Sunrise & Sunset in Wellington
Wellington sits at 41.2865° S, 174.7762° E in New Zealand, on the Pacific/Auckland timezone. On June 10, 2026, the sun rises at 07:43 local time, reaches its highest point at 12:21, and sets at 16:59 — giving Wellington 9 hours and 16 minutes of daylight.
About daylight in Wellington
Because Wellington sits at a latitude of roughly 41.2865° S, its daylight length swings across the year. In the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed, so the longest day falls around December 21 and the shortest around June 21. The greater the latitude, the more pronounced the seasonal contrast: a city near the equator sees a daylight swing of only a few minutes across the year, while a city beyond 60° latitude can see a swing of more than eight hours.
The sunrise and sunset times above assume a mathematical horizon and an observer at sea level. Local topography — mountains to the east or west — can delay sunrise or hasten sunset by several minutes in real observation. Atmospheric refraction also bends sunlight, which is why the sun appears to rise slightly before it geometrically crosses the horizon and to linger slightly after it has set. The golden hour and civil twilight figures in the live widget below account for this refraction using the same algorithm astronomers use.
How these times are calculated
Sunrise and sunset are computed from the exact latitude and longitude of Wellington using a solar-position algorithm that accounts for the tilt of the Earth's axis, the solar declination on the date, and the geographic location of the observer. Civil twilight is the period when the sun is between 0° and 6° below the horizon; nautical twilight runs from 6° to 12° below; and golden hour is the window of warm, low-angle light photographers love, which lasts roughly an hour after sunrise and before sunset at mid-latitudes but stretches far longer near the poles in summer.
All times are shown in the local timezone of Wellington (Pacific/Auckland). If daylight saving time is in effect on a given date, the calculation automatically applies the current offset, so you do not need to add or subtract an hour yourself. Dates are set with your browser calendar in the live widget, which makes comparing the same date across several cities straightforward.