Tarawa
The capital atoll of Kiribati: a string of islets tied together by causeways, around a lagoon of some 500 km².
- Arrival
- Bonriki International · TRW
- To town
- About 4 km; one road runs on to Betio
- Private jets
- At TRW, 2,011 m runway, weekday hours
- Best time
- April to October
The city
Causeways round a lagoon.
Some 56,000 people, about half the country, live on South Tarawa (2015 census), a thin chain of islets now joined by causeways from Betio in the west to Tanaea in the north-east. The State House is on Bairiki, Parliament sits at Ambo, and the islands have been governed from here since 1895. Inside the chain lies a lagoon of about 500 km², with a wide pass for ships.
US Marines came ashore on Betio on 20 November 1943. The fighting lasted 76 hours and killed about 6,000 people, and the island is still scattered with Japanese bunkers and pillboxes, wrecked amtracs and tanks, and the Vickers eight-inch coastal guns. North Tarawa begins at the bridge to Buota: villages such as Abaokoro and Buariki, a ferry to Abatao, and channels you wade at low tide.
- Betio Red Beaches 1, 2 and 3, where pillboxes, Sherman and Japanese tanks and the old coastal guns still lie.
- The war memorials One to the British and New Zealand coastwatchers, and a cenotaph raised as a time capsule for the Americans who fell.
- North Tarawa Village islets from Buota up to Buariki, closer in their ways to the outer Gilberts than to the capital.
Arriving
Into Bonriki.
Bonriki International, on the islet of Bonriki at the eastern end of South Tarawa, is the main gateway to Kiribati. One asphalt runway of 2,011 metres; the airport opens from eight in the morning to half past four on weekdays and until a quarter past twelve on Saturdays.
- Nadi 3 h 10
- Brisbane 5 h 20
- Honolulu 5 h 20
- Auckland 5 h 50
- Sydney 6 h 10 long-range jet
When to go
April to October.
On the equator the thermometer hardly moves: 31 °C by day in every month, the sea at 28 or 29 °C. December and January bring the most rain. The Tourism Authority of Kiribati calls April to October the pleasant months, when the wind blows from the north-east; from November to March westerly gales bring the wet.
- 31° J 257 29°
- 31° F 200 28°
- 31° M 189 28°
- 31° A 174 28°
- 31° M 143 29°
- 31° J 132 29°
- 31° J 164 29°
- 31° A 121 29°
- 31° S 111 29°
- 31° O 108 29°
- 31° N 120 29°
- 31° D 208 29°
Elsewhere in Kiribati
More reasons to come.
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