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

VR Mag

by Erik Olsen on

I’ve done enough posts here on panoramic photography that folks know I’m passionate about the stuff. Whenever I find a great new site dedicated to the form, I always try to post about it. Now, this is not a new site to me, I’ve been aware of it for a while, but I realized recently that I’ve never drawn your attention to it. Now is the time.

VR Magazine is a wonderful online resource dedicated to everything panoramic. The panoramic photographs here come from all over the world and are shot by a very wide array of terrifically talented folks. You can spend a great deal of time just poking around and finding superb work, but let me draw you attention to a few highlights.

First of all, for a great use of pano photography as documentary work, check out this full screen picture on AIDS in Mozambique. And this one of a demonstration on Cairo over the Lebanese conflict gives a very interesting, untraditional perspective you don’t get in normal pictures.

Then for tourist-related photography, take a look at this series on Chenonceau in France, as well as the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan (which I have visited). All great stuff amid tons of other pictures that are well worth some exploration click time.

NY Times on Vanuatu

by Adrienne Wilson on

Remember Vanuatu? I’m sure you couldn’t have forgotten the happiest country on Earth? Well the NY Times features a fine write-up by Jeffery Gettleman who shares his experiences on just a few of the 83 islands that comprise Vanuatu, an area in the South Pacific between Australia and Fiji. When in Tanna, somewhere deep in the jungle our author explores the taste of Kava and the three rules of drinking the beverage. (Don’t sniff, don’t stare, don’t sip.) Aside from Kava, Jeffery finds the biggest lure to Tanna is Mount Yasur – one of the most active, accessible volcanoes in the world.

The most interesting part of the journey is (hands-down) the island Malakula. On this particular end-of-the-road isle villagers practice the ancient art of head elongation, but in the event you can’t make it to that side of the island you can always opt for a cannibal hike. Sounds spooky doesn’t it? I’ll admit after I read the piece on Vanuatu being the happiest place on Earth I wanted to rush there myself and still do! Judging from this NY Times story it seems as though there is a lot more diversity in Vanuatu’s wild side than I imagined and let’s not forget the beautiful beaches.

Want to plan your own escape to the country/islands? Ready to be happy all over again? Go read Jeffery’s story and then go book your flight.

Unusual Hotels of the World

by Erik Olsen on

Travel and Leisure and most of those other big glossy magazines are always going to offer you the well-known, glitzy hotels as recommendations of places to stay on your travels. But what about the lesser-known, off-beat places? Places like the Aurora Ice Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska? Well, over at Unusual Hotels of the World, you can find a wild assortment of bizarre, but certainly entertaining places to rest your weary bones. The site is rather simple, not wonderfully designed, but the list of ideas is extensive and quite fascinating. Want to sleep in a cave? Well, then try the Desert Cave Hotel in Turkey. What about a tree house? Then try Kadirs Tree House Hotel in Turkey.

Good recs, all for the adventuresome person looking for something different. The site offers not just a list of these places, but also rates and booking opportunities.

Worldhum Travel Zeitgeist

by Erik Olsen on

We’re always eager to see what’s happening over at one of our favorite travel sites, Worldhum.com, and I just noticed today they’ve launched a rather cool new feature called Travel Zeitgeist. For those who don’t know the meaning of the word, Zeitgeist comes from the German language and means “Time Spirit” or the spirit of the times or how/what people are thinking at a particular moment. You know what I mean. Cool word. Kind of like Weltanschaung, another favorite.

Anyway, the Worldhum folks have made this little list which they’ll do every week that captures the essence of the week…what people are blogging about, what they’re searching for, the best-selling travel book on Amazon, etc. A cool idea. Wish we’d thought of it.

Bang Bangs You’re Dead

by Erik Olsen on

I have to say, this is really quite a bummer. It looks like after just a single year from launch, that Yahoo is canceling Richard Bangs Adventures, a great online video travelogue that we blogged about a few times here.

They said that the program, which featured Bangs, a hardened veteran explorer, travel writer and business person, had failed to build “a large and loyal audience”. The reason cited was that there were roughly month-long gaps between new installments and this turned people away.

Um, hello. Can I also raise my hand here?! No one in my building could see video on Yahoo for some stupid reason on their end (we can see YouTube, Google video and most other types). The video would just stop there and turn and nothing would ever come up, so to enjoy the program I’d always have to watch it at home. But you can be sure if I was having this problem, so were thousands of others. Maybe Yahoo should have done a bit more beta testing.

Anyway, it’s a big loss for several reason, but tops is that it makes it less likely that big companies will experiment with original content…I mean nicely produced funded stuff. And that is a huge shame. Anyway, I wave a fond farewell to Bangs and Company and only wish they’d figured out the technical probs before they went and pulled the plug.