- Where
- Central Pacific, 232 km north of the equator
Line Islands, Kiribati - Coordinates
- 1.85° N
157.40° W - Land
- About 312 km²
lagoons and flats of about 328 km² - People
- 7,369 (2020 census)
- Clock
- UTC+14
- Getting there
- Fiji Airways, once a week
from Honolulu or Nadi - Best visited
- August to December
At midday the sun stood straight overhead, and my shadow hid beneath my feet. Around me lay flat white coral, scrub and a few leaning palms, then a lagoon so wide and shallow that it faded into salt crust with no edge at all. I waded the bright flats behind a guide who pointed at nothing, twice, and twice a grey fish was there. I am still amazed.
The short answer
Kiritimati is a raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands, part of the Republic of Kiribati, Wikipedia records: about 312 square kilometres of land around a lagoon area of roughly 328 square kilometres, together more than 70 per cent of the country’s land, by the Kiribati government’s island report that Wikipedia cites. It lies 232 kilometres north of the equator and 2,160 kilometres south of Honolulu. The 2020 census counted 7,369 people, most in Tabwakea, London and Banana along the north shore. The name is the English “Christmas” written in Gilbertese, in which “ti” is said as “s”. It is a different place from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, an Australian territory.
Why it's worth knowing
First to the new day. Kiritimati keeps UTC+14, the world’s farthest-forward time zone, which makes it one of the first inhabited places to reach each new day and each New Year, Wikipedia records. It lies about 2,460 kilometres east of the 180th meridian; the Republic of Kiribati moved the International Date Line in 1995 so that the whole country, Kiritimati included, keeps one date.
A seabird stronghold. Eighteen species of seabird breed on the atoll, and Wikipedia’s account, from counts made before the El Niño of 1982–83 cut the colonies sharply, gives about seven million sooty terns, listed there as the largest breeding colony in the world, and about a million wedge-tailed shearwaters. Around 7 October each year, some 20 million sooty shearwaters pass the island on their way from the North Pacific to New Zealand, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found. The island was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1975, and access to its most sensitive islets is restricted.
How big is big. Kiritimati is often called the world’s largest atoll by land area. Wikipedia’s wording is more careful: it has the largest land area of any atoll with a lagoon, and only the third largest overall, after Lifou and Rennell, two raised islands without lagoons that the usual claim leaves out.
The field notes
Flats, bonefish and salt
The lagoon opens to the sea in the north-west, at Burgle Channel. To the south-east it breaks up into smaller lagoons, tidal flats, partly hypersaline brine ponds and salt pans, about 168 square kilometres of them, Wikipedia records, so that no firm line divides land from lagoon. The lagoon is known among anglers for bonefish, and giant trevally hunt inside and outside it; fly-fishing magazines that Wikipedia cites rank its hard-sand flats among the best in the world. A 1970s attempt to farm brine shrimp in the salt ponds was abandoned in 1978.
A desert on the equator
Kiritimati sits in an equatorial dry zone. Its rainfall averages 873 millimetres a year, Wikipedia records, but falls as low as 177 millimetres in drought years, when much of the flats and ponds dry out, and the porous coral keeps little of what does fall. The land is mostly low scrub of beach naupaka and grassland, with three small woods of Pisonia trees. Its only native land bird is the bokikokiko, Kiribati’s own reed warbler. Feral cats, established in the nineteenth century, prey on the seabirds, and keeping an unneutered female cat on the island is illegal.
Bomb tests, 1957 to 1962
In 1957 and 1958 the United Kingdom tested hydrogen bombs over and near Kiritimati, then a British colony, in Operation Grapple: nine British tests at Kiritimati and nearby Malden Island, the largest, Grapple Y, on 28 April 1958, RNZ reported in 2018. In 1962 the United States carried out 22 nuclear detonations over the area in Operation Dominic, Wikipedia records. The islanders were usually not evacuated, by Wikipedia’s account; British authorities say many were moved onto navy ships during the tests, RNZ reported. The British government has maintained that there is no conclusive link between the tests and illness among those present and had refused to pay compensation, RNZ reported in 2018, while veterans in Fiji, Kiribati, New Zealand and Britain went on seeking it. In November 2022 the UK government announced a commemorative Nuclear Test Medal, which also covers Kiribati personnel and local employees, GOV.UK records.
Kiritimati from orbit: the lagoon and its maze of salt ponds, August 2023.
Satellite image: ESA, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023) · Kiritimati Atoll ESA25382402 · CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO · cropped
London and Tabwakea on their thin strip of land, from the approach flight, April 2019.
Photograph: Astonmc98 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
A tern over the island's low coral shore.
Photograph: Calvin Smith · Kiritimati - Christmas Island (14353995526) · CC BY 2.0
Coconut palms over open grassland in the island's interior.
