What's not close for travelling? American islands (6)

I believe the answer is:

hawaii

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'what's not close for travelling? american islands' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'what's not close for travelling? american islands' is the wordplay.
'not close' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'not closing' mean this).
'for travelling?' is an anagram indicator.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'islands' becomes 'ii' (an abbreviation for island written twice).
'what' with its last letter removed is 'wha'.
'wha' anagrammed gives 'haw'.
'haw'+'a'+'ii'='HAWAII'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hawaii that I've seen before include "Birthplace of the 44th US president" , "State capital is Honolulu" , "US Pacific island state" , "The Aloha State" , "islands" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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