A little-known Australian island rated by a popular travel website as one of the most beautiful remote places on earth.
Macquarie Island, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, halfway between Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, is ranked third on the Big 7 Travel list.
(Image source: Daily Mail)
Home to penguins and seals, the island has been part of Tasmania since 1900 and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
(Image source: Daily Mail)
The Australian Antarctic Division has been based on the island since 1948 and is home to between 20 and 40 people at a time, including scientists, researchers, cooks, cleaners and doctors, the only humans on the island.
There are no planes on the island, the only way to get there is by boat, although there is a helipad dedicated to excursions between the island and the large ships docked near the coast.
Visitors can travel to the rugged island, which is 34 km long and 5 km wide, but places are very limited, with only a few educational tours sailing to the island each year, and only in summer.
However, the remoteness of the island and the absence of others are the main highlights that attract people to venture to the island.
It is also the only place on Earth where the mantle can be seen above the surface of the sea.
In recent years, a series of successful conservation efforts have been carried out, focusing on invasive animals brought to the island by explorers, including rabbits, rodents and cats, which are exterminating native plants and animals.
These conservation efforts stand in stark contrast to earlier human history, when Tasmania and New Zealand competed for the island in order to hunt the island's penguins for their oil.
In 1933, the island was declared a wildlife sanctuary under Tasmanian law.
Other remote paradise lists in the Big 7 include Blue Eye in Albania, Middle-Desert in Antarctica and Annegada Island in the British Virgin Islands.
Other "remote paradises" on the Big 7 list include Blue Eye in Albania, White Desert Whichaway Camp in Antarctica, and Anegada in the British Virgin Islands.
Blue Eye in Albania (Credit: Daily Mail)
Here is the full list of the top 10:
1. Blue Eye, Albania
2.White Desert Whichaway Camp, Antarctica
3.Macquarie Island, Australia
4. Laya, Bhutan
5、Pinnacles of Gunung, Mulu National Park，婆罗洲
6 Sandibe Okavango, Botswana
7. Pitcairn Island, a British overseas territory
8. Anegada, British Virgin Islands
9.Ivvavik National Park, Canada
10 Marble Caves, Patagonia, Chile