Untraveller

We did end up going east, beyond the airport where the road turned north. The population thinned once we passed the airport and the roads became harder to navigate. After crossing a bridge, we found that we couldn’t go any further so we turned back. We did manage to get some nice shots of the surrounding area. Despite how disadvantaged they are, looking over some of the photos now, there were some nice scenes.

Apart from work, we did manage to spend some time exploring the islets. We were pretty limited in what we could see: either we could go west to Betio and the met office, or back east to the airport. We did see a bit of Betio during one of our lunchtime breaks. The met service was on the western side of the city, and we pretty much did circuits around the local streets.

Sleep that first night was a little rough. My room was close to the kitchen so I heard music and the sound to people working when I went to bed around 10:30. I woke up at around 1:30 am to the sound of roosters, lots of roosters, crowing in the night. I eventually got back to sleep but it wasn’t super deep. We had use of the hotel’s car to get to the met office, which was in Betio.

We stayed at the Utirerei Motel, on Tarawa, not too far from the parliament. Now we were told to check our expectations: this was no three-star hotel with a buffet breakfast. It was going to a little on the rough side. But honestly, it was actually quite comfortable. And it had character. I can actually remember quite a bit about that stay. My room. Yeah, it wasn’t flashy, but still comfortable enough.

Kiribati

We left for Kiribati from Nadi in the early afternoon. Our departure was delayed by almost an hour due to someone being too drunk to get on the aircraft. But if I was to be honest, I was in no real rush to start this leg of our journey. For I’m not sure, dear reader, how much you know about Kiribati. I’m sure if you know how to pronounce it (​key-re-bus​) you’d know more than I did before I arrived.

Sunday was the day of our departure. I can’t remember exactly when we had to wake up, but it was very early, around 4 AM maybe. It was dark when we left our hotel and the sun was just starting to rise when we arrived at the airport. I do remember being in line at immigration for a while, waiting for an officer to arrive, but on the whole the trip out was uneventful.

We completed our circumnavigation of the island on the Saturday by travelling around the western coast of the island. We headed off to Faleolo and the airport. The road was lined with houses with either fences or flower bordering them, sometimes both. There were also metal trays in front of each one, which turns out where rubbish is placed for collection. Some of the flowers we saw We followed the road as it turned anti-clockwise towards the south-east and the town of Samai.

At about lunch time we said our goodbyes from the met service and decided to go for a drive. We figured we had about 4-5 hours of daylight so we decided to drive around one half of the island. We headed off east, along the Main East Coast Road. It was quite busy at first. The road was dotted with houses and villages all the way to Falepuna, so I’d imagine most of that was local traffic.

Since most of what we were there to cover was designed to be covered in two days, day three was a bit of an extra. We decided to let the Samoa met service take the lead, asking us any questions they had or allowing us to explain their operations. We were then given a tour of the station. Part of this was to get a sense of our good their internet connection was, but it was also an opportunity to take a look at the rest of their operations.

Day two was pretty much like day one except that we did manage to do a little exploring for the first time. My boss got the idea of getting a hire car for us to use on our stay, which was a great idea. Not only did it save our hosts from ferrying us around, it meant we can go out on our own. And we took the opportunity to do so that day.