If you’re planning a trip to Fiji, you’re probably wondering what time zone is Fiji in.
Fiji is located in the South Pacific – between Australia and Bora Bora and consists of over 330 beautiful islands.
All of the Fiji Islands share the same time zone, which is known as Fiji Time (FJT) or Fiji Summer Time (FJST) – when Fiji observes Daylight Savings Time (DST).
What Time Zone Is Fiji In?
Fiji Time is GMT+12.
Like many countries, Fiji observes Daylight Savings Time (DST) for a part of the year, which is GMT+13.
Typically in Fiji, Daylight Savings Time starts in spring – usually on the first weekend in November, with the clocks going forward. Fiji only observes DST for a few weeks a year – compared to many countries that observe it for several months of the year.
DST in Fiji has been getting shorter and shorter in the past 10 years. In 2019 DST lasted for 9 weeks, in 2020 it was delayed by a month and so only lasted 4 weeks. And in 2021 Fiji decided not to have Daylight Savings Time at all.
Unless stated otherwise, Daylight Savings Time will commence again in November 2022.
What Is The Time Now In Fiji?
If the time is 12.00 midday in Fiji it’s ….
- 12.00 midday in Wellington same day (same time zone)
- 10.00 am in Sydney same day (2 hours behind Fiji)
- 09.00 am in Tokyo same day (3 hours behind Fiji)
- 08.00 am in Bali same day (4 hours behind Fiji)
- 04.00 am in Dubai same day (8 hours behind Fiji)
- 02.00 am in Rome same day (10 hours behind Fiji)
- 01.00 am in London same day (11 hours behind Fiji)
- 8pm in New York previous day (16 hours behind Fiji)
- 7pm in Chicago previous day (17 hours behind Fiji)
- 5pm in Los Angeles previous day (19 hours behind Fiji)
Note that some countries observe Daylight Savings Time at a slightly different time of the year to others – some countries start and finish DST a couple of weeks earlier than others. In addition, Europe and Australia for example observe DST at totally opposite times of the year due to being on different hemispheres and having opposite seasons, so the time can vary by an extra 2 hours.
Also, some countries don’t observe Daylight Savings Time at all – such as Japan and United Arab Emirates, so sometimes the times listed here can vary by an hour or two depending on the season.
Hours Of Daylight In Fiji
Daylight hours in Fiji don’t vary as drastically as in Europe for example. Fiji has long days year-round and the average daylight hours in Fiji is around 12 hours.
The shortest day in Fiji is June 21st, with roughly 11 hours of daylight (sunset will be around 5.30pm), and December 22nd is the longest day in Fiji, with over 13 hours of daylight (sunset is around 7.50pm).
What About Fiji’s Taveuni Island International Date Line?
Taveuni is one of the many Fiji Islands. It is the third biggest island in Fiji, northwest of the main (and largest) island Viti Levu, and right next to Vanua Levu – the second biggest island in Fiji.
The International Date Line runs right down the middle of Taveuni Island, splitting Taveuni into east and west. So technically, the west of the island is a whole day ahead of the east of the island!
Regardless of this, the whole of Taveuni operates on Fiji Time for the sake of convenience.
If you visit Taveuni you’ll be able to see the International Date Line sign, near Waiyevo town (go uphill towards the hospital and cross the field on the right).
If you’ve ever been to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) line in London, it’s similar – you can get a great photo standing on the date line! There is a big board with ‘Today’ on the west and ‘Yesterday’ on the east and you can stand in the middle.
What Is Fiji Time?
You’ll hear the phrase ‘Fiji Time’ a lot when you’re in Fiji. The ‘Fiji Time’ phrase isn’t to be confused with the FJT time zone – Fiji Time is a phrase used affectionately by locals and tourists and refers to the ideology that everything in Fiji is done in it’s own time (in no rush basically!). When the bus is running late – it’s Fiji Time, when you’ve been lazy on the beach all day – you’re on Fiji Time.