Kiritimati, pronounced Krismas, aka Chrismas island, has been a seriously different experience. Even different from the rest of Kiribas that I had visited (I was in Tarawa for a couple of days then on Abaiang, one of the outer Gilbert Islands, for 4). It is fairly recently populated by folks fleeing overpopulated Tarawa or more backwards outer island, coming to Kiribati which is only 3 hours by plane from Honolulu and only 4-5 from Fiji. To fly from the capital of Kiribati to Kiritimati, you have to go through Fiji. Kiribati Airlines does not have a plane that can fly the thousands of miles of the distance. How did Kiribati end up with Line Islands where Kiritimati is the largest? When the Brits gave Kiribati independence, Tuvalu seceded and this vast Pacific area that Brits owned all became one country. The Central Government of Kiribati, a certifiably corrupt and self-interest serving bunch, give laws and rules to Kiritimati, collect taxes, do occasional posturing and then do not really bother with it. The proximity of the United States to this – the largest atoll in the world – means that occasional American tourists come here to enjoy world-class fly fishing and get ripped off. There is a Fiji Airlines flight going from Nadi to Honolulu and then Honolulu to Nadi, stopping in Kiritimati in both directions. That’s why I am here. So yea, 2 flights (the same plane) once a week qualifies this large room to be an international airport.

Right now outside of this large departure area, there are many picnics. The flight is the reason for many people to bring their vehicles and loads of food and enjoy a hang around the airport. Yes, it’s Wednesday but people don’t seem to work much on Kiritimati. Other than ripping American fishermen off, the island has a corner on aquarium fish collection (in fact the only scubadivers on the island are the collectors; and in another fact, that’s exactly who took me out diving 6 days in a row). There is Australian Aid, probably some government subsidies and then subsistence. People live in corrugated-metal contraptions thrown together. They live in shipping containers that they cut doors in. They live under palm-leaf covered wooden platforms in gardens. 20+ folks mutually related reside in brick houses divided into a maze of rooms. Island’s cultural life, education and sports are all organized by churches. The strongest are the Catholics and the United Church (the latter has a little compound on the ocean where I actually stayed, clueless ahead of time of who the owners are). On the rise are the Mormons. And there is a peculiar presence of Bahai, Jehova’s Witnesses and the like.

Each church, much like in Tarawa and on Abaiang, has at least one, often many maneabas where people hang day in day out, sometimes even sleep there. The churches own the primary and secondary schools (this is new; up till fairly recently, kids had to go to Tarawa for schooling).

All education after the fourth grade is in English. You wouldn’t be able to tell from how little people know it. Very few speak well enough to understand.

There are only some 6,000 people, they all know each other and are likely in each other’s business… 

Food is seriously lacking in nutrition. No vegetables are being grown on the island, with some rare exceptions. Fish is pulled from the sea and the rest is all imported. Rice and bread and ramen noodles are eaten constantly. People are fairly overweight once they cross 25. 

People marry fairly early. And men like to entertain extramarital affairs with underage girls. How do I know? It’s ramped and very visible.  Why are girls into it? Because there is not much else to do, I suppose.

If they are not in the church maneabas, folks are lying around on the covered platforms during the day and evening. 

The jobs available are with the handful of government offices, diving for the aquarium fish, fishing with nets, hustling tourists, having tiny stores that sell next to nothing. But mostly they just lie around.

I was guessing that perhaps they are so ill-nourished, despite the extra pounds, lacking vitamins, minerals, protein and exercise.

Why did I come here? Other than because I’ve never been, it’s there and it sounded like a good non-touristy place to spend super touristy holidays. Also, I landed here at the first sunrise of the new decade on the planet. My flight touched the ground at 6:30 am and at 6am the sun started appearing so I watched it from above the clouds and as landing. The entire country of Kiribati is on the west of the date line even though Kiritimati is 2 hours East of the dateline. The time is the same in Hawaii and Kiritimati but it is 24 hours later on Xmas island. 

There is a plaque in the abandoned once exclusive government owned hotel in the little village of Banana that talks about the first sunrise of the year 2000. OK, so I did not get there for the first sunrise of the millennium (I was at the Ivy Room!) but I made it over for the first morning of the roaring 20’s.

Kiritimati is a beautiful island. It is super dry – a fellow passenger coming here on the flight from Fiji – told me “It’s just sand and coconut trees.” And you know what, it’s coconut trees only on a small South-West part of the island. The rest is sand and succulent shrubbery covered in golden twine. As far as the eye can see. 

The atoll is not super skinny with a giant lagoon like say Rangiroa or Fakarava. There are small lagoons and only one is connected to the ocean via a pass. The rest are salt lakes effectively.

And there are many many many birds on those salt lakes. The North of the island where the salt lakes are is completely unpopulated, for many miles, so poor birds get a break. Their eggs and they themselves are still eaten on Kiritimati.

The egg- and seabird-eating are a reason that the Wildlife Protection section of the Fisharies Department had to make small islands within the atoll protected zones. I visited 2 of those islands and was amazed at the number of birds and rare species: Phoenix petrel, wedge-tailed shearwater, red-tailed tropicbird, masked booby, red-footed booby, great frigate bird, Pacific golden plover, wandering tattler, white tern, sooty tern, brown noddy, black noddy… And not only do you see them there; they NEST there. Eggs, babies, parents on nests, the works! Heaven!

