By Anna Burns-Francis
Flying to Samoa has always been like time travel - you leave today and get there yesterday.
But that is about to change because Samoa is doing away with tomorrow – meaning the country will celebrate New Year’s Eve together with New Zealand.
Currently, it is the 29th of December in Samoa - 23 hours behind New Zealand.
At midnight it will move across the International Date Line - skipping the 30th of December altogether and adopting the 31st as its new day.
Banks have offered to pay interest for the missing day, but will not charge it on loans. And there are other positives in the business world too.
“On our Friday, which is already the weekend in Australia and New Zealand, we send emails across and we have enquiries and we have no answers. Then answers come back from Australia and New Zealand and it’s our Sunday – time we spend with our families. So we’re looking forward to it, it will be a very positive change for Samoa,” says businessman Rico Tupai.
For the Seventh Day Adventist Church, however, it is not so positive.
The Church is divided over which day to observe the Sabbath given that the seven-day cycle is being broken.
Some will continue with Saturday while others will move to Sunday.
Crossing the dateline is the second big change for Samoa which in 2009 moved its drivers to the same side of the road as New Zealanders.
Its latest move will put them an hour ahead of us but because of the earth's tilt, we'll still see the sun before them.
3 News