey Bay come alive with Humpback Whales between July and October. The region lays claim to some of the most active and inquisitive whales found anywhere across the globe, with breaches, whale songs and muggings common practice. Hervey Bay is a critical resting ground for whales, with breeding pairs migrating ahead of mothers and calves, all part of the annual migration to and from the Southern Ocean.

Pacific Whale Foundation Eco-Adventures Australia offers the opportunity to observe these majestic creatures up close and personal via the ‘Ultimate Whale Watch’ experience.

Take a three-hour cruise on the custom-built Ocean Defender, a low profile rigid inflatable boat with a  capacity of 40 passengers that ensures all guests benefit from unobstructed 360-degree views. Led by expert marine biologists, guests learn the latest whale facts and findings with the opportunity to hear the ethereal songs of these majestic mammals using underwater hydrophones.

As the only operator in the region to have been researching Humpbacks Whales for over three decades, Pacific Whale Foundation scientists are responsible for the South Pacific’s longest-running photo-identification project and the largest curated database of Humpback Whales in Eastern Australia, having detailed the life histories of over 6,000 individual Humpback Whales.

To support the growing citizen science movement and understanding of the world’s population of Humpback Whales, the organisation offers a free Whale & Dolphin Tracker app, allowing guests and the general public to upload critical data in real-time from mobile devices.

Guests are encouraged to upload their fluke photos to Pacific Whale Foundation’s database and support an innovative Marine Monitoring Program.

Curated by the Australian Marine Debris Database, it allows the public to act as community scientists by monitoring, collecting and reporting marine debris found in our oceans and on our shorelines.

Being a social enterprise, all proceeds from sales of the whale watching experiences and merchandise from the Foundation’s Ocean Store support whale and dolphin research, marine education for children, and ocean conservation programs in Australia and around the world.

Australian Wildlife Journeys is part of Tourism Australia’s Signature Experiences of Australia program that promotes outstanding tourism experiences within a variety of special categories.

firstclassmagazine.co