Nauru was once the rich kid of the Pacific, wealthy through phosphates. But now the stocks of bird poop have been exhausted, mining has utterly destroyed the landscape, and the island survives on handouts from Australia in return for hosting a detention centre for asylum seekers. With fresh water, vegetables and power in short supply, and a new detention centre being built on Christmas lsland, Nauru’s future is in the balance.

March to October, to avoid the cyclone season

Slumbering under shady palms at Anibare Bay, Nauru’s best beach Deep-sea fishing off Yaren Shuddering at Nauru’s ‘topside’ in the central plateau-a burning wasteland of searing white rock, bizarre coral pinnacles and ugly, deep pits

Read Nauru; Phosphate and Political Progress by Nancy Viviani, an authoritative history of the mining that has crippled the island

Listen to the strange cry of the noddy bird

Watch The Reef: Our Future, Our Heritage, a documentary about the deteriorating reefs around the island

Eat Chinese food, common on the island

Drink demangi, the island’s traditional take on fermented toddy

Kewen (gone, dead)

Mined-to-exhaustion plateaus; a quick-fix asylum for Australia’s refugees; wealthy islanders with guano-stained wallets; satellite TV in most homes; weightlifting world champions pumping iron in every gym

Nauruans still hunt on the bald plateau for black noddy birds, often using stereos that play taped pre-recorded bird calls; most meals served on the island consist of imported junk food

Most traditional customs, dances and crafts have been completely subsumed by Nauru’s all-encompassing focus on phosphate. No-one Nauru knows how to make handicrafts anymore, except for a few of Nauru’s most aged citizens.