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Kiribati will be first to welcome the new year
Kiribati is preparing to be the first country in the world to welcome the new year.
Situated in the central Pacific, Kiribati is made of 33 islands grouped into three island archipelagos: The Gilbert Islands in the west; the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the center; and the Line Islands in the east.
The islands straddle along and across the equator at the true heart of the Pacific, where the equator meets the International Date Line. It is the only country in the world situated on all four hemispheres of the globe—northern, southern, eastern, and western.
The Line group in the Eastern part of the country will be the first in the world to welcome the year. It is currently one hour ahead of Fiji and New Zealand, three hours ahead of the east coast of Australia and 22 hours ahead of the west coast of the United States.
To celebrate this, the Tourism Authority of Kiribati will host a live feed via its official Facebook page Visit Kiribati from Kiritimati (Christmas) island on Jan. 1 to capture the world’s first sunrise in 2021. The live feed will be active from 6.30am (Kiritimati time).
Kiritimati island is a world-class saltwater flats fly fishing destination offering bonefish, triggerfish, giant trevally, and numerous other species. (PR)
