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Dust off your barbecue and look for new batteries for your smoke detector – Sunday marks the start of daylight saving time, signaling that summer is on its way.
The clocks will advance one hour at 2 a.m. M. To become 3 a. M.
The extra hour of sunlight is welcomed with open arms as a guarantee that warmer weather is coming or is the cause of headaches for shift workers, dairy farmers, and parents of young children.
But where did it come from? How long has it been working? And why do we check our smoke alarms?
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* Time is up: Should we end daylight saving time in New Zealand?
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Why do we do it and where did it come from?
Like L&P, Pineapple Lumps, and humble Pavlova, DST is kiwi in origin.
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George Hudson is credited with inventing modern daylight saving time.
British-born New Zealand entomologist George Hudson is credited with the idea of modern daylight saving time.
In 1895, he proposed a two-hour shift to the Royal Society of New Zealand to have more hours of sunshine after work to go looking for insects in the summer.
At first, they made fun of him. His idea was deemed confusing and unnecessary.
But over time, the concept was adopted by many countries around the world, including New Zealand in 1927.
It is not universally observed: much of Europe and North America follows daylight saving time, while most countries in Asia and Africa do not.
Go back (and forward) time
UNSPLASH
Good luck sleeping on Sunday morning, when the clocks tick one hour. (File photo)
New Zealand has modified the time twice, first introducing daylight saving time in 1927 to give people more natural light for after-work activities.
The dates and times changed several times during the following years.
In 1941, New Zealand’s “daylight saving time” (12 hours before GMT), as it was known, was extended by emergency regulations to cover the entire year, before being effectively discontinued in 1946.
Daylight saving time was tested again in 1974 and introduced in 1975.
In 2006, following a public debate and a petition submitted to parliament, the summer time period was extended to its current dates, from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April.
Monique Ford / Stuff
Those in the Chatham Islands will advance their clocks one hour to 2.45 am, 45 minutes later than the rest of the country.
The country is uniformly advancing or receding its clocks at the same time, with the exception of the Chatham Islands, a New Zealand territory about 800 kilometers east of the South Island.
There, they don’t play by the same rules.
They observe Chatham Island Standard Time, which is 45 minutes ahead of the NZST, which means Chatham residents set their clocks forward to 2.45 a.m. M.
And the cows?
It’s not just humans who are affected by the change of weather.
Dairy cattle, like us, are “creatures of habit,” said Chris Lewis, Federated Farmers board member and former president of the national dairy industry.
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Chris Lewis, a board member for Federated Farmers, said daylight savings time also throws cows’ body clocks off balance.
Every day, the cows head to the milking shed at the same time, only for daylight saving time to cause their biological clocks to drift slightly, Lewis said.
While it can be a tricky couple of weeks for dairy farmers, who often need to wake up their sleeping cows, cows generally adjust fairly quickly, he said.
“I love getting more sunlight and watching my children play sports in the afternoons.
“It brings it together and moves on,” he said.
Sound the sirens and test the smoke alarms
As if adjusting to losing an hour of sleep wasn’t difficult enough, parts of the country have been warned not to be alarmed when the tsunami sirens sound at noon on Sunday.
The region’s biannual tsunami siren test is scheduled to run in parts of Northland, Auckland and Christchurch.
Stacy Squires / Stuff
The tsunami sirens will be tested at noon on Sunday, coinciding with daylight saving time. (File photo)
The test will consist of three sets of tones, each of which will indicate a specific action that people are advised to take in an actual emergency.
Kiwis are also advised to check their emergency plans, survival kits, and smoke alarms according to daylight saving time.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand wants people to check the expiration dates and batteries of their smoke alarms when our clocks advance one hour on Sunday.
Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) Senior Scientific Advisor Angela Doherty said daylight saving time is an “easy date to remember and serves as a good reminder for everyone to check their smoke alarm batteries.”
Similarly, AEM is taking the opportunity to fully test its tsunami sirens to make sure they are working and to remind communities what they sound like, Doherty said.
