Blogs from Tarawa, Kiribati, Oceania

Kiribati, some will say it is difficult to find a more remote place on the planet, but most will simply never have heard about this place! Yes, this is an independent state, member of the United Nations since 1999! 117,000 inhabitants, with around 63,000 of them living on South Tarawa where I'm spending 3 nights/4 days. To get here, most will come via the 3 hours flight, twice per week from Nadi in Fiji. You also have the Air Nauru shuttle doing Brisbane-Naura-Tarawa-Majuro-Pohnpei on Thursday and back on Friday. Air Nauru also just started a once a week Naura-Tarawa-Kirimati. The inhabitants of Kiribati used to have to go via Fiji if they wanted to do the domestic travel from Tarawa to Kirimati! Not anymore, but the flight is a whooping 4 hours. Imagine, this is nearly ... read more

The only way I've heard of any part of Kiribati is that the Navy has an amphibious assault ship called the Tarawa. My grandfather was on one of the Tarawa ships, I think it was a destroyer at that time though. Kiribati (pronounced Kee-ree-bahs) is an island group in Micronesia straddling the equator and, until 1995, the International Date Line. It is located in the Pacific Ocean along the edges of the Equator and includes the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line island groups. Most are uninhabited and are the protruding tips of undersea volcanoes, extending only a few feet above sea level. Kiribati's 33 atolls are scattered over an area of 3.5 million km². The waters surrounding Kiribati witnessed intense whaling activities in the 19th century and the islands were an important battlefield during World War II. ... read more