The year 2023 has officially started in different countries of the world, with New Zealand in the southwestern Pacific among the first to ring in 2023.

A majestive display of fireworks at the Auckland Sky Tower ushered in the New Year.

A similarly enthralling firework display lit up the skies in Sydney in neighbouring Australia.

The first countries in the world to enter 2023 - Samoa and Kiribati in the South Pacific - will celebrate with tourists for the first time in two years.

Both countries closed their borders to visitors in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. Kiribati reopened to the world in August, with Samoa following in September.

Two separate fireworks displays in Samoa, one in the capital Apia, and the other in Savai’i, will signal the start of the new year. The displays will be synchronised by New Zealand pyrotechnic experts and fired simultaneously from both islands at the stroke of midnight.

Kiribati’s largest island, Kiritimati, home to about 5,000 people, is the first inhabited island to begin each new year, however no major events are planned.

American Samoa, just 220 kilometres to the east of Samoa on the other side of the International Date Line, will be the last to ring in 2023.