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Fiji (in Melanesia) and American Samoa (in Polynesia) are two islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Fiji is
about 970 kilometers (600 miles) west of American Samoa. A small airplane can fly this distance in two hours.
When will you arrive in Fiji if you leave American Samoa on a small airplane on Tuesday night at 11:30 PM?
Fiji and American Samoa are in different time zones and are separated by the International Date Line. When it is 11:30 PM on Tuesday in American Samoa, it is 10:30 PM on Wednesday in Fiji. Since the flight takes two hours, you will arrive in Fiji at 12:30 AM on Thursday.
If you went from Fiji to American Samoa at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, you would arrive at 2:30 PM on Monday (the day before you left). The International Date Line was adjusted in 1995 so that all the islands of Kiribati, which span three time zones, would have the same date.
Samoa switched sides of the International Date Line on December 29, 2011. The date jumped one day forward and December 30, 2011 was eliminated. American Samoa remained in the previous time zone. The following map shows the change in the International Date line.
