A post on social media this morning warned people heading to Auckland Airport for flights to “be aware the Manawa Bay Boxing Day shoppers are adding an obscene amount of traffic to the journey”. The weather service says during this period, driving conditions will also be hazardous, “with surface flooding and poor visibility in heavy rain”. The Boxing Day shopping rush follows Christmas Eve retaining its title as the busiest shopping day of the year, though the peak hour was well down on previous years. That was lower than the 607,299 transactions recorded in the same hour on Christmas Eve last year. In 2020, some 678,812 transactions were made between noon and 1pm on Christmas Eve.

Source: New Zealand Herald December 26, 2025 00:52 UTC