Chinese New Year 2026
Welcoming the Year of the Fire Horse: Auckland's festival and lanterns, and why the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement is the place to go in Queenstown.
Chinese New Year lands in the middle of the New Zealand summer, which is a very good arrangement. The celebrations are outdoors, the evenings are long, and there is time the next day to go and see something. Whether you are marking the Year of the Fire Horse in Auckland or Queenstown, here is when it falls, what is on, and how to make more than one night of it.
The two cities do it very differently. Auckland puts on a huge lantern festival. Queenstown is quieter, but it has something Auckland does not: a real piece of Chinese New Zealand history 20 minutes up the road. Either way, a car from Evolve Rentals turns the celebration into a proper few days out.
When is Chinese New Year 2026?
Chinese New Year 2026 falls on Tuesday 17 February 2026 and begins the Year of the Fire Horse. The celebrations run for around two weeks and finish with the Lantern Festival on Tuesday 3 March 2026.
The Horse is a year of movement and momentum, which feels about right for a season built around road trips.
What's on in Auckland for Chinese New Year?
Two events stand out. The first is the Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day on Saturday 14 February 2026 at the Auckland Showgrounds on Greenlane West, from 9.30am to 4pm. The Auckland Chinese Community Centre has run it there every year since 2002, with more than 200 stalls, a lion dance to open the day at 10am, cultural performances and entertainment for children. Entry is free.
The second is the BNZ Auckland Lantern Festival, at the Manukau Sports Bowl from 26 February to 1 March 2026. It is free, although tickets are required, and it is a serious event: more than 500 handmade lanterns, live performances on the main stage, over 65 food and craft stalls, amusement rides, and fireworks on selected nights.
The organisers ask people to use public transport and walk, because there are parking restrictions and road closures around the venue. That is good advice, so take it. Leave the car at the hotel for the festival night, and use it the next morning to get out of the city instead.
From central Auckland the west coast beaches, the Kumeu wineries and Matakana are all within about an hour. Our guide to collecting a car from a hotel lobby in Auckland has the three drives worth doing first, and a lantern festival followed by a day at Karekare is a very good long weekend.
How is Chinese New Year celebrated in Queenstown?
More quietly than Auckland. Here the day is about good food, a long summer evening by the lake, and a trip into the history of the region, which is where Queenstown has a story worth telling.
What is the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement?
The Arrowtown Chinese Settlement is the restored home of the Chinese gold miners who worked the Arrow River in the late 1800s, and it is one of the most moving places to visit in the whole region. It sits on the banks of Bush Creek at the top end of Buckingham Street, Arrowtown's main street, and is looked after by the Department of Conservation.
The numbers tell the story. Fewer than 200 Chinese miners lived in Otago in 1866, and by 1874 the census counted 3,564. Many were married men from southern China, working to send money home to their families, and they lived apart from the European settlement and faced real discrimination. By 1885 the settlement had around ten huts, a social hall, stores and gardens.
Today you can walk among restored huts built from mud brick, stone, wood and corrugated iron, and step inside Ah Lum's Store, built around 1883. The interpretation panels are in English and Chinese. The main track through the settlement is suitable for wheelchairs and prams, and the walk takes under an hour. On Chinese New Year it is a thoughtful way to connect the celebration with the people who helped build this part of New Zealand.
Arrowtown is 20 to 25 minutes from Queenstown, and our Arrowtown day trip guide covers the drive, the gold rush main street and where to eat once you are there.
Where can you eat for Chinese New Year in Queenstown?
White + Wong's on Beach Street is the obvious booking. It describes itself as East meets West, with street food from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, from dumplings and noodles to Peking duck and barbecue meats, and it opens every day from 11am until late. Book ahead for the evening itself, because Chinese New Year falls in the busiest stretch of the Queenstown summer.
Then walk it off along the waterfront. In February the light lasts until around nine, and there are worse ways to start a new year than watching it go down over the Remarkables.
How do you make more than one night of it?
Build a day around it. In Queenstown, that might be the Chinese Settlement in the morning, lunch in Arrowtown, the afternoon on the lake and dinner in town. Chinese New Year is about fresh starts, which is as good an excuse as any to finally do the drive to Glenorchy you have been putting off.
In Auckland, it is the lantern festival one night and a coast the next morning. Either way, the point is to go somewhere new while the year is still new.
Getting the car sorted
In Queenstown, we bring the car to you. Nobody else in Queenstown does that. Someone from our team meets you where you are staying, walks you round the car and hands over the keys. In Auckland, you collect it from the Grand Millennium on Mayoral Drive, right in the middle of the city.
February is the height of summer in both cities and cars go early, so book your car with Evolve Rentals and start the Year of the Horse on the road.
FAQs
When is Chinese New Year 2026?
Tuesday 17 February 2026. It begins the Year of the Fire Horse, and the celebrations end with the Lantern Festival on Tuesday 3 March 2026.
When is the Auckland Lantern Festival 2026?
The BNZ Auckland Lantern Festival runs from 26 February to 1 March 2026 at the Manukau Sports Bowl. Entry is free but tickets are required, and the organisers recommend public transport because of parking restrictions around the venue.
When is the Chinese New Year Festival and Market Day in Auckland?
Saturday 14 February 2026, from 9.30am to 4pm at the Auckland Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane West. Entry is free.
How can you celebrate Chinese New Year in Queenstown?
Book a restaurant for the evening, spend time by the lake, and visit the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement, the restored home of the region's Chinese gold miners, about 20 to 25 minutes from Queenstown.
Where is the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement?
At the top end of Buckingham Street in Arrowtown, on the banks of Bush Creek, about 20 to 25 minutes' drive from Queenstown. The main track is suitable for wheelchairs and prams and the walk takes under an hour.