Auckland, Sydney major cities to welcome 2025 with fireworks and light show

Auckland welcomes 2025 with fireworks, while cities worldwide prepare for New Year celebrations amid global challenges.

Auckland has become the first major city to welcome 2025, with thousands of revelers counting down to the new year and cheering at colorful fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, and a spectacular downtown light show.

Thousands also thronged to downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point, and a light display recognizing Auckland’s Indigenous tribes. It follows a year marked by protests over Māori rights in the nation of 5 million.

Countries in the South Pacific Ocean are the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking 18 hours before the ball drop in Times Square in New York. Other cities around the world are readying with celebrations highlighting local cultures and traditions, after a year roiled by ongoing conflict and political instability.

Sydney welcomed in 2025 as the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”, spraying nine tonnes of fireworks from its famed Opera House and Harbour Bridge at midnight.

“Just to see all the beautiful colours and enjoy being in this situation with so many people in wonderful Australia,” said 71-year-old retired nurse Ruth Rowse ahead of the display.

As New Year’s Eve parties kicked into gear along picturesque Sydney Harbour, many revellers were relieved to see the past 12 months in the rearview mirror.

“It would be nice for the world if it all sort of fixed itself, sorted itself out,” insurance worker Stuart Edwards, 32, told AFP before the fireworks.