Time in New Zealand

"NZT" redirects here. For the fictional pill, see Limitless.

Time Zone	Standard Time	Daylight Time
New Zealand	UTC+12:00	UTC+13:00
Chatham Islands	UTC+12:45	UTC+13:45
Cook Islands and Tokelau	UTC-10:00
Niue	UTC-11:00
The current time in New Zealand is: 16:03 21 November 2011 This may be outdated if caching occurs (purge)
The current time in the Cook Islands is: 17:03 20 November 2011 This may be outdated if caching occurs (purge)

New Zealand has two time zones. The main islands use New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), 12 hours in advance of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), while the outlying Chatham Islands use Chatham Standard Time (CHAST), 12 hours 45 minutes in advance of UTC.

During summer (see below for exact dates) daylight saving time 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 in Antarctica maintains NZST/NZDT, along with McMurdo Station and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

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:

• The Cook Islands and Tokelau 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.
• Niue'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^[1]. The reason is the decision in 2011 by Samoa 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 longitude 172°30′ East of Greenwich, 11½ hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).^[2] 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 was developed and several laboratories began atomic time scales. A new time scale known as Coordinated Universal Time (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 seconds).

The Time Act 1974 defines New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) as 12 hours in advance of UTC.

Daylight saving time

Main article: Daylight saving time in New Zealand

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 Limited. It is disseminated by various means, including time pips broadcast on Radio New Zealand, a speaking clock service, and Network Time Protocol.

Notes

1. ^ Tokelau to consider impact of Samoa’s possible dateline move
2. ^ "Evening Post — 8 April 1929 — OUR TIME". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 2011 [last update]. http://www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19290408.2.88&srpos=2. Retrieved 24 October 2011. 

References

• Measurement Standards Laboratory
• Time Zones of New Zealand at statoids.com
• Daylight Saving page from The Department of Internal Affairs.

External links

• Timekeeping in Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand