Line Islands including Tabuaeran and Teraina

Has anybody been to the outer Line Islands?

Are they close enough to Kiritimati in order to boat hitchhike if there is no public transport? How are the islands from a cultural point of view?

Any info is welcome.

And also, can you suggest anything interesting to do while on Kiritimati? Any not so expensive place to sleep?

Thanks
Adriano

I just had an exchange of messages with a guy I know who works for the government of Kiribati; and I have actually found interesting information. Apparently both Teraina and Tabuaeran are (kind of) regularly served by flights from Kiritimati. I didn't even know there was an airstrip there.

hello adriano
have you been to the line islands?
would be very nice to hear about your trip.

Indeed we made it to both Tabuaeran and Teraina. I wish I had time to write a full travel report, but I don't, so I'll write a short summary:

Yes, there are regular Air Kiribati flights to both islands. They have been introduced less than 2 years ago, there is only one small brokenish plane that has probably been moved to Kiritimati after a long, honourable service in the Gilberts. The plane goes Kiritimati -> Tabuaeran -> Teraina -> Tabuaeran -> Kiritimati every Tuesday and Thursday (before and after the weekly Fiji Airways flight).

You need to book the ticket in the Air Kiribati office in Ronton. It's a paper reservation, they physically write your name on a register, it's like in Tarawa. It's usually fully booked for weeks in advance, but as in Tarawa, if you pray them hard enough, the employee will start calling other passengers until he finds one who gives up his place for you. After all, for most locals it doesn't make a big difference going on the specific day they had booked.

Also, flights are subject to sudden cancellation / reschedule, depending on request of other passengers. But if this happens the local flight agent will keep you up-to-date, don't worry. You can see the flight in a similar way to a shared minivan service, it departs when there are passengers to go.

We spent a full week in Teraina, a couple of hours in Tabuaeran, the rest of the time in Kiritimati.

I have been in most of the Pacific now, including many super remote places like Pitcairn, outer Tuvalu islands, interior of PNG, Rapa Iti, Marquesas, and I can say that Teraina, along with Banaba, is THE most culturally untouched place I have seen. More than the tribes of Sepik River in PNG. The environment is actually very similar to Banaba (a super isolated place where most of the modern things have never and cannot physically arrive), with the difference that they are many more inhabitants, so the culture is much more alive and vibrant. People spend most of their free time singing local music, as you could imagine if you already know Kiribati culture. Except for the main village, where a decent percentage of the houses is made of bricks (let's say around 30%), in all other villages there are only traditional huts. The percentage of traditional huts is higher than in the outer Gilbert islands I have seen, like Abemama.

Teraina receives a handful of foreign visitors a year, and probably all of them work on the Hawaiian sailing boat that visits two or three times a year. The locals who have hosted us claim that we have been the first foreigners ever recorded who came with purpose of tourism.

I have many more things to tell, but no time... the only thing I'd like to mention is the Polynesian marae behind the governmental building in Teraina. As far as I could find, nobody reports it. There are four 2-meters high monoliths, disposed in a row. Locals claim that they are the ruins of a maneaba (Kiribati culture assembly hall) that was there before the government building was made: but I have seen many maraes across Polynesia, and that's definitely one of them. I think the most likely explanation is that a hundred years ago, when Teraina was settled by Kiribati people, they used the stones of the marae as a support for building the maneaba: you can see that the monoliths have a slight incision on the top with a small layer of leftover of concrete. Nobody settling a remote island in the 20th century would ever put up four gigantic monoliths with the purpose of building a hut.

Ah and by the way, I can confirm that there are now currently regular flights from Tarawa to Kanton in Phoenix Islands (I think once a week). Next time I travel to the Pacific, that will be my first destination

thank you very much for all of this useful informations. i will give an update in september when we are back from kiribati. first we head to tonga and samoa for 6 weeks, then to kiribati. them eventually to the marshalls, guam and palau.
i was in the pacific twice, once just in PNG (Sepik, Rabaul) and once in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomons and again PNG (Sepik, Rabaul, Kavieng and Tunung Island). It was just stunning, so it will be nice to come back to the pacific.

In the Marshalls I suggest you to visit Arno, it's really simple to get there from Majuro and super beautiful

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