Auckland has become the first major city to host a fireworks display from New Zealand’s tallest building, the Sky Tower, in 2026.
The South Pacific nation celebrated the arrival of the new year as clocks in Oakland struck midnight, 18 hours before the famous ball drop in New York’s Times Square.
The five-minute display saw around 3,500 fireworks shot into the sky from multiple floors of the 240-metre-tall tower, but many small community events across New Zealand’s North Island were canceled as rain and possible thunderstorms were predicted.
