Pages tagged with: holidays

Celebrated on the fourth Monday in October, Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day, a right that carpenter Samuel Parnell had famously fought for in 1840. Our first Labour Day was held on 28 October 1890, and it has been a statutory public holiday since 1900.

Vera Donoghue describes holidaying in UK vs NZ

From the early days of rail, excursion and special trains gave people new opportunities to visit beaches, lakes, parks, racecourses and shows.

As well as day excursions, from the mid-1890s New Zealand Railways offered special deals for travellers taking longer rail journeys over the Christmas and Easter holiday periods.

Come late December and thousands of Kiwis get ready for their annual holiday. They look forward to lazy days at the beach or the bach (or crib), games of backyard cricket, food on the barbie and the holiday uniform of shorts, jandals and T-shirts.

This is the notice in the New Zealand Gazette that declared Anzac Day a half-holiday.

Governors-General traditionally went to Northland in summer for the fishing and the sunshine. Here we see Governor-General Viscount Jellicoe (1920–24) picnicking at Ninety Mile Beach in 1924