By PHILIP ENGLISH
The President of Kiribati, Teburoro Tito, and an entourage of partygoers are on a four-day, 2000km voyage across the Pacific to an island where they will be the first in the world to see in the millennium year.
Government officials, police, 70 dancers and international broadcasters will celebrate on
Millennium Island, an uninhabited coral atoll about 3600km south of Honolulu.
Elsewhere in the South Pacific, the quirks of the international dateline mean Samoa is preparing for an influx of visitors to watch the final sunset of the second millennium.
Kiribati moved the international dateline in 1995 to ensure the country would see the sun first in 2000.
In two days the world will focus on Kiribati - threatened by a rise in the sea level caused by global warming - through satellite television coverage from the island.
In fact, the sun will rise on Millennium, originally named Caroline Island, after it rises at the Balleny Islands in Antarctica, the first point of land to see the sun on January 1.
Ironically, Millennium Island and Antarctica are equally hard to get to.
But on tropical Millennium, a low-lying, densely vegetated string of islets with a land area of 380ha, the celebrations will include dancing, chanting, songs and fires.
The midnight festivities will be followed by more dancing and singing at dawn, together with "a message of hope to the world" from Beretitenti (President) Tito.
Elsewhere in Kiribati, 33 atolls spread over 3200km of ocean from east to west and populated by about 86,000 people, the millennium will be celebrated by church services, sports events, dancing competitions and the unveiling of monuments.
While Kiribati lays claim to being the first land to see the millennium sun, Pitt Island in the Chathams will be the first permanently inhabited place in the world to have the honour - 22 minutes later.
On the Samoan island of Savai'i, the westernmost villages of Falealupo and Tufutafoe will combine traditional songs and dances with fireworks to mark the end to the millennium.
The Samoan Visitors Bureau said flights from New Zealand were full, with Samoans returning to their home villages to celebrate the occasion.
There had been strong overseas visitor and media interest in the millennium farewell, focused on the two villages of about 14,000 people.
In Samoan tradition, a volcanic rock pool on the shore near Tufutafoe is the place where spirits meet before they depart for the next world.
By PHILIP ENGLISH
The President of Kiribati, Teburoro Tito, and an entourage of partygoers are on a four-day, 2000km voyage across the Pacific to an island where they will be the first in the world to see in the millennium year.
Government officials, police, 70 dancers and international broadcasters will celebrate on
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