With spectacular fireworks in Auckland on Wednesday, New Zealand bid farewell to 2025 and welcomed 2026. In 2026, New Zealand's tallest building, Sky Tower, blasted a stunning fireworks show into the downtown city, making it the first major metropolis to welcome the new year with a rain-dampened celebration.
The first nations to say goodbye to 2025 are those in the South Pacific. In the 1.7 million-person city of Auckland, clocks strike midnight eighteen hours before the renowned ball descends in Times Square, New York.
3,500 pyrotechnics were fired from different floors of the 240-meter (787-foot) Sky Tower during the five-minute show. Due to predictions of rain and potential thunderstorms, smaller community events were cancelled on Wednesday throughout the North Island of New Zealand.
To manage New Year's Eve celebrations, authorities have implemented crowd control and security measures in various locations, especially in city centres and popular public venues.
As the clock struck midnight on its Line Islands, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati became the first nation in the world to welcome 2026, officially kicking off New Year's festivities worldwide.
Over the course of the next few hours, a number of nations and regions will ring in the New Year, starting with portions of Oceania and moving on to East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
