In anticipation of summer, clocks around the country were set forward an hour this morning, after a big night of political shake-ups and aftershocks.
But 'summer time' hasn't always fallen in September. While daylight saving was officially introduced in 1927, the dates and times have been observed, changed and cancelled several times over the years.
In New Zealand, the roots of the seasonal time shift stem from astronomer and entomologist George Hudson, who made an unsuccessful proposal to government in 1895.
A decade later, leftist Dunedin MP Sir Thomas Sidey took up the cause and 20 years later, an hour of daylight was introduced.
In 1941, 'summer time' was extended by emergency regulations to cover the whole year. Summer time - 12 hours ahead of GMT - was adopted as the country's standard time in 1946 and daylight saving was halted.
But in 1974, from November 3 to February 23, it was trialled again by the Government, partly to see what affect daylight saving had on crime, car accidents and saving power.
The trial proved popular with many Kiwis, and the extra hour of daylight between October and March was made permanent in 1975.
But not all were happy. The New Zealand History online archive reported dairy farmers weren't thrilled about having to rise in the dark year-round, while others worried about chooks' laying, curtains and carpets fading, and the effects on young body clocks.
One Northland community so objected to daylight saving, they outright rejected it and coined 'Ararua Time' instead. Residents installed on the town limits that read, "Welcome to Ararua time, drive slowly, you're an hour early anyway".
Still, the changes became permanent in 2007, after public debate and a petition of more than 42,000 signatures was presented to Parliament, where the case presented stressed benefits to recreation and tourism.
Daylight saving has twice been extended, most recently in 2007, and the current dates for the season sit between the last Sunday in September and the first Sunday in April.
Newshub.