How’s diving? Actually really good. Still, The once beautiful and massive hard corals are all dead. I mean DEAD! Not bleached. Not damaged. Dead!

However, the number and variety of fish are stunning. Loads of little aquarium-size fish, you guessed right.Also many different kinds of morays, tangs, parrots, wrasses, butterflies, damsels, triggers, trevalies, jacks… Bigger fish are a little less visible. We only saw Napoleons when we went shore diving on the remote unpopulated ends of the island. We only saw barracuda a couple of times. Solitary. None of those large Solomon schools. Occasional nurse shark, white-tip reef shark, black-tip reef shark. We saw a few mantas, some large stingrays and many green turtles, full size and totally unphased by the presence of divers. We saw some gorgeous octopus, mostly on the far ends of the island where fishing is not frequent. I watched one bulldoze kilos and kilos of sand and some giant rocks out of a hole he seemed eager to inhabit. 

We saw the reproduction of yellow-striped snappers. They seem to enjoy reproducing in very very large numbers. 

A ton of big-eye red fish and not only under overhangs.

There were some beautiful large sea cucumbers of 3 different kinds. But no nudibranchs, no anemone, no shrimp… Nothing that fully depends on the coral, I presume.

Water temp is 26-27 Celsius in early January. The dying of coral was caused by excessively warm temperatures during El Niño years.

My dive master was not certified and did not own a dive computer or a spare second stage. Or a dive suit or a pair of boots that did not need to be held together by a plastic bag. He made his living collecting aquarium fish. He took me to good spots that he knew from his trade. I would then structure our dives according to depth, current, swell and deco times. I had some lovely 90 minute dives when I could organize them that way. Most of our dives had max depth at about 30-35 meters. We took a boat out 4 days and we drove a truck around the island and shore-dived 2 days. 

The skipper couldn’t really follow bubbles so I would make sure to explain to him where he should expect to find us. Not easy if you are not intimately familiar with dive sites but my self-preservation and my years of diving (plus that dive-master cert) all came in handy.

The last time those 2 took a diver out was a year and a half ago. In fact, I think that was the last time anyone went diving in Kiritimati. 

The lagoon is allegedly full of bonefish. I have not verified but folks go fly-fishing for them.

There is one bank that opens at 9. Does no work until 11am when Tarawa is open for business. Then closes at 1pm.

And they will rip you off, be warned!!!!

Other than my United Church compound where a large gathering of people in white took place well into the night right outside my room door 3 times during the week while I stayed there, the accommodations are available here and there but the only really good one is across the street from the Mormon Church. Lagoon View is a clean, peaceful, quiet establishment with outstanding staff, great food and a lovely atmosphere. IT is owned and managed by a lovely couple with matching names: Tiemi and Tiema. Their beautiful 7 daughters, much like their parents, speak perfect English and have really pleasant and hospitable demeanor.

My place had no food when I arrived. They served me 2 pieces of bread for breakfast (which costs $10 Australian) and a potato and some defrosted corn for dinner (which cost $20 Australian).

I tried eating at the only restaurant in town that is not attached to any accommodation, Elisa’s. They had only rice, a little bit of chicken and defrosted taro.

An overpriced accommodation and restaurant, Ikari, caters to American fishermen with sizable pockets but is small and neurotically run by a young Wyoming fly-fishing couple who seem very much like fish out of water on Kiritimati. Their one cook, Tess, was very pleasant and very kind to feed me some fish one day the couple was out on a picnic with the group. She charged me $20 Australian for some tasty breaded fish, a couple of slices of tomato, and a pile of rice. That’s actually a good price (half what the youngsters of Ikari normally charge).

The stores sell many kinds of spam and canned fish along with some variations on Chitos, and a ton of similar garbage. 5-kg and 10-kg sacks of CalRice filled the floor space. Baked bread sold by 2 in a plastic bag its handles tied in a knot for $2 Aus. The stores would have one fridge and it may contain some eggs, some tiny plastic bottled water and a 3-4 kinds of sugary drinks. No butter, no cheese, no veg, no fruit, no milk, no fresh meat or chicken. A couple would have a freezer with frozen veg and more spam-like substances.

Kids and teenagers would approach you saying “No money. No money.”

Folks were not nearly as friendly as on Abaiang or even Tarawa.

That said, i had a blast one evening crashing a karaoke-kava gathering for a short while. It was a group that was associated with the family that organized my diving. The guy who would usually pick us up from the boat in his truck (the same truck we used to traverse the island looking for good diving) had told me earlier that day that he and his karaoke band were going to perform in the local jail. That of course sounded like a must-see to me. I went to the house where the entire extended family lived to find out how to find the said jail. The guy’s wife had no clue about any jail gig but took me to the place where her hubby hung with his karaoke machine, 4 singing friends and a snazzy synthesizer. The hubby was partial to the latter-day Rod Stewart opus. But luckily before they sent me away, the kava imbibing musical posse also played a couple of beautiful local songs. That night was my birthday. And even though my party attendance was short (30 minutes max), i will remember it well.

Oh and yea, Kiritimati and the Line Islands (which include Bikini Island) are famous for the nuclear and hydrogen bomb testing in the 1950’s (Brits) and 1960’s (Yankees).

I’m now on the flight back to Fiji. Really happy to be going there. I can’t wait for the breakfast with bananas, popo papaya and muesli…