Love and tinsel on Christmas Island

There will certainly be tourists who travel to Christmas Island just for the name. Strictly speaking, there are three Christmas Islands worldwide: one in the Indian Ocean, one in the South Pacific, one off Tasmania. They are all called that because once British seafarers just on 25.12. had seen the islands, and as supposed discoverers they had the right to name them.

In the case of the Australian Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, it was the English captain William Mynors who drove down the cliffs on Christmas Day 1643. The rugged island was not settled until 1889, and only because of previously discovered phosphate deposits. The British recruited Chinese, Malays and Sikhs to dismantle them; Asians still make up the majority of the population.

From 1958, the Australians gained a foothold on the island after buying it from the British. Now more and more Aussies are coming to their outpost, 1600 miles away, as an unusual travel destination, teeming with bird life, rare crabs and other crustaceans, including the world's largest land crab, the 1 meter leg span, the palm thief. Christmas Island also offers a lot to divers; it marks the tip of an underwater volcano whose 4000 meter deep cliffs are "building land" for corals and a playground for large fish.

And Santa Claus? He lands in a plane on Christmas Island for the festival, with a reindeer as the pilot – at least if you believe the island post office, which will be issuing stamps with this Santa Claus image in 2022. New motifs appear every year. This also applies to other religious groups such as Buddhists and Muslims, who are also acknowledged by post.

The festival of love began on the beaches of Christmas Island in mid-November. They were quiet days; Christmas Island crabs breed discreetly in sand cavities. The highlight for the tourists, many of whom come to the island because of the bright red crabs, is not the mating of the animals, but the magnificent "wedding procession".

Locals speak of the Red Crab Migration. In order to preserve their species, tens of millions of decapods have to crawl miles from their burrows in the interior of the island to the beaches. The special feature: They start at the same time, as if on command, stay close together and take the direct route. When the animals then crawl straight over fences, houses and streets, it looks as if Christmas Island is covered in red tinsel.

For divers, the "gift table" is richly set: There are various spots with caves, steep walls, coral gardens and wrecks in front of Christmas Island; there are 200 species of hard coral and 500 species of fish.

Big advantage: no box jellyfish swim around Christmas Island, which is isolated in the ocean; in contrast, the highly venomous cnidarians are widespread in the waters around mainland Australia. Therefore, anyone who approaches the 64 diving spots from the dive center that opened on Christmas Island in 2016 does not need a jellyfish protection suit.

Another special feature: there are no fishing trawlers around the island. That's why big fish like rays, manta rays and sharks are "curious and trusting", enthused divers on the Internet. This applies anyway to whale sharks, which are in the waters from November to March.

Christmas Island National Park covers 85 square kilometers, two-thirds of the entire land area. Despite the protected status introduced in 1980, the Christmas Island forest skink and Christmas Island pipistrelle are now extinct; two endemic rat species were already extinct in 1903. More than 20 species of sea, mudflat and land birds live on the coast and in the rainforest.

The higher powers, regardless of their nature, have a good standing on Christmas Island: There is a church, a mosque, a Bahai center and 17 Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian places of worship for their worship. The public holiday calendar also takes account of the religiosity that is practiced: There is no work on two Christian, two Muslim and two Chinese holidays. This generally applies to every 2000 islanders.

"No matter who you are or where you come from, Australia will not become your home"

With this slogan on posters, the border protection ministry wants to deter illegal migrants who want to travel from Indonesia to Australia by sea. A serious warning: Since 2001, apprehended boat people have been held in immigration detention on offshore islands, including Christmas Island. As part of Australia's zero-tolerance policy, they are not allowed to apply for asylum here.

Bizarre, record-breaking, typical: You can find more parts of our regional geography series here.