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Hidden Gems of the South Pacific: Fiji, Wallis & Futuna, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands, Bora Bora, Tahiti

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Trip Leaders

John Yersin

John is a microbiologist who worked in the industry for 33 years investigating the impact of industrial wastes and products on the environment. The tools of his trade included diving, hovercraft piloting, and powerboat driving. He conducted marine, freshwater, and terrestrial surveys and then reported the results. Since retirement, John has done consultant work, taught powerboat handling, and worked as a fitness instructor. His extensive experience in powerboat and Zodiac driving makes John an asset to our team. Having spent a lifetime in environmental sciences, he is a keen environmentalist with some sympathy for industry. John's interests are wide ranging and include swimming and physical fitness, motorbikes, wine tasting, and good food. Any free time is used restoring old bikes and building kit cars.

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Jonathan Rossouw

Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions Director Jonathan Rossouw is a medical doctor by profession; however, his lifelong passion for wildlife led him to trade in his stethoscope for binoculars and take up a full-time career in the expedition travel industry. Since 1997 he has guided wildlife expeditions throughout the globe, and has gained experience with over 7000 bird species and 700 mammal species in the process. Jonathan has co-authored birding site guides to Southern Africa and Madagascar, and his guidebook Where to Watch Birds in Uganda is widely acclaimed as one of the finest site guides ever published. Jonathan is equally enthusiastic about mammals and coral reef fishes as he is with his specialties, birds and reptiles; indeed, he has an infectious curiosity and passion for all aspects of natural history. This serves him in good stead as he leads travelers on expeditions to all seven continents and scouts new destinations for Eco-Expeditions.

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Edmundo Edwards

Edmundo is extremely knowledgeable about the peoples, customs, living patterns, and legends of the South Pacific, and is considered one of the major experts on Easter Island and Eastern Polynesian history and culture. Until recently, he was Chief Archaeologist in charge of the archaeological survey of French Polynesia under the auspices of the Human Sciences Research Center and the Department of Archaeology of French Polynesia. Edmundo now resides on Easter Island and, besides lecturing to various groups, he is dedicated to writing up his recent archeological work in the Marquesas, Society and Tuamotu group of islands.

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Mike Murphy

Mike was born on the Isle of Wight, England, and raised just a stone's throw from the once largest passenger ship terminal in the world. From there, his travels have taken him to most countries around the globe, where he has served as cruise director and expedition staff on both small and large luxury vessels. Mike's recreational scuba diving unintentionally led him to a career as a deep-sea commercial diver. He has dived in almost all of the world's seas. After ten years he left commercial diving to captain his own charter boat along the inland waters of British Columbia. Five years later he returned to cruise directing, sailing from the icy waters of Alaska and Antarctica to the emerald seas of the South Pacific and beyond. When he wasn't working, he sailed his own vessel extensively along the east coast of the United States and traversed the Indian Ocean from north to south. Mike also works as divemaster, taking divers to explore the underwater world of the Arctic and Antarctic, diving beneath ice-caps and icebergs.

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Rich Pagen

Rich first became enthralled by the wonders of the natural world around the tide pools and forests of his native New York. Since then, he has embarked on a career in conservation biology that has ranged from teaching science and environmental awareness to teenagers from Los Angeles, to traveling the coast and river deltas of Alaska’s North Slope by Zodiac to reach remote wetlands where he monitored loon nests. After such field biology projects as surveys for mammalian carnivores in the mountains of California, bird migration monitoring in Canada, and a study of army-ant-following birds in the Peruvian Amazon, Rich was drawn back to the sea where he taught marine science and island ecology on Catalina Island in California for several years. He has also conducted shipboard surveys for marine mammals and seabirds, as well tagging studies of sea turtles and pelagic sharks.

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Peter Zika

Peter is a biologist from Seattle, conducting research at the University of Washington on the diet of fruit-eating birds. His interest in birds has led him across the Tropics and into polar regions for the last 20 years, with visits to more than 40 countries. He is participating in a five-year program to catalog all breeding birds of Oregon. Other projects include a biological inventory of national parks and Nature Conservancy preserves in the Pacific Northwest, the study of interactions between noxious weeds and native wildlife, teaching wetland plant identification, and serving as a ship's naturalist around the world.

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Julie Christensen

During Julie’s tenure leading travelers around the world she has visited all seven continents. Aboard a variety of expedition vessels such as Le Levant, Le Ponant, and the Clipper Odyssey she has traveled to the Russian Far East and Alaska; the numerous countries rimming the Mediterranean, Black, and Baltic Seas; Central America; Micronesia and Melanesia; the Middle East; and India. During several of our past voyages, Julie has been integral to the success of the expedition team due to her calm, decisive, and affable nature. With a special interest in Spanish and Latin American cultures, Julie earned a B.A. in Spanish from Western Washington University. Before officially embarking on a career in adventure travel, Julie biked across the United States; now, when she isn’t traveling, Julie makes her home in Seattle.

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