The Road to Oceania Grand Slam

I first visited the continent of Oceania in 1984, on my second oversea trip. The main destination is West Coast of the United States. However, I got to visit the state of Hawaii for 3 days.

Only until 1991, I got to visit Australia and New Zealand - the first destinations totally in Oceania.

Nearly twenty-seven years later, I finally reached the last Oceanian country/territory that I hadn’t visited, when I reached American Samoa on January 31st.

After Europe and South America, North America, Oceania became the 4th Continent where I have visited every single country. Now, in inhabited continents, only Asia and Africa have countries that I haven’t been to.

I guess now I finally have the confidence to call myself a truly global traveler.

The following is the list of Oceanian countries I have visited through the years, in chronological order. For non-countries, if they have Olympic teams or FIFA Football teams, they are also included. Those that are a part (a state or a province) of a country mainly in another continent may be listed here but do not receive a “number”:

         . Hawaii, a state of US (1984)

1  Australia (1991)

Bad hair days in my first trip south of Equator.....

2. New Zealand (1991)

~  Rapa Nui/Isla de Pascua/Easter Island, Chile (2011)

3. Cook Islands (2016)

4. New Caledonia (2016)

5. Tonga (2016)

6. Fiji (2016)

7. Vanuatu (2016)

8. French Polynesia (2016)

9. Papua New Guinea (2016)

10. Solomon Islands (2016)

11. Nauru (2016）

12. Marshall islands (2016)

13. Federated States of Micronesia (2016)

14. Guam (2016)

#. Commonwealth of North Mariana islands (2016)

15. Palau (2016)

16. Kiribati* (2018)

17. Tuvalu (2018)

18. (West) Samoa (2018)

19. American Samoa (2013)

"Oceania Grand Slam" Accomplished!!

[Note] First visited in 2016 (but I did not get off the airplane, so it might not count). However, I did make another visit on Kiritimati, Line Island Group in January 2018.