Oceania

Travel through Oceania by country:

Australia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Travel through Oceania by popular city:

Auckland, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Wellington

Travel through Oceania by popular things to do:

Cook Islands, Sydney Opera House

Travel through Oceania with our writers:

In the Corner of the World, Work and Play in Queensland

Five Months After Antarctic Plane Crash, Crew Declared Dead

by Kraig Becker on

Three crew members who were aboard an aircraft that went down in the Antarctic this past January were officially declared dead by a coroner in New Zealand this week as the inquiry into the accident got underway. The small Twin Otter airplane was en route from the South Pole to an Italian research station near Terra Nova Bay when it crashed into the side of a mountain. Pilot Bob Heath, as well as crew members Mike Denton and Perry Anderson, all lost their lives in the crash.

The fatal accident is under investigation by the Canadian Transport Board but since the plane went down in an area of Antarctica that is under the jurisdiction of New Zealand, a coroner from that country had to make the official pronunciation of the death of the crew. During the inquiry, it was revealed that the plane took off on schedule and that the pilot was checking in every hour of the flight as expected. There were no indications of any problems at all right up until the moment that the emergency beacon went off.

While the report hasn’t been able to reveal any mechanical issues with the aircraft, the judge overhearing the investigation stopped short of saying pilot error was the cause of the plane crash. Instead, he seemed to place the blame on the harsh conditions in Antarctica, which could pose problems even for very experienced pilots.The judge also expressed his admiration for the search and rescue teams that put their lives on the line in an attempt to find the missing plane in January. When the aircraft went down, a multinational effort was launched with the hopes of finding survivors. A SAR team even climbed the treacherous slopes of Mount Elizabeth to get a first hand account of the crash site.

Another team is planning to return in October to recover the bodies of the three men which were impossible to retrieve in the deteriorating conditions at the time.

Photo Of The Day: Guam Beach Bar

by Meg Nesterov on

There’s something about a bar on vacation that relaxes us. It could be a fancy hotel bar, an unassuming neighborhood watering hole or a trendy nightclub; and it can be friendly and chatty, or anonymous and discreet. Perhaps it’s comforting to know that our cocktails are made more or less the same the world wide, there’s nearly always another person to strike up a conversation with if you need local tips, and there’s far less social etiquette and customs to break than in a restaurant. The bar in today’s Photo of the Day is on Gun Beach in Guam, a place foreign to many Americans even though it’s part of our larger nation. Flickr user Peter Rood notes that it’s a “great place to grab a beer after diving and watch the sunset.” The patrons in this bar could be tourists or natives, but everyone looks comfortable and relaxed, whether or not anyone knows their name.

Want to see your travel photos featured as a future Photo of the Day? Upload them to the Gadling Flickr pool, and if we can download and share here, we’ll be sure to credit you too.

Video Of The Day: Sydney Fog

by Elizabeth Seward on

I spent the weekend upstate, reveling in the view of the lush New York countryside as fog spills over the hills. It was a rainy but beautiful drive up and back and when I woke up today, I wanted to see more fog scenery. I came across this video of fog over the Sydney harbor on Vimeo and loved it. It’s short and sweet, but moving all the same. Created by Joe Budgen, this time-lapse video is one of his first attempts and he did a good job. Enjoy.

Asylum Sailing To Australia Takes Deadly Turn

by Chris Owen on

In North America, we occasionally hear stories of cruise ships spotting and assisting a raft-full of Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Australia has a similar situation with refugees from Indonesia. Now, the dead and missing numbers are not looking good for these asylum seekers, missing after their boat capsized near a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It highlights just how dangerous life at sea can be.

A full-scale hunt using 15 ships and 10 aircraft is under way in a giant search and rescue mission. That’s because 55 men, women and children were on deck when the vessel was first spotted via aerial surveillance. Taking the next logical step, a navy vessel was sent to intercept. Arriving on the scene, the asylum ship was gone. The following day, aerial searches caught the ship’s submerged hull.

Survivors, on the other hand, have options.The U.S. wet foot/dry foot entry test is a simple “did ya or didn’t ya get here on your own?” thing. If they did, they stay. If not, they go back rather quickly. The Indonesian version is a bit different.

The trek from Indonesia to Australia is a much more dangerous, 500-mile ocean voyage. Cuba to the U.S. is just over 100 and a good raft will get you there. In the past, when refugees got picked up by ships in Australian waters, they might have been offered the “Pacific Solution.” Under that policy, the asylum seekers were taken to the nearby Republic of Nauru where their refugee status was considered, rather than in Australia where it is not.

The current Australian government’s policy is mandatory detention for asylum seekers until their status is determined, a process that can take up to two years or more. In this case, it appears that few of the refugees will get that opportunity.

“We are humans and the human dimensions of the circumstances are very difficult to deal with,” Border protection commander Rear Admiral David Johnston said in a New Zealand Herald article.

This video gives us a nutshell version of the issue involving asylum seekers and refugees and their impact in Australia.

Irish Gaelic, Rapa Nui And More Endangered Languages From Around The World

by Libby Zay on

There are nearly 7,000 languages spoken throughout the world today, the majority of which are predicted to become extinct by the end of this century. Half the world’s population speaks the top 20 world languages – with Mandarin, Spanish and English leading the charge, in that order – and most linguists point to globalization as the main cause for the rapid pace languages are falling off the map.

The problem is, when a language dies so does much of the knowledge and traditions that were passed won using it. So when Mental Floss used data from the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity to post a list of several at-risk languages, we here at Gadling were saddened by the disappearing native tongues and decided to use data from the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity to highlight some in our own list.

Irish Gaelic: Despite the fact that the government requires Irish students to learn this language and it currently has an estimated 40,000 native speakers, it is still classified as vulnerable.

Rapa Nui: The mother tongue of Chile’s famous Easter Island has fewer than 4,000 native speakers, and is quickly being taken over by Spanish.

Seneca: Only approximately 100 people in three Native American reservation communities in the United States speak this language, with the youngest speaker in his 50s.Yaw: Most young people living in the Gangaw District of Burma understand but do not speak this critically endangered language that has less than 10,000 native speakers.

Kariyarra: Although there are many people who have a passive understanding of this aboriginal language, only two fluent Kariyarra speakers are left in Western Australia.

Francoprovençal: There are only about 130,000 native speakers of this language, mostly in secluded towns in east-central France, western Switzerland and the Italian Aosta Valley.

Yagan: This indigenous language of Chile purportedly has only one remaining native speaker. Others are familiar with the language, but it will likely disappear soon.

Patuá: Derived from Malay, Sinhalese, Cantonese and Portuguese, less than 50 people in Macau, China and their diaspora speak this language. It is now the object of folkloric interest amongst those who still speak it.