Local time before 1868
In the early colonial period, each New Zealand settlement kept its own local solar time. Because the country is long and stretches across several degrees of longitude, noon in Auckland and noon in Dunedin did not fall at the same moment. As telegraph lines connected the settlements, a common time became more useful.
New Zealand Mean Time, 1868
On 2 November 1868, New Zealand adopted a single standard time for the whole colony, called New Zealand Mean Time. It was set 11 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, matching the meridian of 172° 30′ east, roughly through the middle of the country.
This made New Zealand one of the first countries to adopt a national standard time, years before the North American railway zones of 1883 and the International Meridian Conference of 1884.
George Vernon Hudson’s idea
New Zealand also has a strong link to the idea of daylight saving time. In 1895, George Vernon Hudson, a Wellington entomologist who liked to collect insects after work, presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing that clocks be moved forward two hours in summer. His idea was not adopted at the time, but he is often credited as one of the first to propose modern daylight saving time.
Early summer time
New Zealand first introduced summer time in 1927, when clocks moved forward one hour for the summer. In the following years the advance was reduced to half an hour, giving summer time of 12 hours ahead of GMT.
During World War II, the half-hour advance was kept all year. After the war, the Standard Time Act 1945 made 12 hours ahead of GMT the country’s permanent standard time from 1946. That offset, now written UTC+12, is still New Zealand Standard Time.
Modern daylight saving time
Daylight saving time returned with a trial in the summer of 1974–75, moving clocks one hour ahead to UTC+13. The trial was judged a success, and daylight saving became a regular part of the year.
The dates have shifted over time. Since 2007 the rule has been:
| Change | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Clocks go forward to NZDT | Last Sunday in September | 2:00 NZST |
| Clocks go back to NZST | First Sunday in April | 3:00 NZDT |
The Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands, about 800 kilometers east of the mainland, keep their own time, 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand: UTC+12:45 in winter and UTC+13:45 during daylight saving time. They change their clocks on the same dates as the mainland. It is one of only a handful of time zones in the world with a 45-minute offset.
Summary of offsets
| Period | Offset from Greenwich |
|---|---|
| 1868 onward | +11:30 (New Zealand Mean Time) |
| 1927 summer | +12:30 |
| Later summers until World War II | +12:00 |
| From 1946 | +12:00 standard time |
| From 1974–75, in summer | +13:00 daylight time |
Realm and Antarctica
The wider Realm of New Zealand includes places far from the mainland’s time. The Cook Islands and Niue lie east of the International Date Line, so they are almost a full day behind Wellington, while Tokelau uses UTC+13. In Antarctica, research stations supplied from Christchurch, such as Scott Base, follow New Zealand time. Read more about time zones in Antarctica.
New Zealand and its neighbors
New Zealand’s daylight saving dates differ from those of south-east Australia, which starts a week or so later in October, so the gap between Sydney and Auckland is three hours for a short time each spring. See the history of daylight saving in Australia and check today’s status on the daylight saving time page. Because it is so far east, New Zealand also appears near the top of the list of countries that see the new year first.