The first country to celebrate the New Year is the Republic of Kiribati, parts of which lies within the earliest time zone, UTC+14. These areas include Christmas Island and the uninhabited Caroline Island, which is also known as Millennium Island for being one of the first points of land to enter the year 2000. The next time zone to enter the New Year is UTC+13, which includes Samoa, Tonga, Tokelau and Kiribati's Phoenix Islands. The first sizable countries comes with New Zealand an hour later(UTC+12), and eastern Australia two hours after that (UTC+10.)
On the flip side, the last time zone to reach the New Year is UTC-12, which includes Baker Island and Howland Island, two uninhabited islands belonging to the United States. The last inhabited places to celebrate the New Year lies in the UTC-11 time zone, and includes American Samoa and Niue, a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand.