Day 452: Nadi - Kiritimati

Jun 28 - Spend the rest of the night trying to get some sleep on the plane. It feels a bit rough, since we spent the whole day getting sweaty and sandy with no opportunity to really clean up.

Dawn breaks and I can see the strange, fragmented landscape of Kiritimati below. It could hardly look more different from Fiji, flat and tenuous. To my relief, I see forests (of palm trees). From the map I could not tell what sort of vegetation covered this island.

Step off onto the tarmac at Cassidy International Airport, near the town of Banana. The terminal is a small building, relatively new. Immigration is just inside the door, so the line extends back out onto the tarmac. The only question we get asked is if we are here for fishing.

There is a luggage carousel, but it must not be working because they pile up the bags next to it. The terminal is now completely full of people (maybe 30). We eventually sort out who has what and push through the customs check, which is just a few guys sitting at folding tables and collecting Covid forms.

Outside is the owner of our hotel (Timei). We get into an old, clunky SUV full of mosquitos and with a filthy windshield. “Sorry”, apologizes the driver (who is Timei’s daughter Nona), “we didn’t have time to clean it out after the last group of fishermen”. We head west and north, near the outer coast but not within sight of it. Most of the vegetation is coconut palms and different low-lying bushes. Huge crabs scurry off the road to avoid being hit, causing much apprehension for Odette.

We pass the main cemetery, mostly concrete tombstones, some with small houses built around them. It takes over twenty minutes to arc around to a spot near the island's northwest corner. Our place, called Lagoon View Resort, is about 3 km from the ‘end’ of the island in this direction. Best to look at the map below. At the tip is the town of London. This tip forms one side of the mouth of the vast lagoon that occupies much of the island center.

We collapse in our assigned room. The air conditioner and water are not working. I am almost too tired to deal with it but go to ask at least about the water. It gets turned on, so we can wash up and lie down to rest. We are served breakfast. Today is sunny so the room starts to heat up a lot. By 13:00 it is too hot to get any rest at all. Fortunately, by this time they have cleaned up a different room with an operating air conditioner. The explanation is that some units were damaged by heavy rains the night before.

The resort is very simple, with just a few lines of concrete block rooms and a dining hall. Behind this is a grove of young coconut palms and the edge of the lagoon. Large crabs scamper everywhere, to Odette’s delight. They have even dug burrows in the flower beds outside the rooms. The lagoon is a great place for bathing, as the beach is coral sand, and the waves are small. I walk out a few hundred meters and it goes only up to my waist. There are patches of dark seaweed that float around and collect in huge mats off to the south of us.

When I return to shore, there is another guest there, Kyle from Hawaii. He is the only person staying here who is going fishing. He arrived on the same Fiji Airways plane as us but on the return leg from Honolulu. This is also his first time staying in Kiribati.

The dinner is an amazing layout of fish, lobster, and salad. A whole tier above what we ate for breakfast and lunch.

I am concerned about having sufficient cash to pay for the whole week (no credit card payments can be processed). Nona drives us to the nearest ATM, in the town of London three km down the road. Kiribati uses Australian dollars, currently valued at about 0.66/$US. She fuels up at the petrol station, just a pump next to a broken-down shack.

Nona is one of eight daughters, her parents being the owners of the resort. She lived in Hawaii until age 8, and is not happy about being stuck in Kiribati now. Her son, now three, was born in Hawaii to ensure he had US citizenship. While this may seem like a much-maligned case of an ‘anchor baby’, one should consider what Kiribati is facing as a country. Like the Maldives, it will be one of the first countries to disappear with rising sea levels. While places like American Samoa and Cook Islands can always appeal to the US and New Zealand, respectively, for land in case theirs is underwater, Kiribati has to negotiate. Presently, Kiribati has a certain amount of purchased land in Fiji where they can evacuate to, but I do not know if it is enough, and how optimal the holdings are for habitation by a large displaced population. Hawaii, accessible through a US passport, is a good alternative.

On the return trip in the dark, we ask about places we can access the outer coast. It is only a few hundred meters away, but invisible behind the vegetation. She takes us on a track that goes there, and we get out to have a look at the beach. The car dies, so she gets out a starter unit to attach to the battery. The beach is lit only by stars, and the surf offshore is of decent energy (we are on the leeward side of the island).

After about twenty minutes we can get the car started and go back to the resort.