Sun Rise and Set in New Zealand

The table gives the times of Sun rise and Sun set for four centres in New Zealand. These can be used for any year as times will not vary by more than a minute or two on the same date from year to year. Times are for a horizon level with the observer and do not allow for hills or mountains obscuring the horizon.

New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) is used in the winter months and New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) is used in the summer months. NZDT starts on the last Sunday in September and ends on the first Sunday in April. Times in the table are in NZST or NZDT as is appropriate.

NZST is 12 hours ahead of Universal Time (UT), NZDT is 13 hours ahead of UT. UT is virtually the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). For more information on Universal Time consult the USNO Universal Time page.

Sun or Moon rise and set tables for any location.

Tables of the daily times of Sun or Moon rise and set, and the times of twilight, civil, nautical or astronomical for any location for a selected year, can be easily generated at the USNO web site. The times of Moon rise and set change much more from day to day than those of sun rise and set. They are best generated for a given locality on a daily basis. To use the USNO site to generate them you will need your longitude and latitude. Times of twilight can also be generated at the same site.

Sun rise and set times for other parts of New Zealand

The times of Sun rise and set for other places in New Zealand can mostly be estimated within about 5 minutes from the times in the tables. Note that for places with the same latitude, a difference of 1° in longitude makes a difference of 4 minutes. Times are earlier for places to the east and later for places to the west. Thus Sun rise and set times for places on the west coast are mostly about 12 to 15 minutes later than those for places on the east coast.

In the North Island, Auckland and Wellington are virtually the same longitude, so for places like Hamilton, Taumarunui, Wanganui and Palmerston North, between them, times can be determined by proportion.

Also note that in midsummer, December and January, times of Sun rise for all places on the east coast of New Zealand are almost the same. This is true from East Cape, north of Gisborne in the North Island to Dunedin and Stewart Island in the South Island and includes Wellington. The same applies to the time of Sun set in winter, June and July.

Near the equinoxes, in March and September, latitude is unimportant, the times of Sun rise and set depend on longitude as explained above. That is, places at the same longitude have similar times of sunrise and sunset, whatever their latitude.

In summer for places with the same longitude, sunrise is earlier and sunset later the further south one goes, ie the hours of daylight are longer. The reverse is true in winter, hours of daylight are less in the south, that is the sun rises later and sets earlier in the south compared to the north, again for places at the same longitude.