Kiribati

I've recently learned something new about this country in Pacific Ocean: it's the only country that extends into both North and South hemispheres and into both Western and Eastern hemispheres — its antipode is no land.

This curious fact inspired me to design a hypothetical flag for Kiribati, just for fun.

The real flag of Kiribati is the following:


It's a simple banner of the colonial arms of then-British colony Gilbert and Ellice Islands, that also comprised current Tuvalu.

My frst proposal is the following:


The division in four quarters is now obvious. The three stars represent the three main island chains of the country, from left: Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Line Islands. Kiribati also contain an isolated island, Banaba, but I don't know the best way of include it.

My second proposal is a rework of the previous, avoiding the light blue shade so common in Oceania:


Which proposal do you prefer?

Comments and suggestions are welcome.
So sorry for long absence. I was having problems uploading images on Blogger.