Kiritimati Lagoon Beach

Kiritimati — Christmas Island, and not the Australian one — is in the Line Islands of Kiribati, and by land area it is the largest coral atoll in the world, some three hundred and eighty square kilometres. Its lagoon system is a maze of flats, ponds and channels covering roughly as much again.

It sits just east of the date line in a time zone Kiribati moved in 1995 so that the whole country would share one date, which had the side effect of making Kiritimati the first inhabited place on earth to enter each new year. The island was also a British and American nuclear test site between 1957 and 1962, and the islanders present during those tests have pursued compensation for decades.

The lagoon flats are internationally known for bonefish — this is one of the great saltwater fly-fishing destinations, and the flats are wadeable for kilometres. The seabird colonies are among the largest in the Pacific and the island holds a wildlife sanctuary covering much of its area. Coral bleaching in the 2015–16 El Niño killed a very large share of the reef here, which was documented in detail because researchers happened to be studying it. The atoll's place names are a colonial oddity — London, Poland, Banana — left by the plantation era and still in use.

Facilities are minimal: two settlements, a hotel or two, weekly flights, and a supply ship. Kiribati as a whole averages under two metres above sea level and is the country most often cited in discussions of sea level rise. Fanning and Washington, the other Line Islands, are reached by the same weekly flight and hold a few thousand people between them.

The largest coral atoll on earth, first inhabited place into each new year because Kiribati moved the date line in 1995, a British and American nuclear test site between 1957 and 1962, and one of the great bonefish flats. Weekly flights that do not always operate. Bring what you need; the shops are limited and the island is a long way from anywhere.