Time difference between New York and Auckland

The gap is not the same all year

Every converter gives one number for this pair. That number is right for most of the year and wrong for part of it, because New York goes forward on the second Sunday in March and back on the first Sunday in November and Auckland goes forward on the last Sunday in September and back on the first Sunday in April.

These two are in opposite hemispheres, so their summers do not overlap: New York is on summer time roughly when Auckland is not. The gap does not wobble by an hour around a settled figure — it swings between 16 hours and 18 hours and spends a good part of the year at each. There is no single right answer to give a calendar, which is why a recurring meeting between them is worth setting in one city's local time and letting the other side see it move.

About New York and Auckland

New York is UTC−5 in winter and UTC−4 from March to November, and it changes clocks on different weekends from Europe — a fortnight in March and a week in autumn when the transatlantic gap is an hour off what everyone expects.

New Zealand is UTC+12 in winter and UTC+13 in summer, which puts it among the first places to see each new day. Its summer time runs from late September to early April, the opposite half of the year to the northern hemisphere's.

What 16 hours actually costs you

There is no shared working hour at all. Nine to five in New York is 1:00 AM to 9:00 AM in Auckland. Somebody has to be outside their working day, and the only question is who — so the useful thing is to decide that once rather than rediscover it every time.

The closest the two working days come is 5:00 PM in New York, which is 9:00 AM in Auckland — both inside office hours, just barely. That is the slot to use, and it is the one people who work this pair already default to.

At 16 hours the two are far enough apart that the date stops matching. Midday in New York is 4:00 AM the next day in Auckland. "Tomorrow morning" means different things to the two of you, and a deadline given without a date attached will be missed by one side or the other.

When they can both be at their desks

Nine-to-five in New York and nine-to-five in Auckland do not overlap at all. With 16 hours between them, one side is always outside working hours, and the practical question is which side takes the early start or the late finish rather than when to meet.

New York

Auckland

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How far apart New York and Auckland are

The shortest path over the Earth's surface between the two is 14,194 km (8,820 miles). Flown along that line, an airliner at cruising speed takes roughly 17 hours 35 minutes in the air — actual routings add to it, and whether a nonstop service exists depends on the airlines rather than the distance.

Over that distance you cross 16 hours of clock, which is where jet lag comes from: the body shifts by about an hour a day, so 16 hours takes most people 16 days or so to absorb. Flying east to Auckland is the harder direction — you lose the hours and have to fall asleep earlier than your body wants.

New York to Auckland, hour by hour

On the usual gap of 16 hours.

Frequently asked questions