In the South Pacific, 2022 has already started: The inhabitants of the islands of Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati were the first in the world to welcome the New Year at 11.00 a.m. Unlike last year, when public fireworks were canceled due to the corona pandemic, firecrackers were again allowed to be shot into the sky in Samoa. According to the tourism authority, the island state had five pyrotechnics experts flown in from New Zealand to install the fireworks.
SN / APA / dpa / Roland Weihrauch
This year firecrackers were allowed to be shot into the sky again
In the Tonga archipelago, meanwhile, the forces of nature did not rest on New Year’s Eve either: the authorities have been warning against approaching the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha “apai volcano since Christmas. The mountain of fire, which last erupted in 2014, is active again and spews ashes and Gas in the air.
Because of their remote position, Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati have so far got through the corona crisis very lightly: In total, only half a dozen corona infections were recorded in the three island states. The borders of the Polynesian archipelagos have been largely closed to foreigners since the beginning of the pandemic.
Accessed on December 31, 2021 at 11:34 am on https://www.sn.at/panorama/international/in-der-suedsee-hat-das-neue-jahr-bereits-begonnen-114803146