Solomon Islands
Wagina Island
Gilbertese families resettled here generations ago, and now farm seaweed off the lagoon.
The dancing is sharp, low-hipped and unmistakably Kiribati; the hardwood trees behind the dancers are Melanesian. Wagina holds a community carried across an ocean that has kept itself whole.
Wagina's families came from the Gilbert Islands by way of the Phoenix Islands, a route traced in published research. Tony Uro's Otin Tai enterprise runs two visitor bungalows, a restaurant, a sea taxi and lagoon-side services from the island. Flights reach Kagau from Honiara, and the boat leg is arranged from there. Seaweed farming, boats and island life run into one another here, and the host shapes any community encounter.
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Solo
Two bungalows and a sea taxi is the whole infrastructure, which suits one traveller happy to eat where the family eats.
Couple
It pairs naturally with the Arnavons: bungalows and a boat here, ranger-led turtle beaches an hour away.
- Wagina's Gilbertese families arrived by way of the Phoenix Islands, a resettlement traced in published research.
- Otin Tai, Tony Uro's enterprise, runs two visitor bungalows, a restaurant and a sea-taxi service.
- Flights reach Kagau from Honiara, and the boat transfer is arranged locally from there.
- Sixty years on from the resettlement, the dancing here is still unmistakably Kiribati, sharp and low-hipped, a culture carried whole across the Pacific.
The bungalow host cooks fish from the lagoon with roots grown on the island.
Seaweed is farmed here rather than eaten here, so the plate stays fish, taro and whatever is ripe.
Abaiang
Kiribati
At high tide the sea surrounds Tebunginako's church; the village choir times services around it.
Abbotsbury
England
A swannery where six hundred mute swans nest in reed beds behind the Chesil Bank.
Abel Tasman National Park
New Zealand
Golden bays between forested headlands, reached only on foot, by kayak or water taxi.
Aberdaron
Wales
A church on the sand where pilgrims ate their last meal before the island crossing.
Anuta
Solomon Islands
Three hundred people, one mile of island, and a supply ship once or twice a year.
Are'are Coast
Solomon Islands
Bamboo pipes in their dozens weave a melody that no single player is carrying.
Arnavon Islands
Solomon Islands
Hawksbill turtles nest on beaches three communities agreed to stop hunting.
Bellona Island
Solomon Islands
Everything arrives thrown through the surf at a cleft in the cliffs; Bellona has no harbour.