New Zealand Public Holidays

The following is a calendar guide to the New Zealand public holidays for the coming years to help plan when to book your holiday. Visits to any locations, venues or special events that are held at these times of year can be listed in your travel plans to coincide with your tour of NZ.

Further down the page there is a list of links to New Zealand Public Holidays dates for the following years: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.

At these times of the year there will be all kinds of local and national events to visit. However, keep it in mind that the population of NZ will also be on holiday at the same time.

Competition for accommodation and travel is high during New Zealand public holidays so be sure to book well in advance.

Keep it in mind that a lot of shops, garages, and other places you would normally expect to be open for business may well be closed on some of these days.

When we visited the South Island our first weekend coincided with Labour Day at the end of October. We arrived in Christchurch on the Saturday morning and collected our camper van for the two weeks we would spend touring the South Island. I knew it was Labour Day weekend so the first thing we did was visit a big supermarket and ensure we had enough food for a few days travelling.

As we traveled down the East Coast highway I kept my eye on the fuel gauge so that we didn't get short of petrol and when we arrived at Oamaru I filled up with fuel because we planned to go inland towards Cromwell the next day and I most certainly didn't want to be stranded without petrol in the middle of nowhere.

Current and Future Years

Holiday dates for forthcoming years:

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Some of the above New Zealand public holidays are officially taken as the following working day if the vacation date falls on a weekend day. This is in place so that working New Zealanders do not miss having a day off work that they are entitled to have for the bank holiday.

For example, if the holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday will normally be taken as the holiday day. Or, if the Monday happens to be another holiday date such as Boxing Day, the Tuesday will be taken for Christmas Day. It can be quite confusing in some years but the links above take you to pages that give exact days of vacations in NZ.

It is therefore advisable to check the dates of public holiday events in advance of travel to ensure you know the exact date of the event.

The venue of any event will be able to advise you of any day changes for any particular year according to the national or bank holiday. You don't want to arrive a day early or a day late!

Although the above information is believed to be accurate at time of publishing, it is provided as an information and educational guide only. It is your responsibility to ensure you check with specific venues and events that fall on these days prior to booking your vacation. Please refer to the site Disclaimer.