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Cyprus to New Zealand Island Nation Chain

An African swallow travels using a very strange method. From whatever country it is in, it flies to to the nearest island country. Can you name the countries it visits on a trip from Cyprus to New Zealand?
The swallow never visits the same island twice, even if it's closer
Based on distance between the capitals
Quiz by islabonita
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Last updated: April 9, 2021
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First submittedApril 8, 2021
Times taken41,435
Average score70.0%
Rating4.92
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Distance in km
Clue
Country
CYPRUS
1,701
Located just south of Sicily
Malta
2,085
Has four parts, one of which is Wales
United Kingdom
372
Known as "The Emerald Isle"
Ireland
1,490
World's northernmost island country
Iceland
5,463
African nation uninhabited until discovered
by the Portuguese in the 1400s
Cape Verde
3,689
Portuguese-speaking country in
the Gulf of Guinea
São Tomé and Príncipe
4,240
Only Arab country in the Southern Hemisphere
Comoros
922
Lemurs live here
Madagascar
1,053
Dodos don't live here any more
Mauritius
1,737
Richest African nation
Seychelles
2,226
Maximum elevation: 5 meters
Maldives
766
Until the 15th century you could walk
between this island and India
Sri Lanka
3,309
World's most populous island nation
Indonesia
713
Richest island nation
Singapore
1,292
Oil rich country ruled by a sultan
Brunei
1,259
Tagalog is spoken here
Philippines
1,166
China really wants this island
Taiwan
2,096
Easternmost island country in Asia
Japan
3,188
Gained independence from the U.S. in 1994
Palau
2,037
Portuguese-speaking country that became
independent in 2002
East Timor
2,316
Has a bird-of-paradise on its flag
Papua New Guinea
1,404
Named for a character in the Old Testament
Solomon Islands
1,254
World's most obese country
Nauru
709
Has land in all four hemispheres
Kiribati
666
Home to Bikini Atoll
Marshall Islands
1,431
Has four states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae
F. S. Micronesia
2,954
Islanders established "cargo cults" during WWII
Vanuatu
1,067
Has four letters, two of which are "i"
Fiji
745
This monarchy was never colonized
by a European power
Tonga
892
Apia is its capital
Samoa
NEW ZEALAND
+7
Level 86
Apr 8, 2021
How come Indonesia is 886km from Singapore (ie the Jakarta-Singapore distance) when Ireland is correctly given as 0km from the UK rather than the London-Dublin distance of 463km?

The distance between countries, not capitals, for Indonesia-Singapore is short enough to see one country from the other, though that is not as close as the 0km from the two island countries Indonesia borders!

Great idea for a quiz, currently ruined by the data behind it.

+23
Level 45
Apr 8, 2021
I've made all distances based on capital cities. Thanks for the great input.
+1
Level 70
May 3, 2021
Isn't Dili closer to Jakarta than Singapore is?
+1
Level 27
Mar 28, 2023
Don't you mean Delhi?
+2
Level 48
Oct 16, 2023
Dili is the capital of East Timor, which appears a bit later in the quiz :)
+6
Level 75
Apr 8, 2021
Why'd you choose the Asian country that you did to be the starting point? Nice quiz by the way
+9
Level 45
Apr 8, 2021
No reason. I just picked it. Wish I had some clever reason behind the choice. Thanks for asking.
+66
Level ∞
Apr 8, 2021
Are you guys talking about the African nation of Cyprus?
+43
Level 77
Apr 8, 2021
I vote for Cyprus to be part of Antarctica so that it no longer has to be an uninhabited continent!
+25
Level 89
Apr 8, 2021
Cyprus is on the moon. Change my mind.
+1
Level 67
Mar 21, 2023
I think you mean: Cyprus, a great place to moon.
+2
Level 53
Mar 20, 2023
No it's in Middle Earth duh
+1
Level 46
May 3, 2021
It is European though? (officially in the EU and stuff)
+5
Level 50
May 3, 2021
It's in the EU which is an economic union but it geographically is in Asia
+5
Level 78
May 3, 2021
Israel, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan compete in UEFA tournaments and Australia competes in Eurovision. Morocco is closer to Europe than Cyprus is.
+16
Level 79
Apr 8, 2021
Any reason for not including Tuvalu? I think you have all of Oceania except it.
+7
Level 45
Apr 8, 2021
I was going to do all island nations but decided on a shorter quiz. Tuvalu missed the boat. Maybe it will make it in part 2. Thanks for asking.
+12
Level 69
Apr 8, 2021
Yes, part 2! with Bahrain and all of the Caribbean islands nations!
+1
Level 45
Apr 8, 2021
👍🏾👍🏾
+2
Level 82
Apr 8, 2021
This was very fun. Looking forward to a part 2!
+3
Level 74
Apr 8, 2021
Is it possible to cover all island nations in the world, including the Caribbean? Maybe the African island nations would be a bit haphazard though.
+1
Level 84
Apr 9, 2021
All you need to do is add a caveat that the swallow can never return to an island/nation he's already visited.
+1
Level 60
Mar 21, 2023
That caveat's already present.
+4
Level 84
Apr 9, 2021
I can only imagine what route a European swallow would take.
+13
Level 84
Apr 9, 2021
The route is unimportant - what matters is its velocity! ;-)
+11
Level 46
Apr 9, 2021
Which depends on whether or not it is carrying a coconut.
+12
Level 88
Apr 9, 2021
Yes, I was just wondering if it was an UNLADEN swallow!
+10
Level 75
Apr 9, 2021
Very fun. Comoros has Arabic as an official language, but it's not regularly used and the people are not Arab, by any definition I'm aware of.
+3
Level 69
May 3, 2021
Yes, I was thinking this, too. Misleading hint.
+2
Level 59
Mar 20, 2023
Perhaps it’s referring to their membership in the Arab League, however using this as the reasoning could just add more fuel to the Cyprus-EU debate
+6
Level 87
Apr 9, 2021
Enjoyable quiz. My important and substantive criticism is that the Portuguese-speaking country became "independent" in 2002, not "indepedent".
+1
Level 88
Apr 13, 2021
I second mf3’s comment. Instead of the, "Portuguese-speaking country that became indepedent in 2002”, the clue should read the, "Portuguese-speaking country that became *independent* in 2002”.

