{"id":210002,"date":"2025-12-31T13:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/210002\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T13:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T13:00:09","slug":"auckland-rings-in-2026-fireworks-light-up-sky-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/210002\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland rings in 2026, fireworks light up Sky Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">Auckland has welcomed the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display from the Sky Tower, as thousands gathered across the city to celebrate the arrival of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The celebrations began at 9pm with lasers and projections on the tower, featuring \u201cspecial moments\u201d submitted by the public \u2014 from milestone birthdays to first smiles. At midnight, the countdown gave way to a five-minute pyrotechnic show, firing 3500 shots in a 360-degree pattern from three levels of the tower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Fireworks soared up to 80 metres above the structure, reaching a combined height of 320 metres. Organisers say more than 500kg of fireworks were used, making it the highest display in the Southern Hemisphere. The show followed six months of planning and design, involving 1.6 tonnes of equipment, 14 kilometres of cabling and over 1500 computer-controlled firing cues.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767186009_310_fireworks-sky-tower-auckland-A3EHXPAPKBF7PD6CF6ANR35A6A.jpg\" alt=\"Fireworks at the Sky Tower in Auckland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Fireworks at the Sky Tower in Auckland. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Those celebrating at home tuned in to TVNZ 1 and TVNZ 2 or streamed the countdown and fireworks on TVNZ+. SkyCity also shared the display online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The Auckland Harbour Bridge joined the festivities with a dynamic light and sound show, synchronised to a MoreFM playlist of 2025\u2019s top hits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Crowds packed the waterfront and city centre, while elevated vantage points on Maungawhau\/Mt Eden, Maungauika\/North Head and Takarunga\/Mt Victoria offered sweeping views of the fireworks and bridge display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland has welcomed the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display from the Sky Tower, as thousands gathered&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,111,43,139,69,6445],"class_list":{"0":"post-210002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-tvnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}