2023 started first on an atoll in the South Seas: The residents of Kiritimati, which is part of the Kiribati archipelago, were the first in the world to start the new year at 11:00 a.m. CEST. For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, tourists were able to celebrate again.
The borders of the Polynesian island nations have been mostly closed to foreigners since March 2020. Kiribati has only been welcoming international guests again since August. The 388 square kilometer atoll of Kiritimati has only a few thousand inhabitants.
Samoa, which abolished daylight saving time this year, followed for the first time an hour later – at the same time as New Zealand and Tonga. Massive fireworks over Samoa’s largest island Savaiʻi and in the capital Apia on the island of Upolu should accompany the turn of the year. The island state had had pyrotechnics experts flown in from New Zealand for the spectacle.
In New Zealand, where most events were canceled last year due to CoV, firecrackers were shot into the sky again for the first time. The highlight is the fireworks from the Sky Tower in Auckland. “It’s an event seen around the world, and we’re proud to start 2023 from our city,” said Mayor Wayne Brown.
The Australian metropolis of Sydney also started the new year with a huge, colorful fireworks display. The highlight of the show, which lasted almost a quarter of an hour, was a rainbow of luminous bodies that rained down like a waterfall from the Harbor Bridge as a harbinger of Sydney WorldPride, which starts in the metropolis in February.
According to the broadcaster ABC, more than a million people were expected to see the spectacle with their own eyes against the famous backdrop of the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House, as many as there were at the New Year’s Eve celebrations before the pandemic. Numerous visitors had already moved into seats with a good view of the harbor early in the morning.
