Farmville for iPhone hits New Zealand app Store

UPDATE (Midnight 6/23): FarmVille for iPhone is now available for download in the US iTunes store. See the announcement and our initial impressions of the portable version of the Facebook farming juggernaut.

Since Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference revealed the existence of an iPhone version of Farmville last month, we've been working hard to find out an exact date for the popular Facebook game's first official mobile release. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to pin down anything more concrete than the "late June" announced by Zynga CEO Mark Pincus at the show.

Well, apparently we can stop asking, because Zynga's official Farmville app is currently available on the New Zealand iTunes App Store. Why does New Zealand, of all places, get it first? Well, as of this writing, it's already June 24 in the land of the Kiwis, whereas it's still June 23 for most of the rest of the world.

Pocket Gamer UK says the New Zealand release implies that the game will hit the UK in the early morning hours and, presumably, other regions as morning comes around for them. Of course, if you create a new dummy New Zealand iTunes account you won't have to wait at all. But you didn't hear it from us *cough*