AN ASSESSMENT OF WHERE PEOPLE WILL WITNESS THE FIRST SUNRISE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM

There is increasing world-wide interest in the rapidly approaching adv ent of the third millennium, and more especially, the first sunrise of that new epoch. However, confusion exists as to where the first sunri se will take place. This paper establishes that the Chatham Islands ar ea of New Zealand, in particular certain hill tops on Pitt Island (als o known as Rangiauria), will be the first inhabited places to see the first light on 1 January 2000 AD, and at the start of the third millen nium on 1 January 2001 AD. To the southwest, the Antipodes Islands wil l be the first uninhabited land to greet the new millennium; and a loc ation further south still, in the great Southern Ocean, just north of Scott Island in the Balleny Basin, will be the very first place, albei t at sea.