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Each answer is a place, landmark or attraction in Oceania, one per country. The answers traverse all countries by crossing maritime borders (or close enough). Each clue is missing a country name from another clue (not the answer to that clue, just the name of the country).

Notes:

  • Some long names have been shortened. For example, if the full place name is "Xyz Royal National Park", the answer will be just "Xyz" (often with "royal national park" or similar as the definition).
  • While many of the answers are pretty obscure, all of them are notable enough to have a separate article on the English Wikipedia.
  • In addition to the 14 Oceanian sovereign states, I have included the semi-independent Cook Islands and Niue as well as four other countries holding territory in Oceania: Chile, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.

1. Heads cut in Iran for war, anarchy's starting; {2} briefly turned to crater (4 6)
2. Baby Tony misguidedly goes around {8}'s easternmost embayment (6 3)
3. Beach village tribe's initiation ritual unfinished, brought back near {11}'s capital (7)
4. Mother stands by {7} finishers in wild arena's large marine area (5 5)
5. Lay topless after bola is spinned around both sides of {9} landform (5 3)
6. Crater lake becomes extremely hot one after heart of {16}'s capital is surrounded by turbulent lava (3 4)
7. {12} loses heart, insanely follows mother to volcano (8)
8. Following introduction to forestry in {3}, one area placed next to nearly futile conservation zone (8)
9. Volcanic group is the eastern half of {13} behind... Stay back! No, team leader! Await! Cut it out! (6 7)
10. Climb atop western part of {4} mountain (5 4)
11. Finally, you fail replacing leaders in {17} rock formation (5)
12. {20} briefly left crater's bottom after Python obtained unrestricted entrance to volcano (5 5)
13. Two principal lawmakers associated with {6} to cut out duplicated lagoon (5 5)
14. Trail for famous Gorilla – a path behind {10} finalist (6 5)
15. Jewish leaders, {19} couple, young fanatic beginners and second lieutenant tremble, having extreme love for body of water (9 4)
16. West of central {15}, point an angry official's head to archaeological site (3 5)
17. Water for a western {5} drinking establishment next to e-commerce corporation (7 3)
18. Museum to unusually obtain emu associated with {14}'s island, initially (2 9)
19. One family in the heart of {18} returning to all-round nuclear test site (6 5)
20. Seaside, Gabe unexpectedly embraces girl in front of {1}'s leaders (5 5)

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  • $\begingroup$ Oh it's this again... :) $\endgroup$ Jun 6, 2019 at 10:39
  • $\begingroup$ When you run out of ideas, reuse an old one! :P $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jun 6, 2019 at 10:43

3 Answers 3

9
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Answers (including those found by Gareth McCaughan)

  1. Heads cut in Iran for war, anarchy's starting; {2} briefly turned to crater (4 6)

Rano Raraku = (I)ran + (f)or + (w)ar + anarachy + UK (reversed)
Easter Island, Chile

  1. Baby Tony misguidedly goes around {8}'s easternmost embayment (6 3)

Bounty Bay = Baby Tony, anagrammed around "u" at the end of Tuvalu.
Pitcairn Islands, UK

  1. Beach village tribe's initiation ritual unfinished, brought back near {11}'s capital (7)
    solved by Gareth McCaughan

Tautira = tribe + ritua(l), anagrammed + Australia
French Polynesia, France

  1. Mother stands by {7} finishers in wild arena's large marine area (5 5)

Marae Moana = Ma + (arena + Samoa), anagrammed.
Cook Islands

  1. Lay topless after bola is spinned around both sides of {9} landform (5 3)

Alofi Bay = (L)ay + bola(reversed) with "fi" from Fiji in between.
Niue

  1. Crater lake becomes extremely hot one after heart of {16}'s capital is surrounded by turbulent lava (3 4)

Vai Lahi = hot i after "lava", anagrammed including "i" from Palikir.
Tonga

  1. {12} loses heart, insanely follows mother to volcano (8)

Matavanu = Van(u)ata, anagrammed + Ma. (also found by El-Guest).
Samoa

  1. Following introduction to forestry in {3}, one area placed next to nearly futile conservation zone (8)

Funafuti = F + un + a + futile
Tuvalu

  1. Volcanic group is the eastern half of {13} behind... Stay back! No, team leader! Await! Cut it out! (6 7)

Yasawa Islands = Stay, reversed without "t" from team + await
Fiji

  1. Climb atop western part of {4} mountain (5 4)

Mount Cook
New Zealand

  1. Finally, you fail replacing leaders in {17} rock formation (5)

Uluru = Nauru - Na + you fail
Australia

  1. {20} briefly left crater's bottom after Python obtained unrestricted entrance to volcano (5 5) solved by Gareth McCaughan

Mount Yasur = crater after USA, reversed, following Monty (Python) including "u" from unrestricted.
Vanuatu

