New Zealand Long Weekends 2026 and 2027: Every Public Holiday, Province by Province

Across the country: Mon 28 September 2026, South Canterbury Anniversary Day in South Canterbury, Fri 23 October 2026, Hawke's Bay Anniversary Day in Hawke's Bay, Mon 26 October 2026, Labour Day in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Hawke's Bay, Southland, Nelson, Marlborough, Taranaki, Westland, South Canterbury and the Chatham Islands, Mon 2 November 2026, Marlborough Anniversary Day in Marlborough, Fri 13 November 2026, Canterbury Anniversary Day in Canterbury, Mon 30 November 2026, Chatham Islands Anniversary Day in the Chatham Islands and Westland Anniversary Day in Westland, Fri 25 December 2026, Christmas Day in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Hawke's Bay, Southland, Nelson, Marlborough, Taranaki, Westland, South Canterbury and the Chatham Islands and Mon 28 December 2026, Boxing Day in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, Hawke's Bay, Southland, Nelson, Marlborough, Taranaki, Westland, South Canterbury and the Chatham Islands. Only Labour Day, Christmas and Boxing Day are national; the rest are single provinces taking their own anniversary day.

Yes. The Holidays Act 2003 applies to all employees, and Employment New Zealand puts the test plainly: you are entitled to a paid day off if a public holiday falls on a day you would otherwise be working. That covers the private sector, not just government offices. Two things to know: your anniversary day counts as a public holiday under section 44 just as Christmas does, and if you agree to work a public holiday you are owed at least time and a half plus an alternative day off.

Because the provinces are the nineteenth-century ones, not today’s regions. Employment New Zealand is explicit that they “relate to the former provinces of 19th-century New Zealand and are not determined by present-day districts or regions”, which is why Hamilton and Tauranga keep Auckland Anniversary Day. The four in the planner: Auckland covers Auckland, Northland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, including Hamilton, Tauranga and Whangarei, Wellington covers Wellington, Manawatu-Whanganui and Wairarapa, including Palmerston North and Whanganui, Canterbury covers Christchurch and north and central Canterbury and Otago covers Otago, including Dunedin, Queenstown and Wanaka.

Less than the national holidays are, and it is worth one email to your employer. The DAY OFF is statutory, but the DATE is not: Employment New Zealand says anniversary days are “observed locally by custom and practice and are generally prescribed by regional or city councils”, and warns that its own published dates may contain errors. Otago is the clearest case: there is no single day of local observance, so the employment agreement or local custom decides it. Every date on this page is the one Employment New Zealand publishes.

Two stand out, and neither is in the planner above. Hawke's Bay takes the Friday before Labour Day, so it gets a 4-day Labour Weekend for no leave at all where the rest of the country gets three. Southland takes Easter Tuesday, turning a four-day Easter into a 5-day one, also free, which is the longest run anybody in New Zealand gets without spending a day. Marlborough is the odd one out: its anniversary day is the Monday AFTER Labour Day, so it gets two Mondays 7 days apart rather than one longer weekend.

It moves to the Monday, and in this particular year that is worth more than usual. Boxing Day 2026 falls on a Saturday and moves to Mon 28 December 2026; the day after New Year’s falls on a Saturday and moves to Mon 4 January 2027; Waitangi Day 2027 falls on a Saturday and moves to Mon 8 February 2027. The catch is that the transfer is for people who would not otherwise work that weekend day. If Saturday is normally a working day for you, the holiday stays on the Saturday and you do not also get the Monday.

Christmas Day 2026 is a Friday. Boxing Day falls on the Saturday so the Monday is added, New Year’s Day is the Friday after, and the day after New Year’s falls on a Saturday so that Monday is added too. Only the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in between are working days. Book those three and the block runs 25 December 2026 to 4 January 2027, which is 11 consecutive days for three leave days out of the 20 the Holidays Act gives you. It holds in every province, so this is a window where the toggle changes the price and not the calendar.

Four weeks, which is 20 working days, after twelve months of continuous employment. Public holidays are separate and do not come out of it. The four windows on this page add up to 21 days off for three leave days, so about a seventh of your entitlement buys roughly three weeks away.

The Pacific is an Auckland story. Auckland reaches 7 of the seven Pacific destinations here nonstop; Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown reach three between them. Asia is the same shape: there is a nonstop from Auckland and Christchurch and none at all from Wellington and Queenstown, and this page prices the connection on the Christmas window so you can see what it costs rather than guess. One thing to watch on that window: a route can be a nonstop and still have no nonstop seat left across eleven days at Christmas. Where that happened the planner prices the connection instead, so some rows read one stop on a route that normally flies direct.

Mostly because of how far away it is, not because the window is better value. These fares were all read on one day, 28 August 2026. Labour Weekend was about eight weeks out at that point and Easter was seven months, and a short-haul fare eight weeks from departure is close to its peak. Wellington from Queenstown, for instance, is NZD 311 return over Labour Weekend and NZD 226 over Easter. Treat every number here as a snapshot of one morning, and expect the Easter figures to rise as the date gets closer rather than the Labour Weekend ones to fall.

Usually because it is an unbundled fare, where the headline price buys the seat and nothing else. Jetstar Airways is the cheapest option on 41 of the 96 priced routes here. On those fares a checked bag, a larger carry-on, seat selection and any change are charged separately, and the real total can land above a full-service fare that looked dearer. Wego does not publish a baggage allowance, so check the airline’s own baggage page before treating two of these numbers as comparable.