Auckland Anniversary

On the Monday closest to January 29 Auckland Anniversary Day is celebrated.
Auckland Anniversary Day is actually the 29th of January, but it is observed on the Monday closest to that date. Auckland Anniversary applies to the Auckland Province which includes Northland, Auckland, Waikato, King Country, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, and Gisborne and East Coast Regions. The date 29 January itself is not the actual day on which Auckland was founded, but the day on which explorer and first governor of New Zealand William Hobson first sighted North Island at the Bay of Islands.

In 1840, Hobson arrived in New Zealand and quickly signed a treaty with the Maori, the Treaty of Waitangi, which led to New Zealand becoming a new British colony. It was on 18 September of 1840 that Hobson founded Auckland and made it the capital city of New Zealand.