Bar Review - Runway Bar - Tarawa, Kiribati

By Dirk Heinz

There is often a beautiful simplicity identifying and naming things in many parts of the Pacific. Take directions for example. You’re looking for Margaret’s house? Well, you go down this dirt road, past the second rusted shipping container, the green one, not the red one, and take a left at the big breadfruit tree. Magaret is in the brown house.  If you come to the beach guarded by the scary pack of dogs, you’ve gone past it..

Simple as. See you soon Margaret.

This simplicity is also why I love the names given to bars and restaurants in the Pacific. “Doug’s House” because the bar is at Doug’s House. “Seaside Bar” because you’ll literally be drinking a beer with your toes in the sand. Which is why when in Tarawa someone told me I should go and have a beer at “Runway Bar”, I had an inkling of what I was in for.

Runway Bar sits at the end of the airfield runway on the island of South Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati. Air traffic to this part of the world is infrequent to say the least. There are a handful of international flights to Kiribati a week and most land at times which would not probably be conventionally regarded as suitable drinking hours, unless you’ve got a drinking problem. But if you’re lucky, as we were, you might just get the spectacle of one of the inter-island Twin Otters gliding in from over the vast Pacific horizon, with that cotton-candy orangey link Pacific sunset as the backdrop. It’s a pretty cool spectacle, made better by the fact that the Heinkeken’s are cold. Such is the humidity in Tarawa, sapping you of energy as you busily scoot up and down the atoll for your business meetings, by 5pm the thirst here is real, which means you might need a second Heineken. Corona is also available but it was warm, and I have my standards.

Nestled in amongst the pandanus trees, the kitchen crew at Runway Bar also slap together a pretty decent meal. Options in the area can be a little limited so I actually visited twice. Both the Beef Burger and the Reef Fish Stir-fry hit the spot.

When in the neighbourhood, Runway Bar is a must on the Tarawa circuit. In fact, I think I can hear the 4:30pm from Abiang motoring its way in, so might head there now.