Oceania

Australia and the Pacific

Volcanic islands and coral reefs, trekking and diving, euphoric mud drinks and French-inspired gourmet food.

Oceania offers everything from modern metropolitan cities with world-class architecture to isolated small islands where the locals live according to millennial traditions. The skyscrapers rise to the sky in Auckland and Sydney, and the coconut palms sway on the remote Pacific islands. In Oceania you can visit some of the world’s smallest states and the country itself is a whole continent.

Area: 8.5 million km²

Number of inhabitants: 36 million

Largest country (by population)

  • Australia – 23 million
  • Papua New Guinea – 5 Mill.
  • New Zealand – 4 million
  • Fiji – 850,000
  • Solomon Islands – 500,000

The geography of the ocean

According to Countryaah, the continent of Oceania consists of three Pacific Island Islands (Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia) as well as New Zealand and Australia. Australia is so large that it is both a state and an independent continent.

Country Head of State Head of Government
Australia Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister Scott Morrison (2018−)
Fiji President Jioji Konrote (2015–) Prime Minister Josaia “Frank” Voreqe Bainimarama (2007–)
Kiribati President Taneti Maamau (2016–) President Taneti Maamau (2016–)
Marshall Islands President David Kabua (2020–) President David Kabua (2020–)
Micronesia Federation President David W Panuelo (2019–) President David W Panuelo (2019–)
Nauru President Lionel Aingimea (2019–) President Lionel Aingimea (2019–)
New Zealand Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (2017)
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. (2021–) President Surangel Whipps Jr. (2021–)
Papua New Guinea Queen Elizabeth II (1975–) Prime Minister James Marape (2019–)
Solomon Islands Queen Elizabeth II (1978–) Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (2019–)
Samoa kung Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aletoa Sualauvi II (2017–) Prime Minister Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi (1998–)
Tonga kung Tupou VI (Tupouto’a Lavaka Ata; 2012–) Prime Minister Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa (2019–)
Tuvalu Queen Elizabeth II (1952–) Prime Minister Kausea Natano (2019–)
Vanuatu President Tallis Obed Moses (2017–) Prime Minister Bob Loughman (2020–)

Australia

Australia is also the sixth largest country in the world, and here you have plenty of time if you want to catch up with everything. Urban life in Sydney and Melbourne, kangaroos and aboriginal cave paintings in Mutawintji National Park, the pleasure of feeding dolphins outside Brisbane and the joy of getting the sea turtles really close to the fascinating Great Barrier Reef.

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands hold many maritime adventures – from the sight and sound of humpback whales raising their calves in the warm waters off Tonga Islands, diving among huge shipwrecks from the Second World War around the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Micronesia, to wonderful relaxation in the lagoons of Kiribati and Tuvalu. It is also worth exploring in Samoa where the great author and adventurer Robert Louis Stevenson got his last rest. Or follow Captain Cook’s wake around the islands – the legendary English captain made no less than three exploration trips to Oceania.

Papua New Guinea

Nor should you forget Papua New Guinea, which is a true laboratory of ancient, indigenous cultures, tribal traditions and religions, and still one of the world’s most enigmatic countries. Here, more than 700 different languages are spoken by about as many different tribes. Life in the medieval villages of the rivers Sepik and Fly provides insights into a world that one can seriously say is very strange.

New Zealand

In addition to lots of coral reefs to snorkel around, Oceania also has many volcanoes, several of which are still highly active. This is also true in New Zealand, whose fantastic nature received lots of publicity when the director of the saga about the ring films chose to use recording sites on both the North Island and the South Island for the exciting filmization of the books. Experience, for example, the Tongariro National Park, which was the backdrop to the evil land of Mordor in the Sagan of the Ring, and which the Maori chief Te Heuheu Tukino IV in 1877 donated to the State of New Zealand. The park is listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and is dominated by the three major volcanoes Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro, all of which emit sulfur. See also AbbreviationFinder.org for New Zealand abbreviations and acronyms.

Geography of New Zealand

New Zealand consists of two major islands, North Island (North Island), 114,690 km2, and South Island (South Island), 150 460 km2, and several smaller ones: Stewart Island just south of South Island, and Chatham, Bounty, Kermadec Islands o.fl. islands further afield.

New Zealand is part of the archipelago of volcanoes around the Pacific. The oldest part of the bedrock comprises fossil-bearing layers from Ordovician to Jurassic along with crystalline shales, gneisses and magmatic rocks. In the time between the Jurassic and Upper Cretaceous, these layers were strongly folded. Discordant over these folds are layers of upper chalk and tertiary, which in turn were folded by crustal movements at the end of the tertiary, while volcanic activity began. The youngest are flat, quaternary layers. Active volcanoes and geysers indicate that there are still movements in the earth’s crust.

Cook Strait separates North Island from South Island. In the southern part of North Island are northeast – southwest walking mountain ranges that are between 1000 and 2000 m high. Further west are several large, volcanic cones; some are active, such as Ruapehu (2797 masl). North of this lies the large Lake Taupo, 670 km2, in a district with countless hot springs. At the far west just off the seafront lies the extinct volcano Mt. Egmont (Taranaki), 2518 masl Along the seafront there are fertile lowlands both in the east and west. To the northwest, a long narrow headland.

On the South Island, the Southern Alps (Ka Tiriti o te Moana) mountain range runs along almost the entire island from southwest to northeast. The mountain range includes 16 peaks with heights above 3100 m. Highest when Aoraki/Mt. Cook (3754 masl). Here are several great glaciers; one goes down to 120 meters and the longest, Tasman Glacier, is 29 km long. The Sutherland Falls have a total waterfall of 580 m. The mountain range has served as an effective communication barrier between east and west, and it creates a rain shadow effect over a wide plain in the east. In the southwest there is a plethora of long, deep fjords and narrow valleys with waterfalls and lakes between high mountains.

Tokelau

New Zealand’s Ministry of Development had allocated 7½ million in 2000. NZ $ in development assistance to Tokelau. In 2001, New Zealand launched programs that supported the political development of Tokelau towards self-government.

With the support of APEC and the Samoa government, Tokelau in 2004 launched a program for the development of fishing in the villages – including the three atolls Fakaofo, Nukunonu and Atafu. The training in the villages themselves was in the hands of the APEC Secretariat and the Government of Samoa. Special rules have been put in place to ensure that fishing can continue to exist in future generations.

It entails the communist service and the SPC cargo of the Samoa pesca. Los atolones mantienen leyes for the preservation of the costa marina and las especially for futuras generaciones.

A referendum monitored by the UN on Tokelau’s future status was carried out in February 2006. 349 voted to change the status to a freely associated state, while 581 voted to continue as a New Zealand colony. A new referendum is scheduled for November 2007.

In May 2008, the UN Ban Kee Moon called on the colonial powers to give the world’s remaining 16 colonies independence. New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key commented on the Secretary-General’s call that the UN was obviously frustrated that Tokelau would not be independent, and Key also questioned the sensibility of allowing small countries to become independent. In 2008, the population fell to 1,433.

Until December 2011, Tokelau was 11 hours after GMT, but then switched to 13 hours before GMT. At the same time, the country jumped on December 30. The primary purpose was to synchronize with New Zealand and Australia – the country’s closest economic and political partners.

In November 2012, Tokelau became the world’s first country to cover all its electricity supply from solar energy. 4,032 solar panels were then in operation, supported by 1,344 batteries that provided power when there was no sun.

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