Solomon Islands
Taro Island
A provincial capital on an island low enough that the plan is to move it.
At high tide, salt water seeps through cracks in the concrete and pools at the feet of the market stalls. Taro carries on as a working capital while the sea keeps raising the stakes.
Taro is Choiseul Province's capital, a working island town with a market, an airstrip and a provincial administration on it. It is also low enough that king tides push water up the main street, and planning is under way to move the provincial centre to a safer site on the mainland. That turns an ordinary day here into a conversation about adaptation rather than a sightseeing round. Tide and flooding conditions are checked locally, because the picture changes faster than the plans do.
Solo
A small working capital you can walk in half an hour, where the interesting conversation is about a town that knows it may have to move.
Couple
There is very little to do, which is honest. The reason to come is to see a provincial capital living with a decision that has not happened yet.
- Taro is Choiseul's functioning provincial capital, sitting on a low island.
- There is long-term planning to relocate the provincial centre to a safer mainland site.
- Technical studies document the island's exposure without showing that every street floods on a schedule.
- Domestic flights make it visitable now, while relocation remains a planning process rather than a date.
Ask a Taro guesthouse for a home-cooked plate centred on fresh fish and whatever root crops arrived that day.
Browse the small market for papaya, pineapple and bananas before setting out around Choiseul Bay.
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