If you’ve been out here in Kiribati a while and spend some time with the local expats/i-Matung, one peculiarities you will soon notice is that one of the main topics of conversation is…food!   That’s right, one of the main things we talk about is food, or more importantly what is available, where and for how much. Almost all the food here is imported. There is next to no land to grow anything on and even if there were the soils are coral sand, great for coconut palms but bugger all use for much else. The Taiwanese government has a small agricultural ttraining centre where they do grow/produce amazing variety of things and are teaching the locals how to grow more varieties of vegetables but this process has been extremely labour intensive- even getting the sand to a reasonable quality of soil using seaweed and other compostable materials was a major mission. And even though they are producing more varieties of vegetables- which are donated to local schools/charities- there are...

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...

Another week in paradise and I must say it’s been quite a good one. I biked to work three days this week and really enjoy biking early in the morning before it gets too hot and observing the local i-Kiribati people going about their morning routines as they start their day. There isn’t too much traffic about and it is a nice way to begin the day. I quite like the ride home too and by the time I get there I feel like I’ve had some exercise which is good. The only issue really is the causeway is still being upgraded and biking across the hardpacked coral sand is a bit of a pain. On Friday afternoon we had a brief shower and so the surface was full of puddles and quite slippery. I was covered in fine, white coral mud by the time I crossed but it was about 10 minutes faster to bike across than take a car or minibus as they had to wait in several areas where it is one lane and then weave backwards and forwards across the road dodging the larger puddles of water and slushy mud.  T...

This fortnightly blog has turned out to be anything but. My apologies for that. After mum died I really didn’t feel like blogging, had too many other things on my mind and then my computer died, leaving me computerless in Kiribati for about a month before I went back to New Zealand for a break. I returned to New Zealand for an extended (six week) holiday at the beginning of June.  I really needed to go back, check on my family and more importantly on my father and ensure that everything was going okay with him. VSA were really, really good about it, as was MTC the organisation that I’m working for. I really enjoyed being home, catching up with Julie, the kids, dad, and my friends. My brother popped over for a few days from Australia and spent some time with dad which he enjoyed. I also managed to get a few games of footy in for my football team and also make the most of the New Zealand winter, a fire every night, frosts in the morning, lovely. Oh winter how I...

Today is ANZAC day, a day to remember those New Zealand and Australia men and women who served in our armed forces and were wounded or killed in war. To my mind ANZAC day is a day of solemn reflection and a chance to pay tribute to the sacrifices made by those who went before us and to remember the terrible impact war has had on families and communities all across the country, and indeed the world. Both my grandfathers fought in World War One. One an engineer on a minesweeper in the Royal Navy, seeking out and patrolling against German U boats in the North Sea, the other served in the trenches in the Western Front. Both survived the war and both were still alive when I was young so to me World War One is still not a distant, black and white war seen in grainy footage on tv but a real conflict that had a real impact on my own family. It is for them that I attend Dawn Services, to thank them for their service to ensure that they, and the countless other young New Zealand and Aust...

(Still struggling a bit out here at present but getting back into my weekly routine. Yesterday I decided to head down to Friendship Bridge at the far end of South Tarawa for a swim. I had biked there a week before heading back to NZ and was pretty knackered by the time I biked home. It is probably a 46-50km round trip which with the heat and my general lack of bike fitness meant it was going to be a bit of a challenge, at least it was first time I did it. Still it was another beautiful sunny day and I needed to get out and get active.   Friendship bridge is a metal bailey bridge built by the Americans that spans the causeway/lagoon that links North and South Tarawa. It is at the far eastern end of the island, two or three kilometres north of the airport. The channel is about 100 metres wide and the water is quite deep here. It is a natural passage for the tides that rise and fall each day, draining and filling the lagoon in an endless cycle that has been conducted for mil...

One thing I really didn’t consider fully before I came was that I might lose one of my parents while I was volunteering. Mum and dad have been married for 57 years and although mum’s health has been declining in recent years, I really didn’t think when I popped round to see her and dad and said “bye, I’ll see you in June”, that that would be the last thing I’d ever say to her. On Tuesday March 20 th I had a typical day here, work and then on the way home checking out the surf on the reef to see if it was worth popping out for a surf- and it didn’t look too bad.   I was about to head out when I noticed that 5 What’s App messages had arrived between when I got on the minibus from work and home.   I quickly checked them, only to find that Julie had messaged me to say that my mum had had a heart attack and was on the way to hospital and that it didn’t look good. I kind of went blank, tried to figure out how to get off Tarawa and what to do. Eventually I figured it out, ma...