Islanders lose day in South Pacific time jump

The tiny South Pacific nation of Samoa and its neighbour Tokelau jumped forward in time last night, crossing westward over the international date line to align themselves with their other 21st century trading partners throughout the region.

At the stroke of midnight, time in Samoa and Tokelau leapt forward to 31 December – New Year’s Eve. For Samoa’s 186,000 citizens, and the 1,500 in Tokelau, Friday, 30 December, 2011, simply ceased to exist.

The earlier zone had put the two nearly a day behind Australia and New Zealand.