Kiribati

South Tarawa — the capital of Kiribati (pronounced “Kiribas” — a nation of 33 atolls and reef islands straddling the equator and three time zones, population 120,000, independent since 1979 — the most geographically dispersed nation in the world, with 3.5 million km² of ocean territory but only 800km² of land) with Betio (the most densely populated place in the Pacific — 15,000 people/km², the entire population squeezed onto a narrow coral strip) and the WWII gun emplacements from the Battle of Tarawa.

💡 Kiribati straddles three time zones and sits on both sides of the equator and the International Date Line — making it the only country in the world to span all four hemispheres. When Kiribati redrew the Date Line in 1995 to include the Line Islands (previously on the opposite side), the kiritimati (Christmas Island) Line Islands became the first inhabited places in the world to greet the new day — a marketing decision that briefly made Kiribati famous worldwide.

The Battle of Tarawa sites on Betio (20–23 November 1943 — the US Marine assault on the Japanese-fortified atoll, resulting in 1,009 US Marines killed and 2,296 wounded in 76 hours of fighting — the highest casualty rate per hour of any US battle in the Pacific War, and the battle that forced the US military to completely redesign its amphibious assault doctrine) with the intact Japanese coast defence guns (from the battleship Nagato, now at Bikini), the concrete bunkers and the memorials.

💡 The Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic, 20–23 November 1943) resulted in 4,836 Japanese defenders killed (out of 4,836 — a 99.98% casualty rate; only 17 Japanese survived as prisoners) and 1,009 US Marines killed. When photographs of American dead washing up on the beach were published in the US press, the shock contributed to the first significant domestic opposition to the Pacific War. The battle is studied in every US Marine Corps officer training programme.

North Tarawa (the rural northern portion of the atoll, connected to South Tarawa by a causeway — accessible by boat from Betio, with the most authentic I-Kiribati village life: traditional maneaba (open-sided communal meeting houses of pandanus thatch), traditional fishing by hand-lining and gillnet, and the Te Ao Maori cultural festival tradition — in complete contrast to the overcrowded Betio urban environment 20km to the south).

💡 The maneaba (the traditional I-Kiribati community meeting house — an open-sided structure of pandanus thatch with a ridge pole supported by the trunks of the most significant trees on the atoll, used for village meetings, ceremonies, dancing, disputes and collective work — the most important architectural and social institution in Kiribati) is the centre of every I-Kiribati community. Decision-making in the maneaba follows traditional protocols of rank and seniority; all significant community decisions require consensus reached in the maneaba.

1h30 flight. Kiritimati (Christmas Island — the world’s largest coral atoll by land area at 388km², in the Line Islands 3,300km east of Tarawa — with the finest bone-fishing in the Pacific (bonefish on the white sand flats in gin-clear water, the most sought-after sport fish by fly-fishing enthusiasts), the Christmas Island Wildlife Sanctuary (20 million seabirds including the world’s largest colony of sooty terns — 100+ million individuals, the largest single seabird colony on earth) and the lagoon drive.

💡 Kiritimati (Christmas Island, Kiribati — named by Captain Cook who arrived on Christmas Eve 1777, and not to be confused with Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, an Australian territory) is the world’s largest coral atoll by land area — its 388km² of land dwarfs any other coral atoll on earth. The combination of its enormous flat land area, multiple lagoons and exceptional shallow-water fishery makes it the premier bone-fishing destination in the Pacific.

A full day wade-fishing the Kiritimati flats (the gin-clear, knee-deep tidal flats of the Christmas Island lagoon — the most productive bonefish habitat on earth, with 2–5kg bonefish (Albula vulpes) visible in the clear water at distances of 50m, the largest and most numerous bonefish in any Pacific atoll — guided wading tours leaving at dawn when the tide exposes the flats, with sight-fishing to individual fish in water so clear the fish are visible before they know they are being stalked).

💡 Christmas Island bonefish (the Kiritimati bonefish population — estimated at 100,000+ individual fish in the multiple lagoon systems — are the largest accessible bonefish population in the Pacific, in the clearest and most wadeable water of any atoll fishery. Fly fishermen from the USA and Australia travel specifically to Kiritimati for the sight-fishing experience; a 5kg Christmas Island bonefish is considered the benchmark specimen fish.

The Kiritimati Wildlife Sanctuary (restricted access lagoon area with the world’s largest sooty tern colony — estimated 60–100 million Sterna fuscata nesting on the central lagoon islands — the single most numerically significant seabird colony on earth, so dense that the noise from the colony is audible 5km away, the birds darkening the sky in swarms of millions during the morning and evening flights) and the red-tailed tropicbird and great frigatebird colonies on the outer islets.

💡 The Kiritimati sooty tern colony (60–100 million birds — conservatively 5–10% of the world’s sooty tern population nesting in a single location) creates one of the most extraordinary wildlife spectacles in the Pacific. Sooty terns (Onychoprion fuscatus) spend virtually their entire non-breeding life in continuous flight over the open ocean, only returning to land to nest — a lifestyle that makes them among the most aerial of all seabirds.

A final dawn on Kiritimati (one of the first inhabited places in the world to experience each new day, due to Kiribati’s 1995 Date Line realignment placing the Line Islands ahead of New Zealand — visitors staying at the Captain Cook Hotel can watch the sunrise before almost anywhere else on earth) and the Cook Monument (the landing site of Captain James Cook on Christmas Eve 1777, where Cook recorded the discovery of the island in his journal). Fly from Kiritimati (CXI) via Honolulu or Fiji.

💡 Captain Cook’s visit to Kiritimati on Christmas Eve 1777 (during his third Pacific voyage — Cook noted the island was entirely flat, surrounded by reef and uninhabited, with abundant turtles and seabirds, and planted a coconut grove that still survives) was the first European contact with any of the Line Islands. Cook named it Christmas Island; the I-Kiribati name is Kiritimati — the anglicisation of “Christmas” using the Kiribati phonetic system (in which “ti” sounds like “s”).