WAITANGI - A day before the first dawn of the millennium breaks over the Chatham Islands, locals are torn between pride in their community and fear of what the intense worldwide interest will bring.
The islands, 860km and a two-hour single-engined plane flight from the mainland, are as remotein the mind of many New Zealanders as they are geographically.
Many New Zealanders confess to knowing little about the islands except for their precious black robin and a perception gleaned from weather reports that it always rains.
Now the international media has descended on the community, and is preparing to show the islands to the world.
Up to 60 media representatives have helped swell the population to double the usual 800, putting pressure on supplies of food and alcohol, and filling every available hotel bed - and some in private homes.
Locals are happy to talk but are fiercely protective of their community, asking the journalists not to perpetuate myths that the islanders are backwards and inbred.
Others fear that the beauty of the raw landscape will draw crowds of tourists. Just over 10 years ago, fewer than 10 tourists visited each year. Now the tally is more than 1000.
About 50 international tourists, including an English couple who won a trip to the islands in a newspaper competition, have come for tomorrow's dawn.
Tommy Solomon, a descendant of the last full-blooded Moriori, said yesterday that the islands were "virtually still virgin."
"It will be sad if we lose our uniqueness. I've got nothing against tourists, but I don't want to see big complexes develop."
Moriori will play a key role in the dawn celebration, which is expected to be seen by a billion people worldwide.
Their ancestors outlawed warfare and killing, and a wish for peace will be kindled with the dawn.
The celebrations will begin on the stroke of midnight on the spectacular clifftop site at Rangiaika on the main Chatham Island, when a beacon of hope will be lit.
The Chatham Islands Cultural Group will greet the rising sun with song and dance. About 100 people will see in the dawn on Pitt island, where Mt Hapeka will be the first inhabited land to see the sun.
