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

Longest Australia Lunch

by Erik Olsen on

It
looks we’re already about halfway into the thing, but I just caught this post over at
sister site Slashfood about the G’Day New Zealand weeklong festival happening down under (wait, is New Zealand
considered down under?)…anyway, there is still time for you to have some Aussie fun as part of the event because the
world’s longest
Australian lunch takes place on Friday.  Apparently its popular because tickets are selling like shrimps on
the barbie (sorry, had to sneak one hackneyed Australian reference in there) with over 400 people expected to
participate.

What’s being served? Glad you asked. "Sizzling" BBQ platters with Aussie king prawns
and croc meat, but also ample servings of beer and Lindeman’s wine (what, no Yellow Tail?) Anyway, seems like a cool
event.

Great Barrier Reef Guide

by Erik Olsen on

Divers are generally united around one thing: that
the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is one of the finest places in the world to dive. That said, it’s a hard place to
reach (it’s on the other side of the world after all), and once you get there finding the best places to go can be
hard. The reef is big….really big..and stretches for literally thousands of miles up the coast.  So how to you
make sense of the place? How do you find the little islands that are the most secluded or mist highly recommended?
Where the blabbering tourists and over-excited dive amateurs are kept to a minimum?

Well, I was browsing
around a little bit and found this handy guide
to the Great Barrier Reef over at the Sydney Morning Herald. I spent some time looking around at its description of
places like Fitzroy
Island (named after the captain of the Beagle) and Lady Elliot Island.
The information about these places is refreshingly deep and useful. It’s coming upon winter at the reef, so perhaps
this is for long-term planning, but the list of places here is extensive and I’m sure

Overnight Paddle in Australia

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s a trip for paddlers: an overnight
canoe safari in Kangaroo Valley Australia. The author takes off out of busy Sydney for a weekend of bliss with five
friends and a lot of beer (which is to be expected…they are Aussies after all). The paddling seems serene, made all
the better by the abundant wildlife here and about. The group spots sea eagles, plovers, geese, kangaroos, bellbirds,
cormorants, pelicans and a goanna. I’m going to have to Wikipedia that last one…hold on. Ah, OK, a goanna is a big predatory lizard. Cool.


Be on TV

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s your big chance to get that travel show you’ve always wanted. The folks at the Travel Channel
are looking for a couple to be part of a new show based on the book 1000 Things to Do Before You Die, the Lifelist
book that is all the rage these days. They are looking for folks who will get to do things like visit the pyramids in
Egypt or Raft the Grand Canyon or swim with dolphins. I know, you’re eyes are bugging out right now. You’ve got a pen
in your hand and are breathing heavily, wondering when I will get to the point.

OK, OK, here’s the rub.
There are a few small rules. First, you need to be able to travel for up to four months without returning home. So quit
that crappy job. Hey boss, I’m going on safari in Africa, for free…and I’m going to be on TV, so take that Xerox toner
and, well, you know what you can do with it. OK, next. You have to download and fill out a questionnaire and an
application/release that says you will not hold the Travel Channel responsible for getting eaten by a lion on
safari…even if they covered you with hamburger and left you on the savannah overnight.

Then, and here
comes the tough part, you have to make and send to the Travel Channel folks a short videotape of you and your partner
(lasting no more than three minutes) showing how well you get together, what you look like on camera, how you sound,
and why you are inspired to travel. Pls. no Paris Hilton films! Then, finally, send in some pics of yourself. Couldn’t
be easier ,right? So what are you waiting for, get going!

World's Largest Pillow Fight

by Erik Olsen on

Now you’ve got to admit
this is downright silly. In a good way. Some 3659 folks gathered in New Zealand a few days ago, all of them
administered fluffy pillows, with which they engaged in what the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged was the world’s largest pillow fight , beating the previous
record by 11 um, pillow-fighters.

Now, were all the participants
negligee-clad sorority girls? Alas, no. That really would have made the show worth watching. But despite that drawback,
you have to hand it to the Kiwis, they sure know how to have fun .

The
goal was to do better than the previous pillow-fighting record of 3648 people, set at the University of Albany, New
York, on April 17, 2005.