Time in New Zealand
Encyclopedia
| Time Zone | Standard Time | Daylight Time |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | UTC+12:00 | UTC+13:00 |
| Chatham Islands Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun... |
UTC+12:45 UTC+12:45 UTC+12:45 is an identifier for a +12:45 time offset from UTC. This time is used in:-External links:*... |
UTC+13:45 UTC+13:45 UTC+13:45 is an identifier for a +13:45 time offset from UTC. This time is used in:-External links:*... |
| Cook Islands Cook Islands The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand... and Tokelau Tokelau Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400... |
UTC-10:00 | |
| Niue Niue Niue , is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to... |
UTC-11:00 | |
Web cache
A web cache is a mechanism for the temporary storage of web documents, such as HTML pages and images, to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag...
occurs (purge)
|-
|colspan="3"|The current time in the Cook Islands is:
Web cache
A web cache is a mechanism for the temporary storage of web documents, such as HTML pages and images, to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag...
occurs (purge)
|}
New Zealand has two time zone
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
s. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
(UTC), while the outlying Chatham Islands
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...
use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST)
Chatham Standard Time Zone
The Chatham Standard Time Zone is a geographic region that keeps time by adding twelve hours and forty-five minutes to Coordinated Universal Time resulting in UTC+12:45....
, 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC.
During summer (see below for exact dates) daylight saving time
Daylight saving time
Daylight saving time —also summer time in several countries including in British English and European official terminology —is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less...
is observed and clocks are advanced one hour. New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) is thus 13 hours ahead of UTC, and Chatham Daylight Time (CHADT) 13 hours 45 minutes ahead.
The Ross Dependency
Ross Dependency
The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south...
in Antarctica maintains NZST/NZDT, along with McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National...
and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is the American scientific research station on the high plateau of Antarctica. This station is located at the southernmost place on the Earth, the Geographic South Pole, at an elevation of 2,835 meters above sea level.The original Amundsen-Scott Station was...
.
Furthermore, there are dependencies of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean, in two different time zones on the other side of the International Date Line
International Date Line
The International Date Line is a generally north-south imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, passing through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, that designates the place where each calendar day begins...
:
- The Cook IslandsCook IslandsThe Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
and TokelauTokelauTokelau is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400...
are in the UTC−10:00 time zone and observe no daylight saving time. Their time is thus 22 or 23 hours behind New Zealand, in other words, New Zealand time minus one day plus one or two hours. - NiueNiueNiue , is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to...
's time zone is UTC−11:00.
Tokelau has decided to add 24 hours to the time zone, giving it the same date as New Zealand, by skipping 30 December 2011. The reason is the decision in 2011 by Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
to do the same thing. The only way to travel to Tokelau is by boat from Samoa, and it would inconvenient to have different dates.
History
On 2 November 1868, New Zealand officially adopted a standard time to be observed nationally, and was perhaps the first country to do so. It was based on longitudeLongitude
Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
172°30′ East of Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
, 11½ hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
(GMT). This standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time (NZMT).
In 1941, during the Second World War, clocks were advanced half an hour, making New Zealand 12 hours ahead of GMT. This change was made permanent from 1946 by the Standard Time Act 1945, at which the time at the 180°E meridian was made the basis for New Zealand Time. NZST remained half an hour ahead of NZMT, and the Chatham Islands 45 minutes ahead of NZST.
In the late 1940s the atomic clock
Atomic clock
An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element...
was developed and several laboratories began atomic time scales. A new time scale known as Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
(UTC) was adopted internationally in 1972. This was based on the readings of atomic clocks, updated periodically in accordance with time variations in the Earth's rotation by the addition or deletion of seconds (called leap second
Leap second
A leap second is a positive or negative one-second adjustment to the Coordinated Universal Time time scale that keeps it close to mean solar time. UTC, which is used as the basis for official time-of-day radio broadcasts for civil time, is maintained using extremely precise atomic clocks...
s).
The Time Act 1974 defines New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) as 12 hours in advance of UTC.
Daylight saving time
Starting in 2007, daylight saving in New Zealand is observed from the last Sunday in September until the first Sunday in April.Standards
The standard for time in New Zealand is maintained by the Measurement Standards Laboratory, part of Industrial Research LimitedIndustrial Research Limited
Industrial Research Limited is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. IRL provides research, development and commercialisation services aim at fostering industry development, economic growth and business expansion...
. It is disseminated by various means, including time pips broadcast on Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news, current affairs and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music and jazz network Radio New Zealand Concert with full government funding...
, a speaking clock
Speaking clock
A speaking clock service is a recorded or simulated human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory on 14 February 1933.The format of the service is...
service, and Network Time Protocol
Network Time Protocol
The Network Time Protocol is a protocol and software implementation for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks. Originally designed by David L...
.
External links
- Timekeeping in Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand