Nui Atoll

Nui is unusual in Tuvalu because its people speak Gilbertese, the language of Kiribati, alongside Tuvaluan, the result of ancestry from both Samoa and the Gilbert Islands to the north, and that difference runs through the dance, the housing and the food as well as the speech. The atoll has a broad lagoon ringed by at least 21 islets, some 3.4 square kilometres of land and around five hundred residents, and Europeans first sighted it on 16 January 1568, when the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña named it Isla de Jesús. Pandanus and coconut are the main crops. The lagoon has a shallow entrance and boats work through it rather than ships.

The main sights

• The language - Gilbertese spoken alongside Tuvaluan.
• The lagoon - the broad enclosed water with its scatter of islets.
• The dance and craft - traditions distinct from the rest of the group.
• The pandanus - the crop worked alongside coconut on the atoll.

When to go

May to October is drier and calmer. Ships run every few weeks at best. November to April is the cyclone season.

Things to know

The ship from Funafuti is infrequent and getting stuck is normal. There is no accommodation beyond community arrangements. Supplies must largely be brought.

Nearby

Vaitupu is southeast, and Nanumaga is northwest.

Key facts