Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 1,100 nautical miles north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau. About 87% of the total population live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi or Lautoka. The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain.
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
The islands which now form the Republic of Kiribati have been inhabited for at least seven hundred years, and possibly much longer. The initial Austronesian peoples’ population, which remains the overwhelming majority today, was visited by Polynesian and Melanesian invaders before the first European sailors visited the islands in the 17th century. For much of the subsequent period, the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands, was ruled as part of the British Empire. The country gained its independence in 1979 and has since been known as Kiribati.
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the country of Kiribati.
The Minerva Reefs are a group of two submerged atolls located in the Pacific Ocean between Fiji, Niue and Tonga. The islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between Fiji and Tonga, and in addition were briefly claimed by American Libertarians as the centre of a micronation, the Republic of Minerva.
UTC+12:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +12:00.
The Lau Islands of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. Of this chain of about sixty islands and islets, about thirty are inhabited. The Lau Group covers a land area of 188 square miles, and had a population of 10,683 at the most recent census in 2007. While most of the northern Lau Group are high islands of volcanic origin, those of the south are mostly carbonate low islands.
Ogea Levu is a coral island on a barrier reef in Fiji's Southern Lau archipelago. With an area of 13.3 square kilometres, it is situated at 19.18° South and 178.47° West, 10 kilometres east of Fulaga. It has a maximum altitude of 82 metres (270 ft).
Ogea Driki is a coral atoll covering approximately 4 square kilometres in Fiji's Southern Lau Group. It is 2.7 kilometres south of Ogea Levu and 10 kilometres east of Fulaga.
Ono-i-Lau is a group of islands within a barrier reef system in the Fijian archipelago of Lau Islands. There are four central volcanic islands: Onolevu, Doi Lovoni and Ndavura, the uppermost parts of the volcanic edifice rising from the Lau Ridge slightly more than 1,000 metres below sea level and on which the reef and other islands are built. There are also three clusters of coral limestone islets, Yanuya and Mana on the barrier reef and Niuta. A sand cay, Udui, is not counted as one of the six “islands”.
Wailagi Lala is the northernmost outpost of Fiji's Lau Islands. This tiny atoll, with an area of just 30 hectares and rising no more than 3 metres (10 ft) above mean sea level, is situated at 16.45° South and 179.6° West. It is the only true atoll in Fiji.
The Nukumanu Islands, formerly the Tasman Islands, is an atoll of Papua New Guinea, located in the south-western Pacific Ocean, 4 degrees south of the Equator.
Vatu Vara Island is a Fijian island in the northwest sector of the Lau Group of islands.
Funafuti is an atoll, comprising numerous islets, that serves as the capital of Tuvalu. As of the 2017 census, it has a population of 6,320 people. More people live in Funafuti than the rest of Tuvalu combined, with it containing approximately 60% of the nation's population. The main islet, Fongafale, hosts Vaiaku, the administrative center of the nation.
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in common, including linguistic relations, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs. In centuries past, they had a strong shared tradition of sailing and using stars to navigate at night.
Lau Province is one of fourteen provinces of Fiji. Its capital is at Tubou, at the southern end of the island of Lakeba. The province forms part of the country's Eastern Division, and of the Tovata Confederacy, a traditional hierarchy of chiefs from northern and eastern Fiji.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Tino was a tropical cyclone which itself and an associated convergence zone caused significant damage across ten island nations in the South Pacific Ocean during January 2020. First noted as a tropical disturbance during January 11, to the southwest of Honiara in the Solomon Islands, the system gradually developed over the next few days as it moved eastwards in between the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu prior to being named Tino as it approached Fiji during January 16. Continuing to track south-eastward, Tino continued strengthening as it passed near Fiji, bringing copious amounts of rainfall to the area. Whilst losing latitude, the system continued to strengthen and peaked as a category 3 tropical cyclone on January 17, with signs of an eye forming. Shortly after peak intensity, Tino was impacted by high wind shear and decreasing sea surface temperatures, triggering a weakening trend. Tino moved out of the tropics shortly thereafter and became an extratropical cyclone during January 19.
Tuvana-i-Ra is an uninhabited atoll in the southeastern part of the island state of Fiji in the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost atoll of the Lau archipelago and represents Fiji's second-southernmost landmass; only the remote and uninhabited atoll Ceva-i-Ra lies slightly further south.
