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

Airbus 380 Delayed

by Iva Skoch on

Gadling blogged about Airbus’ flagship plane A380 before. Looks like we are going to have to wait six more months before Airbus deliverers their first A380. The first plane was supposed to have been delivered to Qantas in October 2006, but Airbus pushed it back to April 2007. Qantas is “disappointed.”

Interestingly enough, none of the American airlines have expressed real interest in the A380. According to BBC, among the biggest customers so far are Emirates (43 planes ordered), Lufthansa (15) and Qantas (12).

Timing aside, does Qantas honestly need planes that fit 800 people? Will they be flying the entire population of Australia back and forth every time they fly this thing? Does anyone need a plane to fit that many people? The prospect of boarding 800 people in a timely fashion scares me. I can just imagine it now: “Now boarding passengers in rows 120-140…”

Wasn’t this plane supposed to make flying easier?

The Payphone Project

by Adrienne Wilson on

I once took a very spectacular photo of a friend of mine at a payphone in Barcelona and as gorgeous as she is, it was the payphone that surprisingly stood out. Thinking back on that particular shot I could see how one could develop a habit of photographing phone booths across the world. It was so foreign, so exotic and so un-American and I captured it all by accident. But that’s just Barcelona and surely there are more striking, alluring, photo-worthy booths around the globe in places like Sri Lanka, Oman and maybe even Estonia.

Well thanks to Jim Benning over at WorldHum, I’ve recently learned of the Payphone Project. He notes that the site began as a way to promote “random contacts among complete strangers” by publishing the numbers of payphones around the United States and encouraging people to call them. Today the website has grown into something bigger and is the virtual home or gallery of payphone photos from Peru, Senegal and Antarctica!

I’d say it’s a wonderfully unique project, but you decide for yourself and tell us what you think. Waste of travel planning time or mini world travel masterpieces?

Miss Tourism World 2006

by Adrienne Wilson on

Um, yeah. Someone please explain Miss Tourism World to me because I do not quite comprehend. Call me slow if you like, but what exactly are the qualifications? Is this another pageant dedicated to nothing other than beauty or does Miss Tourism World have some type of hospitality background as well? Are they roving vagabonds, tour guides, or translators in everyday life? I wonder if any of the contestants are travel bloggers, hmm?

Anyhow, if you’re interested in seeing a slew of exotic beauties duke it out for the title of Miss Tourism World 2006, mark October 5th on your calendars and tune in. World finals will be held in South Africa, but should one not be fortunate enough to root their favorite on in person, you can do so by watching the live web stream. Check out all the pretty contestants here.

Last year’s winner was Zuzana Putnarova from the Czech Republic.

via meniki.com

JPG Mag Contest

by Erik Olsen on

The growth and spread of digital photography has been rather mind-blowing when you think about it. But the efficiencies to be had from shooting digital are so great that it makes a lot of sense so many people would be switching, let alone starting out anew as photographers in the digital realm.

One place that digital photography has made an immense impact is travel photography. No longer when you’re out in this country or on that adventure do you need to worry about buying film, carrying it around, the expense of getting it developed. I know, all are glaring statements of the obvious.

But I bring it all up because one of my favorite little digital photography magazines – JPG Mag – is on the lookout for people to contribute. Every issue contains photos from folks like you and I who send them photos. In fact, I had one of my pics selected for their second issue.

Well, they are now on their seventh issue and still eager to get your photos. The issues have themes, and the theme of number seven is BIG. Interpret that as you like.

Anyway, you don’t get much from them if your picture is selected, but it’s cool to have your photo in print.

http://jpgmag.com/

Chasing Crusoe Webumentary

by Erik Olsen on

Sometimes we find links to interesting sites in the most unlikely places. I happened to be surfing through some of the finalists for the Online Journalism Awards, a great place to see what is happening in the world of online journalism. Pawing through various sites and stories on Iraq and New Orleans, I then stumbled across this finely done documentary site that examines the lives and times of the mythical Robinson Crusoe and the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the latter of which is thought by many to be the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s classic novel.

This is a travel story, but perhaps it might fall under the rubric of “unintentional travel” if there is such a thing. I imagine the folks on the ABC show Lost might think so. Anyway, rather than the product of some humongous mega-media-corporo-conglomo-ration, it was put together by students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as some visiting students from Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile.

The site is well-designed and loaded with historical information about these two men and their times. We learn that the character of Crusoe is a blend of fantasy and reality…although given that Crusoe encountered only Friday and not a bunch of beautiful Tahitian women bearing palm-based foot massage oil, I use the term “fantasy” lightly. Regardless, it’s worth checking out and I salute the ambitious young team that put it together.