  1. Two principal lawmakers associated with {6} to cut out duplicated lagoon (5 5)

Langa Langa = lawmakers + tonga, duplicated.
Solomon Isalnds

  1. Trail for famous Gorilla – a path behind {10} finalist (6 5)

Kokoda Track = Koko + D (final of New Zealand) + a + track
Papua New Guinea

  1. Jewish leaders, {19} couple, young fanatic beginners and second lieutenant tremble, having extreme love for body of water (9 4)

Jellyfish Lake = Jewish + Marshall + young fanatic + lieutenant + sh(l)ake, where the l comes from love
Palau

  1. West of central {15}, point an angry official's head to archaeological site (3 5)

Nan Madol = N + an + mad + official + Palau.
Micronesia

  1. Water for a western {5} drinking establishment next to e-commerce corporation (7 3)

Anibare Bay = A + Niue + bar + Ebay
Nauru

  1. Museum to unusually obtain emu associated with {14}'s island, initially (2 9)

Te Umanibong = "obtain emu", anagrammed + New Guinea.
Kiribati

  1. One family in the heart of {18} returning to all-round nuclear test site (6 5)

Bikini Atoll = "i kin" within Kiribati (reversed) and A(to)ll.
Marshall Islands

  1. Seaside, Gabe unexpectedly embraces girl in front of {1}'s leaders (5 5)
    solved by Gareth McCaughan

Glass Beach = Gabe, rearranged including "lass" + Chile
USA

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice job! One correction: in #18 what's needed is the main island, which gives 2 letters. $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jun 6, 2019 at 17:39
  • $\begingroup$ @jafe Ah, yes, of course, I had missed the additional "n". Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Jun 6, 2019 at 18:52
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I have answers to everything ... except that one doesn't work, in a way that makes me wonder whether the problem might be in the puzzle rather than my working out. (I haven't looked at the other answers here, which I assume have almost all my answers and got there first, except to verify that they don't resolve the thing I'm confused about. [EDITED to add:] ... hexomino's answer was updated and now does resolve that thing.)

 1 RANO RARAKU    CHILE            {2} is UK
 2 BOTANY BAY     AUSTRALIA        {8} is TUVALU       *** this one doesn't work
 3 TAUTIRA        FRANCE           {11} is AUSTRALIA   (Tahiti is French)
 4 MARAE MOANA    COOK ISLANDS     {7} is SAMOA
 5 ALOFI BAY      NIUE             {9} is FIJI
 6 VAI LAHI       TONGA            {16} is F S of MICRONESIA
 7 MATAVANU       SAMOA            {12} is VANUATU
 8 FUNAFUTI       TUVALU           {3} is FRANCE
 9 YASAWA ISLANDS FIJI             {13} is SOLOMON ISLANDS
10 MOUNT COOK     NEW ZEALAND      {4} is COOK ISLANDS
11 ULURU          AUSTRALIA        {17} is NAURU
12 MOUNT YASUR    VANUATU          {20} is USA
13 LANGA LANGA    SOLOMON ISLANDS  {6} is TONGA
14 KOKODA TRACK   PAPUA NEW GUINEA {10} is NEW ZEALAND (could be TRAIL instead of TRACK)
15 JELLYFISH LAKE PALAU            {19} is MARSHALL ISLANDS
16 NAN MADOL      F S o MICRONESIA {15} is PALAU
17 ANIBARE BAY    NAURU            {5} is NIUE
18 TE UMANIBONG   KIRIBATI         {14} is PAPUA NEW GUINEA
19 BIKINI ATOLL   MARSHALL ISLANDS {18} is KIRIBATI
20 GLASS BEACH    UNITED STATES    {1} is CHILE        (I guess this is the one in Kauai)

What conspicuously doesn't seem to work:

2 seems like it absolutely must be BOTANY BAY, with {8}'s easternmost -> A. But (1) Botany Bay is in Australia and (2) 8 is Tuvalu. (1) is a problem because there doesn't seem to be much room for doubt about 11 which is also in Australia.

[EDITED to add:] Aha, hexomino figured out something better for the one that confused me:

2 is actually BOUNTY BAY in the Pitcairn Islands. Much better!

(Unless hexomino's answer is full of errors -- which I bet it isn't -- clearly they should get the green checkmark, not me. It looks like the only thing I got to before they did is #3.)

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2
  • $\begingroup$ There were actually 3 answers I hadn't written in. Although I had the answer to #12, I couldn't figure out how it was clued. I can see where the last four letters are clued but how does "Python obtained unrestricted entrance" make up the rest? $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Jun 6, 2019 at 14:38
  • $\begingroup$ 12: U in MONTY. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Jun 6, 2019 at 14:45
5
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For @hexomino’s answer:

7.

Country: Samoa. Vanuatu loses heart (VANATU) wildly (TAVANU) follows mother (MA) = MATAVANU.

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