NET ASSETS: WEB WONDERS

NET ASSETS: Armchair Earth

The ultimte armchair travel site, from outer space to your favourite literary place. By Toby Preston

GOOGLE EARTH This site is a literal wonderland in that it is ‘a land or place full of wonderful things’. It’s everything ‘earth’. From inside a cave to the top of a mountain, viewed from space or seen from a drone. This is the ultimate rabbit hole for armchair travellers. As the title page accurately says: ‘The world’s most detailed globe’, from there you simply hit the Launch Earth button and dive into a multitude of memorable destinations, fabulous photographs from street views to panoramic landscapes, documentary clips, arcane environmental information, literary locations in real life through to guided tours of UNESCO world heritage sites.

If you’re looking for something or somewhere specific then open the search field and type in your query, or maybe just hit ‘I’m feeling lucky’ and get a random selection of destinations you have probably never heard of, for instance Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, an amusement park in Moscow, Russia. You will then find that this place was opened on 12 August 1928 covers an area of 121 hectares and was named after Maxim Gorky. It also reveals that apart from a roller coaster, an Alpenblitz and a Jet Star 2 there is also a wacky worm show. Who would have known that those earnest Russians had come up with a venue for wacky worms in a place named after the founder of the socialist realism literary method? As with all these views, you get the compass co-ordinates and the option of street view, 2D and fly to your location and photosphere. Still feeling lucky? Then up comes Dunsinane Hill in Scotland, a familiar name from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, just keep clicking!

Another fascinating suggestion is Literary Locations in Real Life, choose this tour and you’ll be invited to visit seven different places with literary connections from Moseley Bog where J.R.R. Tolkien lived as a boy to Casa Gabriel in Columbia where you’ll see a picture of Gabriel García Márquez’s childhood home which is now a museum. After that flick forward to Stockholm for an image of the Mellqvist Cafe & Bar where Stieg Larsson’s fictional character Mikael Blomkvist enjoyed a coffee in the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

For some truly stunning photography and insights into everything from national parks to whale sharks and the natural treasures of cities (see New York’s peregrine falcons (left) or a colony of penguins wandering among South African beach goers), go to the Voyager button and be amazed at what’s on

offer from the BBC, NASA, the National Geographic Society, the Wildlife Trust India and Jane Goodall (above).

Try out Google’s own street view presentation on an interactive journey up the 3000-foot El Captian rock climb in Yosemite National Park. Go behind the scenes for a video explanation of how they filmed this extraordinary panorama up the ‘Nose’ rock face by abseiling down the cliff with cameras and tripods strapped to their intrepid photographers.

Then if you’d like to check on our region’s volcanic history drop in on 10,000 Years of Volcanoes (left) and see an image of our globe with hundreds of pins representing the earth’s volcanic sites, click on any one and you’ll see photographs and detailed descriptions of each.

Book your ticket now for a free trip to armchair earth at www.google.com/earth

ECO INITIATIVE Build A Reef Buy A Coral

Fiji’s Captain Cook Cruises have launched their ‘Buy a coral - Build a reef’ coral rejuvenation program that allows guests to get involved in reef sustainability when they are visiting Tivua island.

Captain Cook Cruises is very excited to have reopened Tivua Island for day cruise experiences especially designed for locals.

They have also launched their “Buy a coral - Build a reef” coral rejuvenation program that allows guests to get involved in reef sustainability when they are visiting Tivua island. Guests can buy a coral frag and plant it like they would a seedling on land. All funds go towards funding Captain Cook Cruises’ Coral Rejuvenation Program and making Fiji’s reefs even more glorious.

Tivua Island is surrounded by 500 acres of coral reef. The area has benefited greatly from the extensive work by Captain Cook’s team of Marine Biologists through the lockdown period. Coral planting, and monitoring and rejuvenation of on land plant life, have been priorities.

Captain Cook Cruises is a leader in sustainable tourism and reef education with their team of Marine Biologists providing ongoing education to guests both on Tivua Island as well as when cruising on the Reef Endeavour. Through their Ocean Ambassador program many tons of rubbish have been collected from beaches around Fiji during the Reef Endeavour itineraries that stretch as far as Sawa-i-lau & Kia island in the north and the outer reaches of the Lau group visiting more than 90 of Fiji’s 330 islands. Rubbish is collected by crew member Ocean Ambassadors, sorted, weighed, recorded and recycled. Passengers enjoy getting involved with the program as well.

Captain Cook Cruises are relaunching their updated and refreshed Tivua Private Island adventure experiences post COVID for Fiji residents for only $99 per adult and $49 per child 3-15yrs. The fabulous Tivua Island Day Cruise is available at this special rate from 28 June 2020 on Saturdays and Sundays and progressively more often as the Nadi International Airport opens. They are also offering additional discounts for first responders in Fiji, Police, Navy, Army and Hospital employees at F$89 for adults and F$49 for children. Guests can rest assured that Captain Cook Cruises have implemented a company wide policy of strict cleaning, hygiene and health protocols to ensure the safety of its passengers. • ADVERTORIAL