Otherwise, it’s a great quiz. Thank you.

+2
Level 55
Apr 9, 2021
I realized I don't have to type the Asian country in the first gray box
+1
Level 47
Apr 9, 2021
Why isn't Bahrain in here?
+1
Level 70
Apr 9, 2021
The UK finally abandonned Gibraltar and became a full scale island country! :-)
+1
Level 75
Mar 20, 2023
Gibraltar isn't part of the UK, it's a dependency!
+4
Level 76
Apr 9, 2021
Spelling in 2nd Portuguese clue: independent.
+4
Level 71
Apr 10, 2021
This bird hates Tuvalu?
+3
Level 72
Apr 10, 2021
Do we really need to type “islands” after the two countries with it at the end of their name? Most other quizzes allow the first part as a type in.
+7
Level 82
May 3, 2021
no, none of them do, or at least not in english
+1
Level 71
Apr 11, 2021
Good quiz, just got my rhythm going when the bell went :o)
+1
Level 57
May 5, 2021
I really liked this quiz
+3
Level 65
Oct 14, 2021
Just wanted to say that in the answer part, the question for Solomon Islands is "Has a bird-of-paradise on its flag," instead of "Named for a character in the Old Testament".
+1
Level 74
Mar 20, 2023
Well spotted.In the questions it's correct, but in the answers "Bird of paradise" shows twice!
+1
Level ∞
Mar 20, 2023
Fixed
+2
Level 47
Dec 1, 2021
I thought Indonesia was more east than japan I probably forgot Marcus Island.
+1
Level 65
Jan 3, 2022
What a great quiz to show the connections between Europe and Oceania ;)
+3
Level 72
Jan 15, 2022
Tricky quiz but I enjoyed it. I liked reading about the clues as until now had just loosely grouped all of the Oceania countries as that but it is fascinating to hear about them. Thank you.
+1
Level 51
Feb 14, 2022
bahrain?? or what about fiji
+1
Level 60
Mar 21, 2023
Fiji is already present. Plus, this quiz does not claim to cover all island countries...
+1
Level 71
Mar 26, 2022
I believe the richest African nation is Equatorial Guinea and not Seychelles. It should be changed to richest African island nation.
+1
Level 68
Mar 26, 2022
+1
Level 76
May 2, 2022
From Samoa, the closest island nation that has not yet been named is Tuvalu, not New Zealand.
+1
Level 71
Aug 17, 2022
What about Tuvalu?
+1
Level 76
Aug 23, 2022
can the white question boxes go dark with dark mode please? most other jetpunk quizzes have this
+1
Level 68
Mar 20, 2023
This is awesome!
+1
Level 59
Mar 20, 2023
Hey, islabonita, please add Tuvalu. You've forgotten it.
+1
Level 63
Mar 20, 2023
Perhaps their methodology on how the swallow flies makes it impossible for the bird to visit Tuvalu. It misses Bahrain as well
+1
Level 92
Mar 20, 2023
I'm wondering how would Bahrain fit into the quiz? Starting from Cyprus, it looks like Malta is closer than Bahrain. And then the closest the swallow gets to Bahrain subsequently is Seychelles, but the Maldives are closer to Seychelles than Bahrain.
+1
Level 60
Mar 21, 2023
Read the comments above. It wasn't forgotten.
+1
Level 46
Jul 5, 2023
Hello there!

I was inspired to make a similar quiz but with 10 million cities after seeing this. You can play it here

https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/1812094/10-million-city-hopping

Hope you don't mind using your idea :)

Thanks a lot!