Over millions of years, the islands of Hawaii were formed by the hot, molten lava in the earth’s interior bursting through the surface. Artist Michael Edward Jones creates something completely different using heat. He melts glass and shapes it into various shapes and textures. When we visited him a few years ago at the University of Hawaii, we witnessed Michael creating his art from a batch of glowing hot, liquid glass and working it quickly before it cooled off. It was like watching a choreographed dance, and this series of images is a visual impression of that process.

Since 1872 Rotterdam's Wilhelmina Pier has been the link between the Old World and the New World. It's the port from which the Holland-America Line's first ship sailed its 15-day maiden voyage from the Netherlands to New York City, a service which continues to this day.

Now surrounded by modern skyscrapers, the company's former headquarters built in 1901 and nicknamed “The Grand Old Lady” has been converted into a hotel. Hotel New York, to be precise, and the letters Holland-Amerika Lijn still adorn the Jugendstil building standing proudly at the end of the quay.

Rotterdam was given the nickname "Manhattan on the Maas", and you'll find many references of the ties between the two cities on the Wilhelmina Pier. In days gone by, millions of immigrants left Rotterdam for NYC by ocean liner. And today, ex-pats arrive in Rotterdam from NYC by jet liner, Brit included.

Wilhelmina Pier

Motoring far off the coast of northwestern Australia you come to Rowley Shoals, a watery paradise teeming with healthy coral and marine life. With your scuba gear on, you step off the boat into the ocean to explore the beauty. The first to greet you is a sea turtle swimming among a school of brightly colored fish. You gaze after her as she paddles effortlessly through the clear water. Diving down to the coral reefs, lightrays from above dance across the shallow depths of the ocean floor. Just then a gentle manta ray glides right past you. In fact, he's so close that it startles him more than you, and he quickly disappears out of sight. Only afterwards do you fully appreciate what a beautiful moment that encounter was.

Special thanks to Mark Stothard for contributing these photos.

North Star Cruises

As the sun starts to illuminate the face of Hanglip mountain, you awaken to peaceful stillness. Upon drawing back the heavy drapes, you see a herd of zebras grazing outside your window. You’re far away from the hectic, bustling world where people expect you to be reachable 24/7, and you turn off your cell phone because it keeps searching for reception, without success.

You ride with Ranger Marco in a covered jeep through the main gate and into the reserve, and it’s like stepping right into the pages of National Geographic magazine. Soon after you pass giraffes and antelope lazily munching grass which makes you wonder, why are they so relaxed?

You spot tracks and follow them to find two lionesses. Nearby, a lion is lying under a bush with their kill, his enormous paw on the carcass as he naps in the heat of the mid-morning sunshine. It’s an awe-inspiring sight and you drink it in. It’s then that you truly realize that you are in the wild.

Legend Entabeni Conservancy

In Rotterdam anything is possible, and you can see it in the skyline. During World War II the city was literally brought to its knees, but as Nietzsche wrote, "What doesn't destroy me makes me stronger."

Nowadays Rotterdam is an architectural mecca and sports a beautiful skyline. It is home to one of the world's famous bridges, the Erasmus bridge aka "The Swan", not to mention the Netherlands' tallest residential building (the New Orleans) and tallest office building (the Maastoren). These three are located a stone's throw from each other along the Meuse River in the trendy Kop van Zuid neighborhood. This is where we live.

Armand studied architecture and was one of the first residents to move here in the 90s, back when the Erasmus bridge and some of the first buildings were being built. And one of the perks of living here is that Armand only has to step outside to find cool subjects to photograph.

Visit Armand's website.

There are times when you meet someone who you feel will do something "big" in this lifetime. In 2004 we got that feeling when meeting Philip de Roo for the first time. Armand was the base camp for one of Marc Cornelissen's North Pole expeditions, and Philip was going to ski The Last Degree. He was just 18 years old.

But this was not Philip's first expedition. He had been to Antarctica at age 15 with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), sent off by Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander.

Since our first meeting, Philip has led several expeditions to the polar regions. These photos and footage were taken by Philip and his team in Greenland during the Notice Expedition, with Armand producing the expedition's video podcast. The expedition relied solely on climate-neutral energy sources such as sun, wind and biofuel. The first crossing from East to West took place in 2007 and covered 600km. The second crossing, South to North, covered an incredible 2500km.

Visit Philip's website

This is the story of Yster the white rhino. Yster in Afrikaans means iron, and anyone given this name is a fighter and a survivor. The name suits him perfectly.

Orphaned at age 3 1/2 weeks (poachers killed his mother for her tusk), little Yster was left for dead. He had stood by his mother’s side for four days when rescuers found his mother’s carcass and took him to an animal rehab center to be hand-raised.

Eventually Yster found his way to Legend Wildlife & Cultural Centre where Arrie continued to hand-feed 30 liters of milk to our white rhino friend. Each day. Thing is, you can’t just buy milk from the local grocery store to feed a rhino calf. Nope, Yster’s milk was a special blend mixed each day for him.

When we filmed him, Yster was 14 months old and doing great. He even had an older girlfriend who would help him remember how to be a wild rhino. The plan was to release him onto Entabeni Conservancy, a large wildlife reserve, once he reached sexual maturity so he could live life as wild rhinos should. Unfortunately we learned that Yster died a couple of months after we filmed him. RIP dear Yster. You are sorely missed.

Legend Wildlife & Cultural Centre

“No matter where you go, there you are."

That’s a line from one of my favorite 80s movies, “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension”. It was an absurd movie, and I loved it. It reminded me that sometimes I need not take myself quite so seriously.

You know how it is. Life can sometimes seem too heavy and you need to blow off a little steam. So you hop into a sporty, little red car and go whizzing off, with windows down and music blaring. It doesn’t matter where you go. But you feel better once you get there.

It’s so easy to get lost in the world. Travel can help you find yourself…especially when your destination is the edge of the world.

Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa

It’s called Greenland, but let’s face it, it’s not green. It was just a clever marketing ploy by early inhabitants.

We all know Greenland is mostly white, thanks to the huge ice sheet covering about 80% of its surface. So you might expect it to be pure white and that if you were to ski from one side to the other that the lack of visual stimulation would make you nuts. You’re in luck because there are many shades of white. Sometimes the ice looks blue. At sunset it might even look pinkish. It all depends on how thick the ice is, its purity and age, the angle of the sun and how light is reflected, how big air bubbles in the ice are, the roughness of the ice.... In short, it's a thousand shades of white. Calling it Greenland was definitely “bait and switch”.

Images and video footage: Marc Cornelissen

There’s no place like home, but some places feel like home away from home. It’s so easy to relax there. And you sleep really well. Even better is you don’t have to do any work. You can play with the dogs all day and don’t have to take them for walks. That is, unless you want to.

And then you can take a nice shower or have a good long soak in the tub. With a great view. Of whales. Maybe after a day spent at the beach? Or after a long hike on the rocks with the dogs?

Sea Star Lodge