Christmas Island trip overview

Aaron and I had a pretty wild adventure this summer.  

Last year I jumped on the opportunity to do a PhD involving the paleoclimate records of El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In July we went on a scientific expedition to the place where ENSO is strongest, the central Tropical Pacific. 

We had bug nets and sunscreen, rash guards and snorkeling equipment, and our passports, but otherwise did not know what to expect!

We spent a couple days near Sunset Beach on O'Ahu before embarking with Fiji Airlines and crossing the international dateline to land on Christmas Island, which is also known as Kiritimati Island.

Common view of the lagoon on Christmas Island

Hawaii, O'Ahu, The North Shore

A hike into the mountains off Kaena Point, near Dillingham Airfield. It was mostly paved until we got near the top. "Real" hiking was surprising hard to find. We watched lots of skydivers and gliders. 

Sea turtles are a fairly common thing to see around the North Shore. This one was in a cove near Haleiwa.

We took a morning drive around the tip of the North Shore, going east, and found this especially beautiful beach. I think it was near Makahoa Point. 

Aaron's tradition on our vacations: to capture a crab. 

We stayed at Sharks Cove Rentals on Kamehameha Hwy. It's cute and convenient to snorkeling and food trucks. What more do you need while in Hawaii?

The porch at the hostel

View from the porch

This is Shark's Cove, right across the street from our hostel. We spent a lot of time snorkeling here. 

Getting to Christmas Island

We flew from Honolulu on Fiji airlines. They route goes from Honolulu to Fiji with a stop on Christmas Island, once a week.

The view on the way in

The airport

Customs

We loaded up into a truck and headed for Dive Kiribati

Island Life

We stayed at Dive Kiribati, in the town of London. It was a dive shop for tourists, and visiting scientists! It was compound of huts directly situated next to the lagoon. We had wifi, probably the only on the island.

The kitchen hut. We were often visited by crabs during the evening meal. 

Our loft, complete with a mosquito net

Sunrise! We saw this view every morning.
It was impossible to avoid, since the roosters started crowing at 4:30 am. 

People and life on the island

The language spoken here is Gilbertese, also called is Kiribati.
Most people learn to speak English in school.

We visited a school to talk about science with the kids!
They loved having us there and it was even more fun for us.

Aaron and Brandon talking about all the tiny creatures you can find in the lagoon.
Their teacher was the translator.

We could not tell if the teacher was happy about our visit....

The climate on Christmas is very dry. They store the precious water in cisterns. Some water comes from a small well field but most comes from storing rainwater.

Cisterns for holding rain. The kids played with tires all the time.
It was so cute. 

We were there for Youth Day, a public holiday. The youth march in teams, play basketball and volleyball tournaments, and at night there is a beauty pageant.

The youth marching. The dog marched too. 

We were the guests of honour, and also the only guests for a while

The contestants were representatives of various churches.
Here is the Catholic contestant delivering her speech. LDS won.

Snorkelling Trip

We took an afternoon off to go snorkelling. Our guides took us to the other side of the lagoon, to Paris, which is the name of the village that used to be located there.  Is was a long boat ride and we crossed  into open ocean along the way and past Cook Island, named for the person that discovered Christmas Island in 1777. 

Looking towards our destination

Our fearless boatman and Brandon

Clam!

Happy snorkelers

Beautiful coral rubble from the beach

Heading home

The last night we on the island we got a taste of the fresh coconut water,

and then the local coconut liquor.  

Coconut water

Coconu liquor, from the leaf of the coconut tree

We got up at 3 am to finish packing. The 45 minute drive to the airport at 4:30 am in an open air truck was amazing. The stars were bright, the breeze was strong. Once at the airport our gear and luggage was checked by hand, then we waited. Only 5 people got on the 737-700 towards Honolulu, our team and one other young man.

Waiting for the plane to land

You don't see a hand written ticket very often

You can see the big island of Hawaii in the distance to the right