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

Rate:

Featured Quiz

Last updated: April 9, 2021

More quiz info >>

First submitted	April 8, 2021
Times taken	19,535
Average score	73.3%
Rating	4.90

Quiz and answer stats >>

Friends stats >>

5:00

Give Up?

Enter answer here

/ 30 guessed

The quiz is paused. You have remaining.

Scoring
You scored / = %

      This beats or equals
      % of test takers
      also scored 100%
      
The average score is 

        Your high score is
        
      
Your fastest time is 
more stats >>
friends stats >>

Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...

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

Level 82

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.

+14

Level 46

Apr 8, 2021

I've made all distances based on capital cities. Thanks for the great input.

Level 67

May 3, 2021

Isn't Dili closer to Jakarta than Singapore is?

Level 74

Apr 8, 2021

Why'd you choose the Asian country that you did to be the starting point? Nice quiz by the way

Level 46

Apr 8, 2021

No reason. I just picked it. Wish I had some clever reason behind the choice. Thanks for asking.

+50

Level ∞

Apr 8, 2021

Are you guys talking about the African nation of Cyprus?

+30

Level 75

Apr 8, 2021

I vote for Cyprus to be part of Antarctica so that it no longer has to be an uninhabited continent!

+18

Level 86

Apr 8, 2021

Cyprus is on the moon. Change my mind.

Level 40

May 3, 2021

It is European though? (officially in the EU and stuff)

Level 50

May 3, 2021

It's in the EU which is an economic union but it geographically is in Asia

Level 75

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.

+11

Level 69

Apr 8, 2021

Any reason for not including Tuvalu? I think you have all of Oceania except it.

Level 46

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.

+10

Level 67

Apr 8, 2021

Yes, part 2! with Bahrain and all of the Caribbean islands nations!

Level 46

Apr 8, 2021

👍🏾👍🏾

Level 73

Apr 8, 2021

This was very fun. Looking forward to a part 2!

Level 72

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.

Level 82

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.

Level 83

Apr 9, 2021

I can only imagine what route a European swallow would take.

Level 82

Apr 9, 2021

The route is unimportant - what matters is its velocity! ;-)

Level 43

Apr 9, 2021

Which depends on whether or not it is carrying a coconut.

Level 85

Apr 9, 2021

Yes, I was just wondering if it was an UNLADEN swallow!

Level 73

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.

Level 64

May 3, 2021

Yes, I was thinking this, too. Misleading hint.

Level 85

Apr 9, 2021

Enjoyable quiz. My important and substantive criticism is that the Portuguese-speaking country became "independent" in 2002, not "indepedent".

Level 84

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.

Level 55

Apr 9, 2021

I realized I don't have to type the Asian country in the first gray box

Level 43

Apr 9, 2021

Why isn't Bahrain in here?

Level 68

Apr 9, 2021

The UK finally abandonned Gibraltar and became a full scale island country! :-)

Level 75

Apr 9, 2021

Spelling in 2nd Portuguese clue: independent.

Level 69

Apr 10, 2021

This bird hates Tuvalu?

Level 70

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.

Level 75

May 3, 2021

no, none of them do, or at least not in english

Level 71

Apr 11, 2021

Good quiz, just got my rhythm going when the bell went :o)

Level 58

May 5, 2021

I really liked this quiz

Level 60

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".

Level 48

Dec 1, 2021

I thought Indonesia was more east than japan I probably forgot Marcus Island.

Level 65

Jan 3, 2022

What a great quiz to show the connections between Europe and Oceania ;)

Level 66

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.

Level 44

Feb 14, 2022

bahrain?? or what about fiji

Level 57

Mar 26, 2022

I believe the richest African nation is Equatorial Guinea and not Seychelles. It should be changed to richest African island nation.

Level 68

Mar 26, 2022

Nope.

Level 75

May 2, 2022

From Samoa, the closest island nation that has not yet been named is Tuvalu, not New Zealand.

Countries of the World Quiz

US States Quiz

Fast Typing A to Z

Fifty US States in One Minute

Africa Map Quiz

World Map Without 20 Random Countries

Countries by First Two Letters in 90 Seconds

Random Capital to Country

All Country Flags of the World

Biggest Cities in the World Quiz

Fruits by Picture