It's 2026 in the South Pacific. Here's how this major city kicked off the new year

"Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand's tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain.South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks strike midnight in Auckland, a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball drops in New York's Times Square."

"Australia's east coast welcomes 2026 two hours after New Zealand, but in Sydney, the country's largest city, celebrations will be held under the pall of Australia's worst mass shooting in almost 30 years. Two gunmen targeted a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15 and wounding 40.A heavy police presence monitored the thousands who thronged to the downtown waterfront on Wednesday to watch a fireworks show centered on the Sydney Harbor Bridge."

""We can't be in a situation where this horrible, criminal, terrorist event changes the way we live in our beautiful city," Minns told reporters on Wednesday. "We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we're not go"

Auckland welcomed 2026 with a five-minute fireworks display launched from various floors of the 240-meter Sky Tower, becoming the first major city to greet the new year despite rain that dampened celebrations and led to cancellations of smaller community events across the North Island. Australia marked 2026 two hours later; Sydney staged a heavily policed waterfront fireworks show under the pall of the country's worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, when two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15 and wounding 40. Officials commemorated victims with a minute of silence and menorah projections and urged residents not to stay away.

Read at Fast Company