A Kiwi Holiday In Borneo

Borneo, known for its Orangutans and Pygmy Elephants, was the destination for our family holiday.

- Nicky Steele

We have taken our daughters, (12 and 16) on a variety of adventure holidays but this was going to be our first major wildlife adventure. I was hoping that this would be something that they would enjoy, but it turned out to be so much more.

We landed in Kota Kinabalu, which is in the Sabah region on the north west coast of Borneo, after flying from New Zealand to Singapore. A few days later we headed over to the east coast to Sandakan port where we travelled to Lankayan Island in the Sulu Sea. It is one of the last islands in Malaysia before you reach Philippine waters. The first thing that struck us, and particularly our kids as strange, was the armored escort, consisting of a uniformed soldier dressed in a bullet proof vest and assault rifle. Lucy, our 16-year-old, was horrified, as they explained that we were heading into pirated waters and the escort was to prevent us being attacked. She could not believe we would bring her to such a remote and dangerous place, quite a contrast to her life at home in urban New Zealand.

Lankayan itself is tiny dive resort island and is a marine conservation area in the turtle corridor and coral triangle. Our main reason for visiting here was to hopefully see the Green and Hawksbill turtles swimming and laying their eggs. As soon as we stepped off the boat and walked along the boardwalks, we spotted turtles, it then became not if we would see a turtle but how many. Waking early one morning we looked out to find a turtle laying her eggs right outside our room, the sun was just coming up and she was covering her eggs before heading back into the sea to swim away. It was such an amazing and peaceful sight to see.