Photograph: Calvin Smith · Kiritimati (14373034481) · CC BY 2.0
- Plan the whole stay around the one plane in and the one plane out. Those two appointments outrank every other.
- Carry more drinking water than feels sensible, and refill it whenever you can.
- Visit the bird islets only in the ranger’s company, and tread only where the ranger treads.
- Save a line for the fish you nearly caught. It has become the longest entry by far.
- The villages are people’s homes. A camera waits for a nod here, and a shake of the head is an answer.
The salt flats. South-east of Kiritimati’s main lagoon, the water breaks up into a maze of smaller lagoons, tidal flats, partly hypersaline brine ponds and salt pans, about 168 square kilometres by Wikipedia’s figures, which dry out in drought years and flood again after rare heavy rain; there is no firm line between island and lagoon. They lie inside the wildlife sanctuary and are seen from their edges, with a guide.
Tally, in the marginI tried all morning to find where the lagoon stopped and the island began. The flats would not say. By lunch I had decided they were quite right not to, and I stopped asking.
Getting there
How to get there. By air, about once a week. Fiji Airways flies a weekly rotation between Nadi, in Fiji, and Honolulu by way of Cassidy International Airport, near Banana; flight-schedule sites show the Honolulu leg leaving at midday and landing about three hours and twenty minutes later, on the next calendar day because of the date line. Plan the whole stay around that one flight in each direction. The main villages, Banana, Tabwakea and London, lie along the road across the north of the island.
When to go. The driest months are August to December and the wettest is April, by the Weatherbase figures Wikipedia gives for London; the sooty shearwaters pass around 7 October.
What to arrange ahead. The flight, a bed, and a fishing guide if you mean to fish. The bird islets of the lagoon, among them Cook Island, Motu Tabu and Motu Upua, are restricted areas of the wildlife sanctuary: a visit needs a clearance from Kiribati’s Wildlife Conservation Unit, an access fee of AUD 10 a person, and a ranger or wildlife officer who goes with the group, all arranged through hotels or tour operators, by the government’s trade portal as indexed.
Safety and health. The State Department has Kiribati at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 2 December 2024 in its feed, read 5 October 2026); it notes that commercial transport to and from Kiribati is only sporadically available and advises bringing enough medicines. Kiribati has had a dengue outbreak since April 2025, Pacific health-alert reports record, so use insect repellent. The hazards here are the place’s own: equatorial sun and little fresh water, which Wikipedia notes can run short in dry years.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Kiritimati?
Kiritimati is a coral atoll in the northern Line Islands of the Republic of Kiribati, in the central Pacific 232 kilometres north of the equator and 2,160 kilometres south of Honolulu. It had 7,369 people at the 2020 census.
Is Kiritimati the same as Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean?
No. Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is an atoll in the Republic of Kiribati in the central Pacific. Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is an Australian external territory, more than 10,000 kilometres away. The Pacific one takes its English name from Christmas Eve 1777, when James Cook visited.
Why is Kiritimati one of the first places to see the New Year?
Kiritimati keeps UTC+14, the world’s farthest-forward time zone, so it is one of the first inhabited places to reach each new day. Kiribati moved the International Date Line in 1995 so that the whole country, including Kiritimati, keeps one date.
Is Kiritimati the largest atoll in the world?
By Wikipedia’s account Kiritimati has the largest land area of any atoll with a lagoon, about 312 square kilometres, but only the third largest overall, after Lifou and Rennell, raised islands without lagoons that the usual claim overlooks.
How do you get to Kiritimati?
By air: Fiji Airways flies a weekly rotation between Nadi and Honolulu by way of Kiritimati’s Cassidy International Airport, with the Honolulu leg taking about three hours and twenty minutes, flight-schedule sites show. Most visitors stay a week, from one flight to the next.
Can you visit the bird islets on Kiritimati?
Only with a ranger. Kiritimati’s restricted islets, such as Cook Island and Motu Tabu, need a clearance from Kiribati’s Wildlife Conservation Unit, an access fee of AUD 10 a person and a ranger or wildlife officer with the group, arranged through hotels or tour operators.
What nuclear tests took place on Kiritimati?
The United Kingdom tested hydrogen bombs over and near Kiritimati in Operation Grapple in 1957 and 1958, and the United States carried out 22 detonations in Operation Dominic in 1962. Veterans and islanders have sought compensation; Britain had refused it as of 2018, RNZ reported.
Why do anglers go to Kiritimati?
For fly-fishing on the shallow hard-sand flats of Kiritimati’s lagoon, where bonefish feed, and for giant trevally inside and outside the lagoon. Fishing magazines cited by Wikipedia, among them Outdoor Life, rank its flats among the world’s best.