New Zealand time zones and daylight saving

New Zealand Standard Time is UTC+12. From the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April the clocks go forward an hour to New Zealand Daylight Time, UTC+13. The Chatham Islands are 45 minutes ahead of the mainland all year.

Standard time and daylight time

The government's daylight saving pages explain that the Time Act 1974 sets New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) at 12 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, the world's reference clock. In spring the clocks move forward an hour to New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT), and in autumn they move back. Daylight saving starts at 2am on the last Sunday in September and ends at 3am on the first Sunday in April. The upcoming changes are:

New Zealand first introduced daylight saving in 1927, and the current start and end times have been fixed since 2007, when a review extended the daylight saving period by a week. The government says there are no current plans to review it again.

The Chatham Islands

The Chatham Islands keep their own time, 45 minutes ahead of the mainland under the same Act. In the time-zone database they change their clocks on the same dates as the mainland, so the gap is 45 minutes in January and 45 minutes in June. In software and calendar apps, choose the zone called Pacific/Chatham, because picking "New Zealand" will be 45 minutes out.

Why the gap to other countries keeps changing

The southern and northern hemispheres run daylight saving in opposite halves of the year. When New Zealand moves its clocks forward in September, the UK and most of the US are still on summer time, and they move theirs back a few weeks later. In March and April it happens the other way round. So for a few weeks each spring and autumn, both countries or neither are on daylight time, and the gap changes twice a year, not once. Australia adds another twist: some states change their clocks and others don't, and in the time-zone data Sydney moves its clocks forward a week after New Zealand does, which is why the gap is briefly three hours in early October. Here's how far Auckland is ahead at different times of year, worked out from the international time-zone database:

A standing 9am call from Auckland with a colleague in London can drift between their evening and late night across the year. If you set up a repeating meeting, set it in one person's time zone in your calendar app and let the app do the conversion, rather than writing a fixed difference into the invite.

The night the clocks change

The changeover happens early on a Sunday morning because, according to the government, fewer people are working then. When daylight saving starts, the clock jumps from 2am to 3am, so that hour never happens; anything scheduled for 2:30am that night needs a new time. When it ends, the clock goes from 3am back to 2am, and the hour from 2am to 3am happens twice. Many phones and computers change automatically, but ovens, car clocks and some heating timers don't. The government's tip is to change manual clocks the night before.

Working through a clock change

The Time Act also covers pay. If you're working an overnight shift when the clocks go forward, you work an hour less but are entitled to be paid for your normal hours. If you're working when the clocks go back, you're entitled to be paid for the extra hour you actually work. The Act also defines what time means whenever a law or a document such as a contract mentions one. The details are on the government's page about Daylight saving: governing legislation (Department of Internal Affairs, govt.nz).

Practical tips

• Name places, not abbreviations: "Auckland time" can't be misread, but a short code may be taken to mean standard time when daylight time applies.
• Check the date as well as the time; mornings in New Zealand are often yesterday in the Americas.
• For the Chathams, always allow the extra 45 minutes.
• Avoid scheduling anything between 2am and 3am on changeover nights.

The time zone converter applies the right offset for both places on any date, and the countdown timer counts down to an event in a chosen zone.

Last reviewed: 3 October 2026