If you’re dreaming of flying away to a far flung place with zero humans, you’re in luck.
According to a fresh new list just released by global travel site Big 7 Travel, a wild Australian island has just been ranked as the third most beautiful and remote place in the world. Enter: Macquarie Island.
If you haven’t heard of this one, you’re not alone. Tucked away in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, this UNESCO World Heritage site and pristine nature reserve is located approximately 2,382 kilometres from Sydney and has no permanent human inhabitants. Politically, this tiny island is part of, and managed by Tasmania, while regionally it's part of Oceania. If you’re curious as to why exactly this tiny island close to New Zealand is not, in fact, part of New Zealand, the answer is that Tassie and NZ had a fight over who got to exploit the island’s huge penguin population for oil in the 1900s’ and Tassie won. Classic.
Aside from its gnarly history, Macquarie Island is a rugged outpost full of stunning rock formations, misty cloud coverage and a diverse array of incredible wildlife, including being the only known breeding ground of the royal penguin in the world. It is also one of the only places on the planet where you can see the Earth’s mantle above sea level. This is cool, because if you were to see the Earth’s mantle anywhere else, you’d have to swim down to the very bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
If you don’t have the time, resources or respiratory power to do this, then you could think about taking a voyage out to ‘Macca’. Only accessible by sea, and only open to a select number of commercial educational tourist groups each summer, a trip to Macquarie Island is for those who love nothing more than observing an untouched stretch of wilderness and getting up close to thriving seal, penguin and bird populations with nobody else around.
The Big 7’s list of The 50 Most Remote and Beautiful Places in the World had Blue Eye, Albania listed in first place, and White Desert Whichaway Camp, Antarctica in second.
Their top 10 picks were:
- Blue Eye, Albania
- White Desert Whichaway Camp, Antarctica
- Macquarie Island, Australia
- Laya, Bhutan
- Pinnacles of Gunung, Mulu National Park, Borneo
- Sandibe Okavango, Botswana
- Pitcairn Island, British Overseas Territory
- Anegada, British Virgin Islands
- Ivvavik National Park, Canada
- Marble Caves, Patagonia, Chile
Not bad, Australia/New Zealand/Antarctica. Not bad.