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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for New Zealand

The list of New Zealand bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

 © 1989-2008 Alter Ego Services

19 Sep 2008 (The Dominion Post) The spokesperson for New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said that the Government had been talking to Sir Edmund Hillary's family about how best to mark his life and that an announcement of this was not too far away. When asked specifically if this would involve a new public holiday, the spokesperson refused to rule it out. • 01 Sep 2008 (Otago Daily Times) New Zealand's Otago may get an additional 3-day weekend in the fall of 2011, if a petition soon to be presented to the Governor General is approved. That petition asks for the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold by Gabriel Read in 1861, to be celebrated with a one-off regional public holiday to be declared on Monday, May 23, 2011, in the Province of Otago. • 25 Apr 2008 (Radio New Zealand) A recent poll shows that 38% of those questioned supported Anzac Day (April 25) being marked as New Zealand's national day, while 52% favoured keeping Waitangi Day as the national day. • 13 Jan 2008 (New Zealand Herald) Following the death of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the top of Mount Everest, there have been calls for a public holiday in his honour. Some of the ideas floated about are a new public holiday on May 29 (the anniversary of his 1953 climb), or renaming the existing Waitangi Day public holiday. Prime Minister Helen Clark said she had given "no consideration", yet. • 23 Feb 2007 (newswire.co.nz) A move to have Waitangi Day renamed New Zealand Day, to be observed on the Monday of the week in which February 6 occurs, has failed after a parliamentary select committee rejected it. The committee members did, however, note widespread support to retain Waitangi Day and create an additional public holiday to celebrate a national day. • 24 Oct 2006 The Restaurant Association of New Zealand says about one in three restaurants are not open on public holidays because of the labour costs. Changes to the Holidays Act in 2004 meant businesses have to pay time and a half and a day in lieu to employees for working on public holidays. Since then, some restaurants and bars have begun applying surcharges of up to 20% of the patrons' bills to cover the cost. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the New Zealand public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

New Zealand public holidays are governed by the Holidays Act 2003, which, as of April 1, 2004, replaced the Holidays Act 1981, and was later amended by the Holidays Amendment Act, 2004. • Weekend Public Holidays: Except for Christmas, New Year's, and their respective following days, public holidays are supposed to stay fixed if they fall on a weekend. A number of places do, however, add a day in lieu for ANZAC Day, if it occurs on a weekend day, even though it is supposed to stay fixed. • Shopping on Sundays and Public Holidays: In 1990 most shops could not trade on any Sunday and they were unable to open on nine of the 11 recognised public holidays. Now they can trade on 51 out of 52 Sundays and every public holiday except Good Friday, Christmas Day and the morning of Anzac Day. The one Sunday when shops are not currently allowed to open, is Easter Sunday, although this restriction is currently being reviewed . • Provincial Anniversary Days: these relate to the former Provinces of 19th Century New Zealand and are not related to or determined by present-day Districts or Regions. In each province, these are generally celebrated on the closest Monday to the actual day, but not always. • Auckland: January 29. Canterbury: Northern & Central Canterbury areas observe Christchurch Show Day. South Canterbury observes Dominion Day. Chatham Islands: November 30. Hawkes' Bay: Moves from November 1 to Friday before Labour Day. Marlborough: Moves from November 1 to 1st Monday after Labour Day. Nelson: February 1. Otago: March 23 (Moves to Tuesday 25 March to avoid Easter in 2008) Southland: around January 17. Taranaki: moves from March 31 to 2nd Monday in March (to avoid Easter). Wellington: January 22. Westland: December 1. • Melbourne Cup Day, the first Tuesday in November, is, officially speaking, only celebrated in Melbourne, Australia, but it also generates a lot of interest in NZ, where business does slow down that afternoon. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Reserve Bank of New Zealand (New Zealand central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in New Zealand, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for New Zealand, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of New Zealand, before planning any trip to New Zealand. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.