New Zealand’s Daylight Saving Starts September 27, 2009

New Zealand’s daylight saving time (DST) will start on Sunday, September 27, 2009, when the clocks move forward by one hour from 2am (02:00) to 3am (03:00) local time. Amundsen-Scott Station and McMurdo Station, in Antarctica, and New Zealand’s Chatham Islands will also make the switch to DST at the same time.

New Zealand’s DST

New Zealand’s main islands will move their clocks forward on September 27, 2009, when the clocks switch from being on New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), which is 12 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (or UTC +12 hours), to New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) UTC +13 hours.

Places that move forward by one hour for DST include (but are not exclusive to):

• Amundsen-Scott Station, South Pole, Antarctica.
• Auckland.
• Chatham Islands, but they are 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand’s standard time.
• Christchurch.
• Dunedin.
• Hamilton.  
• Invercargill.
• McMurdo Station, Ross Island, in Antarctica.
• Napier. 
• Wellington.

Amundsen-Scott Station and McMurdo Station in Antarctica observe New Zealand’s time, including the DST schedule. It is also important to note that the Chatham Islands also observe DST but they are 45 minutes ahead of most of New Zealand. DST for these places end on Sunday, April 4, 2010, when the clocks move back one hour from 3am (03:00) to 2am (02:00) local time.

Brief Background on New Zealand’s Time

New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to officially adopt a nationally observed standard time. New Zealand mean time, which was adopted on November 2, 1868, was set at 11 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). New Zealand’s clocks moved forward by 30 minutes (to UTC+12) due to World War II emergency regulations in 1941. The Standard Time Act 1945 made this decision permanent. The Act ensured that New Zealand’s standard time was set at UTC+12.

Public response to a DST trial period in 1974/75 was favorable and the New Zealand Time Order 1975 fixed the period of daylight saving from the last Sunday of October each year to the first Sunday of March of the following year. A DST trial period ran from the second Sunday of October in 1989 to the third Sunday of March in 1990. The trial was successful and a new DST order was made in 1990. It declared that DST would run from the first Sunday of October each year until the third Sunday of March of the following year.

New Zealand’s Minister of Internal Affairs Rick Barker announced in 2007 that the nation’s daylight saving schedule would be extended. This decision was made after results from a survey and petition showed that people favored an extended daylight saving period.

Daylight saving time in New Zealand now annually starts on the last Sunday of September, when 2am (02:00) moves forward 3am (03:00) local time, and ends on the first Sunday of April the following year, when 3am (03:00) moves back to 2am (02:00) local time. The 2010–2011 daylight saving schedule will start on Sunday, September 26, 2010.