Ezra Lebourgeois - New Year Cruises Ships for Celebration

New Year’s is the time for celebrations, and what better way to celebrate it than on-board a cruise as you travel the seas, riding the waves, lost in the party madness. Through exotic places and an eclectic cultural mix, we have listed for you some of the world’s best cruises for the New Year’s party celebrations. You can glance through the details and plan a fun New Year’s celebration for you and your loved ones.

Bahamas Trip by Carnival Cruises:

Carnival Cruises offers an interesting Bahamas Trip, in which you can stay on the glittering islands on the Atlantic and offers you one of the most idyllic getaways on the tropic. With a host of activities like shopping in Nassau, diving in the Grand Turk, visiting the Half Moon and Cay,Snorkeling in Freeport as its main attractions, get lost in an exotic Bahaman Trip.


Eastern Caribbean Tour by Carnival Cruises:

Imagine the sun drenched shores of the Eastern Caribbean Islands, and add to it a mix of activities likesnorkeling, diving, sailing, fishing and a stroll by the azure seas.

The combination of places like Antigua, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico being a part of the Eastern Caribbean Tour by Carnival Cruises, it’s a combination you cannot resist.


Western Caribbean Holiday by Holland American Line:

The White Sands of the coasts of Mexico, Honduras, Cayman Islands, Florida and Bahamas being the Ports of call for the Western Caribbean Holland American Line, brings for you a perfect blend of excursion and history. From visiting ancient ruins to scuba diving,snorkelingto deep sea fishing there is a host of things that you can indulge in. Add to the list the unique land and sea horseback riding in the Bahamas and you have the perfect ingredients for a spectacular New Year celebration.

Mexican Riviera Tour by Carnival Cruises:

It can be difficult when planning an island tour holiday, if you are more of the stay in one place and explore, then the Mexican Riviera Tour by Carnival Cruises is the best thing for you. Visit the exotic western Caribbean sites of the Mexican Riviera, with places like Acapulco, Calica, Cancun, Cozumel, Catalina Island in all their eclectic beauty unfolding in front of you, it is impossible not to have a good time.


Western Caribbean Holiday by Royal Caribbean Tour:
With “Caribbean” as its middle name, it is hard to imagine any other tour line knowing Western Caribbean better than the Royal Caribbean Tour; designed as a five day package, the places that will be visited are Florida and Mexico with a lot of fun on-board activities involved. You can indulge in snorkeling, tours of the cities of Tampa, Key West and Cozumel. This package is designed keeping in mind a family outing, so it guarantees unlimited fun for all.


Canary Island Tour by Norwegian Cruises:

The Canary Islands Tour by Norwegian Cruises includes destinations like Tenerife, Canary Islands, Madeira, and Granada in Spain. With the diverse mix of history and fun both in equal proportions, provided in the trip in the form tours and other outdoor as well as on-board activities, indulging in this 4 days at sea package would be a good choice.
 
A Tour of France, Spain, Tunisia and Italy by MSC Cruises:
The Luxury of travelling through Europe’s finest ports in the countries of France, Spain, Tunisia and Italy by MSC Cruises is perhaps one of the best experiences that you could have as your New Year’s Celebrations. With cities like Marseille, Barcelona, Palermo, La Goulette, Genoa and Civitavecchia being on the port of call list, this 7 days tour is the crme de la crme of the luxury tours there are, so indulge yourself on-board this luxury cruise.


Ezra Lebourgeois


Source : 123newyear.com

Ezra Lebourgeois - Welcome to Christmas Island, A Natural Wonder

 Australia is famous for its natural beauty: the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Kakadu, the Kimberley. But what about the places almost no one goes? We asked ecologists, biologists and wildlife researchers to nominate five of Australia’s unknown wonders.

Christmas Island is a dot in the Indian Ocean. Like any isolated island, it is peculiar. But here this peculiarity is especially pronounced. It has a strange history, an odd culture and a remarkably distinctive biodiversity. Unfortunately, it is now best known to Australians simply as an entry point for refugees. Remoteness has that effect, of distorting truth and value.

Christmas Island is small (about 135km2) and little-populated (about 2,000 permanent residents). It has been settled only since the 1880s; for much of the period since then it was administered by the Straits Settlement (Singapore), with inclusion as an Australian territory only since 1958. Phosphate mining was the reason for its settlement, and has persisted as the main (sometimes only) industry ever since, leading to loss of about 25% of the Island’s rainforest area.

Reflecting that history, its ethnic make-up is now mainly Chinese and Malay (arising from workers imported as “coolies”). The small community is remarkably vibrant and tolerant: there can’t be any other place in Australia with two public holidays per year celebrating Christian holy days, two for Muslim holy days and two for Chinese festivals.

The call to prayer rings out over the community from the small mosque; everyone is welcome at the Chinese festivals.

Christmas Island is old. It is a volcanic seamount island, rugged and isolated, rising more than 4km from the deep sea floor, with the nearest land being Java, about 360km distant. Over the long period of its isolation, these features have crafted a unique environment. It is characterised by high levels of endemism for many groups and idiosyncratic ecological structuring.

Most of its reptiles, native mammals, and terrestrial birds occur (or occurred) nowhere else; and nearly 200 invertebrate species are considered endemic. There are very few areas in Australia (indeed, in the world) that can match such narrow endemism.  Read More : http://theconversation.com