Pre Arrival

It is with some trepidation that Denise & I get ready to leave for one year in Kiribati. 

What do we know about Kiribati?

Not too much, but after our experience in Tanzania, I found it beneficial to go in with limited knowledge and that way we can shape our own understanding from actual experiences rather that what we hear and see on Google.

“Kiribas” is the official pronunciation for Kiribati as "ti" makes an "s" sound.

Kiribati is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - Google Tarawa, Gilbert Islands.  At this stage it looks like we will be living in Bikenibeu.

The maximum elevation where we are going to be living is 3m above sea level, and no it doesn’t appear to be impacted by tsunamis due to deep water around the islands.

Kiribati had three athletes at the Olympics, two 100mtr runners and one 105kg weightlifter.  The weightlifter was the one who did a dance with the Kiribati flag coming in at the opening ceremony and also did a dance after his final lift.  The dance was to highlight the effect of global warming and rising sea levels on low lying islands, particularly Kiribati.  This is a major concern for Kiribati and they are already relocating some of their population overseas - environmental refugees (unrecognised by most).

I could tell you more, but most of that knowledge was discovered on Google.  We will give you our own firsthand knowledge of what Kiribati is like in the next few weeks.

We depart on Wednesday and overnight in Nadi before landing at Bonriki International Airport.

Concerns 

Fiji Airways wants to charge us $19/kg for excess baggage, so we will not be taking additional items like we did when we went to Tanzania.

The climate will be hot and humid which should prove a challenge together with intermittent power outage and internet outages.

That’s it for now, so back to packing our 23kg each that has to last us a year - good luck with that I hear you all say.