Back to Kiribati

-

It’s been a busy past few weeks. First of all Julie and Finn came out to Kiribati for a ten day holiday. We popped over to North Tarawa for a couple of days and they got to experience life on a small, remote island in the middle of the Pacific. I think they found the heat and mossies a bit of a challenge but otherwise coped fine.

On the way back to NZ we went to Fiji for a few days and stayed in a lovely Air B&B, an old workers cottage that had been beautifully restored and turned into a holiday let. I was blown away by the amount of fresh fruit and vegies available in the Lautoka markets. We avoided the touristy areas most of the time as we wanted more of a “real” experience. It was a great break and a chance to explore part of a country none us had spent any time in before.

After Fiji we headed home and I spent the bulk of my days doing repairs and maintenance on some of our rentals, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also spent time catching up with friends and family and snuck in a weekends worth of football playing at the Masters games. My team didn’t do very well but it was an enjoyable weekend nevertheless. Still before I knew it the holiday was over and it was time to head back to Kiribati.

I headed back to Tarawa on Sunday arriving on Monday after a night in Fiji feeling refreshed and reinvigorated. As soon as I stepped off the plane was glad to be back. I was feeling a bit ambivalent about returning before getting on the plane, I guess I miss my life and routine back home. Still I’ve only abut ten weeks to go so am looking forward to making the most of my last few weeks here in this remote part of the Pacific.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections- U to Z

-
Image
U is for unforgettable! Kiribati is a country that few people back home I spoke to before I came out here had heard of it.    It is well and truly off the beaten track and down a dead end cul-de-sac as far as being on a major route for international travel destinations go but it is a truly remarkable place and well worth a visit if you ever get the chance- just get off South Tarawa! I’ve had so many experiences over the year but here are a few things that I will cherish and remember fondly when I look back on my time here: The waters of Tarawa lagoon are an impossible shade of turquoise. North Tarawa and the outer islands are simply stunning. The beaches of North Tarawa and the outer islands are picture postcards. They are beautiful, unspoiled jewels and lack the resorts, crowds or other downsides of modern mass tourism. That being said accommodation on North Tarawa and the outer islands can be a tad  basic but is more than adequate- and you will be contributing directly
Read more

The Nippon Causeway

-
Image
The Nippon Causeway is the main link between the heavily populated island of Betio (site of the Battle of Tarawa) and the other atolls in South Tarawa. It was built by the Japanese government in the late 1980s and prior to that boat was the only link between the main communities of Bairiki and Betio. The causeway is the only road linking Betio to the rest of South Tarawa and was badly damaged a combination of spring tides, strong winds and heavy rain following Cyclone Pam in March 2015. The causeway is not without controversy, some 3-4 kms long it is a vital connection for Tarawa but it only has one bridge. Traditionally each tide would have flushed the lagoon and this low lying gap between the atolls was one of the main points that the water flowed into and out of the lagoon with each tide but now the causeway blocks this from happening. The lagoon on South Tarawa is no longer flushed clean every day and so has become quite heavily polluted and is not safe to swim, at least for
Read more

Reflections- N to T

-
Image
N is for- North Tarawa North Tarawa consists of a string of islets stretching along the norther edge of the lagoon from Buota in the south to Buariki in the north. At high tide you can take a ferry across the channel between North and South Tarawa for 50c but when the tide is low you can simply wade across the 500m gap that separates the two. The coconut covered islets are separated in places by wide channels that can be crossed at low tide and a track winds its way through the villages to Naa at the northern tip of the lagoon.   North Tarawa is like a different world to the heavily populated South and I’m sure is more like South Tarawa would have been before the population got so large. The population of North Tarawa (2015 census) is about 6500 and so is much less densely populated to the South which is home to more than   56,000 people. We often walk from Tebon te Keke to Broken Bridge for a swim, a walk of about an hour each way. The track winds past villages and homes,
Read more