Things to Do in Tarawa in December

The Battle of Tarawa in November 1943 left Betio islet with one of the densest concentrations of Pacific War relics anywhere, and December's lower tides expose features on the reef flat that are submerged for much of the year. Rusted Japanese coastal defence guns still point seaward from concrete emplacements, their barrel interiors crusted with salt and coral. Pillboxes pockmarked with naval shell impacts line the shore, some half-swallowed by pandanus roots. The humidity in December sits around 75%, which is more tolerable than the stickier wet months earlier in the year. But you still want to walk early. Start at the old Japanese command bunker near the Betio wharf by 7 AM, when the light is low and golden and the concrete radiates the cool it stored overnight. The smell of the place is tide-flat iodine mixed with rust. Allow three to four hours to cover the main sites on foot, roughly 3 km (1.9 miles) of walking along the seawall and interior tracks. The memorial erected by both Japanese and American veterans near the old pier is quietly devastating in the early morning silence. Book through licensed local guides who know the positions and the stories behind them. See current guided options in the booking section below.

North Tarawa is a 20-minute boat ride from South Tarawa's Buota passage, and it feels like arriving in a different century. The islets of Buariki and Abaiang-facing shores are lined with traditional thatched-roof maneaba meeting houses, breadfruit trees heavy with fruit in December, and lagoon shallows so clear you can count the legs on a hermit crab from the boat. The crossing itself is part of the experience: the outboard skims across water that shifts from turquoise over sand to deep cobalt over the lagoon channel, and if the morning is calm, you might spot a pod of spinner dolphins working the passage. December rain squalls can blow through during the crossing, warm and heavy, gone in fifteen minutes, leaving the air smelling of wet salt and crushed pandanus leaf. On the north islets, village life operates on coconut-and-fish time. You will likely be invited to share a meal of freshly caught skipjack tuna, grilled over coconut husk coals until the skin blisters and chars, served with pounded breadfruit that has the texture of dense, starchy dough. Allow a full day, departing early and returning by mid-afternoon before the afternoon swells build.

The lagoon side of South Tarawa, the stretches between Bairiki and Bikenibeu, offers reef snorkelling that rewards patience over spectacle. This is not the Maldives. The coral here has weathered bleaching events and crown-of-thorns pressures, and what you find are resilient colonies of staghorn and plate coral interspersed with sandy channels where parrotfish, needlefish, and the occasional blacktip reef shark cruise. December's warmer lagoon temperatures and the nutrient stirring from rain runoff tend to bring more fish activity to the shallows in the early morning. Enter from the lagoon-side beaches near the Dai Nippon Causeway before 8 AM, when the water is calmest and the visibility best, typically 10 to 15 metres (33 to 49 ft). The sensation of floating in 1.5 metres (5 ft) of blood-warm water over a coral garden while frigatebirds circle overhead and the distant sound of roosters carries across the lagoon is peculiar to this place. Watch for sea urchins in the shallows, the long-spined black ones cluster on dead coral heads and the spines go through reef shoes.

The maneaba is the social and spiritual centre of I-Kiribati life, an open-sided meeting house with a steeply pitched pandanus-thatch roof held up by coconut-trunk pillars, and December's Christmas season is when these structures come alive with activity. Each village maneaba on South Tarawa hosts singing competitions, te buki and te kaimatoa dance rehearsals, and communal feasts in the weeks surrounding Christmas. The dancing is hypnotic: seated performers move only their arms and upper bodies in precise, synchronized motions while chanting in Gilbertese, and the effect in a torchlit maneaba with the lagoon breeze coming through the open walls is something that stays with you. The smell is coconut oil on skin, woven pandanus mats, and the faintly sweet rot of fallen breadfruit outside. If you are invited into a maneaba, remove your shoes, sit cross-legged, and accept whatever is offered. Te katoka, the fermented coconut toddy tapped fresh each morning from the crown of the palm, is the customary drink. It is mildly alcoholic, slightly fizzy, and tastes like sour coconut water with a yeasty finish. December gives you the best chance of witnessing these gatherings because the holiday preparations draw everyone to the maneaba.

The Bonriki area on eastern South Tarawa, near the international airport, contains one of the atoll's last significant stands of native vegetation alongside managed coconut plantations and the freshwater lens that supplies much of South Tarawa's drinking water. For birdwatching, December is productive: migratory shorebirds including Pacific golden plovers, wandering tattlers, and bristle-thighed curlews are present on Tarawa's reef flats and muddy lagoon margins during the austral summer, joining resident species like the Kiribati reed warbler and white terns that nest in the ironwood trees. The white terns are extraordinary to watch up close. They lay a single egg on a bare branch with no nest whatsoever, and the chick clings on through wind and rain by sheer determination. Early morning walks along the Bonriki shoreline, roughly 2 km (1.2 miles) of packed coral path, put you in range of dozens of species with nothing between you and the birds but humid air that smells of salt and the sweet decay of fallen coconuts. The light at 6:30 AM, low and orange through the palm canopy, is the best on the atoll for photography.