CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Christmas Island is an island in the Indian Ocean, about 1,400 km northwest of Australia. Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary, named the island when he arrived on Christmas Day, 25th December, 1643. It is administered as an external territory of Australia. The island is the summit of an oceanic mountain whose highest point on the island is Murray Hill, rising to 361 metres in the western part of the island. The island is only 52 square-miles in area. The main settlement and chief port is at Flying Fish Cove on the northeastern part of the island.

 Flying Fish Cove

Christmas Island is an impressive feat of nature full of natural wonders including red crab migrations, exotic birds and wonderfully deserted beaches who are only disturbed by nesting sea turtles. Fourteen species of land crab call Christmas Island home, but the red crab is by far the most famous. The narrow tropical reef that surrounds the island is laced with unspoiled corals and schools of colourful fish like anemones, butterfly fish, wrasse, surgeon and more. Occasionally, even sharks come up to divers to take a curious look.

fabulous stamps

Received from Christmas Island Tourism Association

NEW BRUNSWICK

New Brunswick is the largest of Canada’s three Maritime provinces. It is located under Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula and beside the State of Maine. New Brunswick was one of the first provinces, along with Ontario, Québec and Nova Scotia, to join together to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867.  New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province with approximately 35 per cent of the population French-speaking.

Lupins and boathouse
 

New Brunswick has spectacular autumn foliage, wildflowers in the spring and pure, white snow in the winter. In this small province by Canada's eastern seas you'll find wide silver rivers where bright salmon leap, canoes gliding on soft emerald streams, rearing sentinel headlands standing firm against Atlantic tides, and silken sand beaches where water runs shallow and warm. The province is marked by its rolling hills and spectacular valleys, as well as its historic and modern architecture located in many of its cities, towns and villages. 

King's Landing Village Mill

Dropped like an emerald beside the sapphire blue of the St. John River, is Kings Landing. Its bustling country lanes lead you into the homes and lives of early New Brunswick settlers. Every corner of Kings Landing is active, from the kitchen fires to the blacksmith's forge. You can see the largest water-wheel driven sawmill in Canada.

Received from Roger

NOVA SCOTIA

Nova Scotia is Canada's Ocean Playground, known for its splendid coastal scenery, fascinating marine history, colourful marine culture and warm, hospitable people.
Along its 4,625-mile-long coastline is  almost every conceivable geographical marine feature - beaches, lagoons, salt marshes, harbours, inlets, coves, estuaries, bays, basins, channels, straits, passages, capes, points, heads, sandbars, mud flats, and sand-dunes.

Lobster traps and fishing boats - a familiar sight at Peggy's Cove.

There's deep-sea fishing, coastal canoeing, clam digging, rockhounding, bird watching, boat tours, dory races, wind surfing, swimming, camping, hiking, and sightseeing on highways that travel along some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

Known as the Festival Province of Canada, Nova Scotia annually hosts some 350 summertime community festivals, fairs, gatherings and special events.

Travel to Nova Scotia
Government of Nova Scotia