By WARREN GAMBLE
About 10 cruise ships are heading to the international dateline east of New Zealand to give their passengers a double dose of the new millennium.
The international dateline is an imaginary line through the mid-Pacific, largely following 180 degrees longitude.
It separates two calendar days. The Eastern Hemisphere to the west of the line, including New Zealand, is a day ahead of the Western Hemisphere.
A director of Auckland-based Beaufort Shipping Agency, Reidar Sveaas, said that at least three cruise ships, the Legend of the Seas, the Sky Princess and the Crystal Symphony, were leaving local waters soon to reach the dateline on New Year's Eve.
Others were coming from Australia and the West Coast of the United States.
The dateline is about 800km east of Gisborne.
Mr Sveaas said the 1800 passengers on the Legend of the Seas had booked up to two years ago for the $1000-a-day millennium cruise.
The ship would leave Wellington today.
The champagne will flow from midnight on New Year's Eve. Passengers will witness the dawn of the new millennium in the Eastern Hemisphere, party through the day, and then - swapping to another part of the ship for effect - watch the sun come up again for the Western Hemisphere's millennium dawn.
Cruise ship passengers head for dateline to do it twice
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