Goodness PD's :nono...never let it be said if a person from OZ is proven wrong we stand up & admit our faults :darn...but just GOOGLE the question & we get lots of different answers......
Actually, there are several countries right on the edge of the time line that will have the first New Year. The eastern part of Siberia in Russia is the first, followed closely by the Fiji Islands, the Marshall Islands, and New Zealand.
New Zealand is the first country to see the sunrise, and consequently was the first country to see in the new Millennium. That’s officially correct only because the first place in the world to see the sunrise each day, the Chatham Islands, belongs to New Zealand. The three islands making up New Zealand itself are some 45 minutes behind the Chathams.
Certainly our press media here suggested it was Alexandria Headland in Queensland that greeted the new mellenium for the world.....possibly Ian.....their thoughts were :gathering considering you only get to see the sun throught the rain clouds and fog ....on 63 % of days PA...in NZ....they considered it a non event..........Derek :sorry
I am very sorry to prove you all wrong.
Bandit thinks the sun shines out of mine, day or night, so he is the first first to see the sun all the time. :whistle :nahnah
John
Oh Yeah PD's........ John....but wait until my two parcels of Kanga bones arrive in Crewe......... :great :whistle....your humble OZ member who looks out at over our great eastern shore line each morning....to catch the first golden rays of our OZ sunlight .......Derek :nahnah
I don't know it it was the hemisphere change or the time change, but most of the chaps I have meet from downunder had a hard time showing there sorry mugs before noon.
Regards,
Gerald.
Hi all,
Best time of the day is to be up before sunrise and enjoy the peace & quiet and the sound of the dawn chorus, and the mirror surface of the local lake or inlet. Also as Derek suggests, its sometimes the only time when we see the sun as it peaks under the long white cloud, when it comes up over the horizon. We also get spectacular sunsets as the sun again peaks under the other edge of the long white, but this time tinted all shades of red by the red bull-dust haze drifting up from ozzies outback (or is it the barbie smoke). Gerald, have noticed that disturbing trait of fellow antipodeans when tripping around the other hemisphere, must be all the blood rushing to their heads, once they get to the underside of the glode. (commonly known fact that we are on top of the globe, even though those in the more populus hemisphere do print their maps wrong side up.
;D
kiwi
NZ never did claim to be the first country to see the sun each day: it claimed that Gisborne was the first city.
My judgement puts American Samoa ahead of eastern Siberia.
The international dateline kinks east in these two regions to avoid splitting a country into two different days.
Cook islands are east of the dateline, and so are with the group being last to see the new day, not first.
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor