December 29th, 2019 Nauru to Brisbane, New Zealand

4:30AM I woke to finish the last season of Fargo. I left the house at 6AM and got to the airport. I met the Chinese family there again and checked in without issues. We took off from Nauru at 7:25AM.

10:00AM We arrived. I stayed in the Premium Lounge until departure to Auckland, New Zealand at 6PM. I arrived at Auckand at 1AM the next day.

December 28th, 2019 Tarawa, Kirabati to Nauru

8:30AM The staff at Mary's Lodge wanted to charge me the 5% Visa fee they forgot to charge yesterday. I also needed more cash for today so I suggested going to Moel Trading to do more Visa exchanges. The girl staff took me there and I was there until 9:30AM and got about 180 AUD. She drove me back and then to the airport.

11AM The check-in line took about 40 minutes. I caught up with the Chinese family again. They had new tickets and promise to pay the Visa arranged when we arrive Nauru. We boarded without issues at 1PM for Nauru. It took an hour to get to Majuro. After an hour of taxing, we left for Nauru. We arrived at 5PM.

Arrival at Nauru

6PM I hitched a ride on the shuttle bus from Menen Hotel. I then got a short ride to Abihare, which was operated by Chinese people. I got another stir fried tuna and it was just like what had been eating for the past few days. Next, I walked to the pier where many children were swimming in this protected swimming cove.

Tuna at Abihare

7PM I got tired of waiting and took the bus southward. It didn't go around the island though. It went up to the refuge camps and I took another bus to the AirBNB next to the airport. The owner Matthew is a past minister and well known to the locals. He wasn't there but it was a family home.

Around island bus coming out of camp 3

9PM I paid with AirBNB and went to bed.

December 27th, 2019 Tarawa, Kiribati

7AM I spent an whole hour changing flights with Fiji Airways, they didn't realize that I had flown Tarawa already and was basically shifting all my flights until 12/28. I thought I had scores the ultimate slickdeals by getting the NAD to TRW for free. They proved completely pointless as all the flights to and out of NAN were canceled in the next few days.

8AM We left for the airport and arrived after 45 minutes. It didn't take long for me to realize that this flight portion from Nauru to Nadi was getting canceled. They didn't let me onto the INU flight because I didn't have a visa. I spent the next two hours and watched as the plane took off trying to get that visa. I was successful at the end getting it without paying by wiring as they agreed I could pay in cash on arrival.

2PM I finally got Mary's Hotel to drive me back. We first stopped at the travel agency but they weren't doing anything for me without charging me for a new ticket. They said that Air Kiribati would help and I argued that I spent the past three hours with their office at the airport. I rebooked my room at Mary's and had their driver take me to the central office. The first location was the domestic one so we had to go a block away to the international one. I spent the next few hours sitting in that office. The goal was to have them exchange my ticket TRW to INU, then to NAN to TRW to MAJ to and finally to INU. That would be tomorrow morning and I would take the flight on the following day to Brisbane. In that case, I would just be responsible for the BNE to AKL flight. The ladies working there were very nice and got multiple correspondences with the Nauru Airline office at Brisbane. I finally got on the internet at their office, proved to them I had both the Visa to Australia and the ongoing ticket to Auckland. I also go onto Google Voice to call their main office in Brisbane. The reservation manager, Fabiana Harris said she is going to get me those tickets by tonight.

5:30PM I hitched a ride to go to Betio area to get more cash as I would need this later.

Tuna

7PM I took a bus to Fema Lodge for some pan fried tuna. It was just mediocre but still slightly better than the tuna at Mary's Lodge. I went on take another bus back. They were having a Christmas Party at Mary's Lodge, which had not started. I went to sleep at 9PM. I woke up at midnight and missed the entire party.

December 26th, 2019 Tarawa, Kiribati

6:30AM I arrived at Nadi. I wasted some time waiting in the international transfer line, only to find out that they would ask me to get to the Fiji Link service desk at the domestic terminal. I haggled and begged to be placed on the Tawara flight instead. I was just going to skip this altogether if they didn't let me. They let me on for free and their flight waited for me to leave at 7:30AM. I am responsible for the return flight on Nauru Airline myself.

7:30AM We took off for Tarawa.

11AM I moved to the exit row and spoke to this Chinese guy working at the embassy. I shared some of my travel stories. After landing, a girl helped me to check out a guest house close by. It was 70 AUD. I wanted to check out the rest of the island before settling on where to stay. I took a bus until the Betio area which is the end of Atoll and then decided to stay at Mary's Lodge. I saw some foreigners there the first time I walked by.

Green beach with Japanese turret

1PM I took the bus back to the Betio area to check out the Green Beach, which had this Japanese Turret. I then exchanged some money using my visa at Moel Trading. I then took the bus to Koakoa's corner, which was closed for that day and the next few days. I asked them as well as Fema Lodge who had the better seafood and decided to have dinner back at Mary's.

Half cooked tuna

7PM It was unimpressive and I went to sleep after a few episodes of Fargo, Season 2.