Time in Wellington
New Zealand · Pacific/Auckland · latitude -41.29°
Reading your clock…
Wellington changes its clocks twice a year
Standard time is UTC+12:00 and daylight saving time is UTC+13:00. The shift is 1 hour, and it is the reason the distance between Wellington and anywhere else is not a single number.
| Date | Local time | Change | New offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday, 27 September 2026 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+13:00 |
| Sunday, 4 April 2027 | 03:00 → 02:00 | Back 60 min | UTC+12:00 |
| Sunday, 26 September 2027 | 02:00 → 03:00 | Forward 60 min | UTC+13:00 |
Same clock, different sky: Auckland share Pacific/Auckland. Sunrise and sunset differ between them because latitude does, even though the clock does not.
Time difference from Wellington
Where a range is shown, the gap genuinely changes during the year. That is not rounding or hedging — it is two governments moving their clocks on different weekends.
| City | Difference now | Across the year |
|---|---|---|
| London | 11 hours behind | −13h / −12h / −11h |
| New York | 16 hours behind | −18h / −17h / −16h |
| Los Angeles | 19 hours behind | −21h / −20h / −19h |
| Chicago | 17 hours behind | −19h / −18h / −17h |
| Toronto | 16 hours behind | −18h / −17h / −16h |
| Paris | 10 hours behind | −12h / −11h / −10h |
| Berlin | 10 hours behind | −12h / −11h / −10h |
| Dubai | 8 hours behind | −9h / −8h |
| Mumbai | 6 hours 30 minutes behind | −7h30 / −6h30 |
| Singapore | 4 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| Hong Kong | 4 hours behind | −5h / −4h |
| Tokyo | 3 hours behind | −4h / −3h |
| Sydney | 2 hours behind | −3h / −2h |
| Auckland | the same time | constant |
| São Paulo | 15 hours behind | −16h / −15h |
| UTC | 12 hours behind | −13h / −12h |
Daylight in Wellington through the year
From about 9.2 hours in June to 15.2 hours in December. This is the part a plain clock leaves out: 17:00 is a bright evening in one month and long dark in another.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 04:51 | 19:31 | 14h 40m |
| February | 05:31 | 18:57 | 13h 26m |
| March | 06:03 | 18:13 | 12h 10m |
| April | 06:36 | 17:22 | 10h 46m |
| May | 07:06 | 16:47 | 9h 41m |
| June | 07:26 | 16:37 | 9h 11m |
| July | 07:19 | 16:55 | 9h 36m |
| August | 06:44 | 17:24 | 10h 40m |
| September | 05:53 | 17:55 | 12h 2m |
| October | 05:04 | 18:27 | 13h 23m |
| November | 04:28 | 19:06 | 14h 38m |
| December | 04:24 | 19:33 | 15h 9m |
Daylight length is accurate. The clock times of sunrise and sunset assume each city sits at the centre of its time zone, which can put them up to about an hour and a quarter out for places near a zone's edge — Madrid being the standard example. Day length is unaffected.
Questions
About time in Wellington
What time zone is Wellington in?
Wellington uses the IANA time zone Pacific/Auckland, which is UTC+12:00 in standard time and UTC+13:00 while daylight saving is in force. The same zone covers Auckland.
Does Wellington observe daylight saving time?
Yes. Clocks in Wellington move by 1 hour, and the next change is on Sunday, 27 September 2026.
Why does the time difference to Wellington keep changing?
Because the two places do not change their clocks on the same weekend, and in opposite hemispheres they change in opposite directions. London is a clear example: it sits 13 hours behind, then 12 hours behind, then 11 hours behind across the year rather than one fixed distance.
How much daylight does Wellington get?
Around 15.2 hours at the longest, in December, and about 9.2 hours at the shortest, in June. The table on this page lists sunrise and sunset through the year. Times are calculated from Wellington's latitude of -41.29° and are approximate to within about an hour for cities that sit well away from the centre of their time zone.