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Public holidays in New Zealand in 2026

23 public holidays

New Zealand has 23 public holiday dates recorded for 2026, of which 11 apply nationwide. 11 of the listed dates are treated as non-working days and reduce the working-day count; 0 of those fall at a weekend. For the effect on working days see New Zealand business days 2026.

Dates

Ten days plus anniversary week, a uniquely provincial institution

The Holidays Act 2003 gives New Zealand eleven national dates (the 2020 addition of Waitangi Anniversary to six working days, plus Matariki from 2022 — the first public holiday recognising te ao Māori, set by the Māori lunar calendar each mid-winter Friday). The Act also hard-codes its Sunday-shift rule with unusual precision: Christmas or Boxing Day at a weekend produce a Monday and/or Tuesday "Mondayisation" that turns late December into a five-day block for most of the workforce.

The distinctive layer is provincial anniversaries: ten centres each close for one locally fixed day commemorating the first provincial settlement (Auckland on 31 July Wellington on the first Monday after 22 January, Canterbury on the Friday before Labour weekend…). In several provinces the anniversary day is actually a three-day weekend — the surrounding Monday or Friday is a de-facto working holiday for the civil sector and schools — and the total spread across the country means a national calendar that says "eleven holidays" is technically accurate and practically useless for anyone operating a supply chain through Canterbury in late September. Labour Day is the second Monday in October, not May, a small inversion that catches Australian and European planners regularly.

Method and scope

Deducted days are national public holidays (the days the dataset records as applying to the whole country). Holidays observed only in part of the country, or only in particular sectors, are listed with “Regional or sector-specific only” and are not deducted from the business-day counts.

Other years

• New Zealand 2027
• New Zealand business days
• 2026 summary