First of all, Kiribati is pronounced Kiribas, because the local language has no “s” and uses “ti” to make the “s” sound. The country encompasses 3.5 million sq km, but has only 811 sq km of land—a lot of ocean between islands! Kiribati consists of 1 raised coral island and 32 tiny low-lying atolls, including Tabuaeran. The islands are spread across the equator and in 3 time zones. Until 1995 they also crossed the International Dateline, dividing the country. The dateline has now shifted to encompass Kiribati on the western side of it and they were the first nation to experience the new millennium.
An atoll is a ring of land around a central lagoon (pictures 1 and 2 attempt to show this). Our marine biologist on board has told us that current theory is that the atoll started out as an island (quite probably volcanic) that was surrounded by a fringe of coral. Over time as the mountain sank (like Hawaii today as the tectonic plates shift under one another) and the coral grew, the island disappeared and left just the coral. Small breaks in the coral allowed the ocean to come in and form the lagoon. This, of course, occurred over millions of years. Tabuareran is approximately 7 miles in diameter, with 3 breaks in the atoll—one large enough for small boats to enter the lagoon, which was blasted open by the British, and 2 small ones, only large enough for canoes. At many places, the land is only 100-200 meters wide. As the oceans rise, there’s great concern that the atoll will become inhabitable. Australia has currently volunteered to take immigrants from Tabuaeran when that happens.
Polynesians arrived somewhere between the 3rd and 5th century, from either Hawaii or the Cook Islands or Tonga. Captain James Cook visited Christmas Island (part of Kiribati) on Christmas Eve 1777, thus it’s name. Tabuaeran was first visited by the American Captain Edmund Fanning, on his ship the Betsy (how prophetic!) on June 11, 1798, giving the island its original name. It has been British—as has almost every other island in the Pacific. It is now independent. The island does, however, have a more recent claim to fame. While picture 3 is not the Minnow, you would recognize the atoll as the opening shot of Gilligan’s Island (and the whole rise of the Marianne vs. Ginger discussion).
There are about 2500 residents of Tabuaeran in 9 villages and I think they all came out to greet us. Children performed in several places (Picture 4), with buckets to collect money (they accept US and Australian dollars) for their school—we left all our remaining Australian dollars. They also use native materials, especially coconut and shells, to make handicrafts, which are sold to people from visiting cruise ships. There is no electricity on the island, although there is at least one generator to keep the radio tower going, which is their connection to the outside world. There is no sanitation system, so twice a day the tide takes away what is “deposited” near the high tide mark. We were asked to bring back any garbage we had (such as water bottles), as there is no provision for garbage on the island (there’s a lot of litter). 2 or 3 ships a year arrive from Australia with provisions and gasoline to run the generator and boat motors. There is no airport—connection with other islands is by boat. They are dependent on fish, seaweed, coconuts and a few chickens and pigs for food. Rain is collected for water.
We swam in the lagoon (Picture 5), although it had a vicious current. There was virtually nothing to see snorkeling. The water was probably high 70s.
It was an amazing place—one that we enjoyed visiting, but we would probably not be happy living there. There are no computers, limited books, no movies and television and (very important to Betsy) no bathrooms! The people were lovely and it was great being a very small part of their life for an afternoon.
We’re north of the equator and east of the dateline. Hawaii is our next stop on 2/26. We’re homeward bound.
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