Brightly coloured Chinese lanterns light the Auckland Domain this weekend as the Auckland Lantern Festival is in full swing. Celebrating the Chinese New Year welcoming in the Year of the Dog, it’s an event filled with hundreds of handmade Chinese New Year lanterns as well as crafts, performances, and food (plenty of food).
It’s a free family-friendly event, with activities and entertainment for everyone. It is expected to draw nearly 200,000 visitors over the four day weekend, so be sure to check the tips section below for transport suggestions.
Photo Highlights of the Auckland Lantern Light Festival
The face on this Chinese lantern is amazingly realistic.
Chinese New Year Lanterns in the trees help set the mood.
Food Stalls at the Event
- This year there are about 100 food and craft stalls, so arrive feeling hungry.
- Most only take cash, but there are ASB ATM machines near the food stalls. On Friday night the queue to get cash was the longest queue we saw all evening.
- In honour of the Chinese New Year, most of the food stalls offer Asian foods. Pad thai seemed a popular option, and it was what I selected. There are also smoothies, fresh coconut milk, and plenty of sweets including deep fried ice cream or ice cream in a fresh pineapple bowl.
- If you love food, while you’re in Auckland, check out a food tour:
→ Check prices for Auckland food tours
Nearly 100 food and craft stalls were enough to feed the visitors. Despite the massive crowds, the food queues we chose moved quickly.
Special Events at the Auckland Lantern Festival 2018
We didn’t arrive early enough to see many of the timed special events. Some of the highlights include:
- The opening ceremony was on the main stage on Thursday at 7.15 pm.
- The event will close on Sunday (March 4) with a fireworks finale at 10.15 pm.
- Throughout the weekend there are a variety of musical and acrobatic performances on the main stage.
- There is a martial arts arena with martial arts demonstrations until 8 pm nightly, followed by short films from the NZ Film Commission.
- A third arena, the Lion Dance lawn, intermixes Xi’an Shadow Puppets, a lion dance, and face painting, with DJ sessions beginning at 8 pm.
The duck pond was lit up, creating a surreal ambience.
Photos from prior year’s Auckland Lantern Festival
Practical Information on Visiting the Auckland Lantern Festival 2018
- Entrance to the family-friendly Auckland Lantern festival is free.
- The lantern festival is on the Auckland Domain, the city’s oldest park.
- In 2018, the Auckland Lantern Festival runs from March 1 – 4 from 5 pm to 10.30 pm nightly.
- There is no dedicated parking for the event. The standard domain parking fills up quickly, and as with most Auckland domain events, many of the streets are closed to traffic. A better plan would have brought us to the city early in the day to enjoy the Auckland Museum and the Wintergardens (both on the Auckland Domain), rather than looking for parking in the evening.
- Even the paid parking lots were filled, but once we saw the crowds, we were no longer surprised.
Crowds at the Auckland Lantern Festival 2018.
- If you are going to drive, try to arrive plenty early, or park in the surrounding neighbourhoods. After 30+ minutes of driving around the domain searching for a car park, we ended up finding street parking in Newmarket and walking the 1.6 km back to the Auckland Domain.
- Use the AT Journey planner to find the best public transportation options from your neighbourhood.
- Another option is to spend the night in Auckland. We use booking.com to find the best rates in the city.
→ Click here to check availability at Auckland Hotels
- Auckland Lantern Festival event maps are available, and being distributed by volunteers at the entrances to the festival along any of the primary walking paths into the domain.
→Click here to download a Chinese Lantern Festival map
- Primary event sponsors are ATEED (Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development), Harcourts, and ASB.
Other Auckland Cultural Festivals I Love
There is often an option for an Auckland festival on the weekends. The Chinese Lantern Festival is my favourite New Zealand festival. Some of my other favourites include:
- Chocolate and Coffee Show in Auckland
- Auckland Food Show
- Latin Festival
- Auckland Diwali Festival
- Seafood Festival in Auckland (no seafood festival in 2018)
- Auckland On the Water Boat Show
Will you be visiting the Auckland Lantern Festival this weekend? Which is your favourite lantern?
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Wow, those lanterns look very cool!
I was amazed with many colorful pictures that you showed us. I would have like to have seen some of the different foods. I enjoy eating, oops, I mean the different types of food. See ya Rhonda.
Cruisin Paul
Beautiful colours and a variety of themes. – Margy
What an amazing festival! I love how bright everything is. My daughter celebrated the Chinese New Year in school extensively this year with her teacher who is from China. It is really interesting to see how it is celebrated around the world. Have a great week!
The lights seem to make the world more alive. Magical.
Wow! The lights are magical. Lights bring life, somehow.
The lights and colors are so pretty! I like the fifth one down so much!
Wow! They look fanastic!
Fabulously festive.
Holy Cow, that looks like so much and what a cool event to go to. Wow. The pics you took are great. Thanks for sharing this.
This one puts ours to shame!
Fantastic pics and all the colour I want the food heheh!
Have a good week Rhonda and thanks for stopping by 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous!
I didn’t know that Chinese New Year is celebrated so grandly over there in New Zealand! I’d love to attend someday!
What a gorgeous display of color and shapes! You are so lucky to have all these great festivals in Aukland. Where any of these lanterns for sale? I would love to have something like that in my garden. Can you imagine how beautiful it wood look at night?
What a wonderful and festive parade and celebration! happy year of the Dog, Rhonda!
Hey look, I was visiting you four years ago – there’s my original comment.
The lights are still really awesome. Incredible works of art.
Hi Rhonda – it looks amazing … lovely photos – but the lanterns etc are so so creative. Thanks for the tour around – cheers Hilary
How fun, but the crowds. I just can’t do all that walking and crowds anymore. I think I’m getting old, Rhonda. I would love to see all this color in person though and the food? I want to try the food.
Great informational post and the pictures are awesome. As always.
Have a fabulous day. ♥
The crowds were much bigger than I remembered from my last visit, but last time we went on the opening night which is lanterns only – no food or craft stalls, so way fewer people.
Lovely photos of what looks to be a fun festival. I’d love to attend someday!
How pretty!!! #teamlovinlife
Great photos! I loved the Chinese Lantern Festival and wrote about it on my blog too! It’s really cool, cultural events like this one that make me glad to have semi-recently moved to Auckland.
Thanks for the invite Eli, it was fun.
The lanterns are so vibrant with such fine attention to detail! I look forward to reading your guest post.
The lanterns were really cool.
Beautiful picture, love the dragons 🙂 thanks for sharing at the weekend blog hop…
Thanks Claire. The dragons were pretty cool. They are one of the entrances.
I’ve never heard of this – or any other – lantern festival. Lovely pics.
There are lots of fun festivals in Auckland.
Oh, wow! Those photos are fantastic. I spent some time in Auckland when I was living in Sydney and it was so beautiful. New Zealand is a beautiful, beautiful country.
Thanks Kim. Sydney is a beautiful city as well.
It looks so festive and colorful.
Have a wonderful weekend, Rhonda.
xoRobyn
Festive and colorful are the perfect words to describe the day.
Those were so cool!
Esp. that first one was impressive & LOVE THE Dragons I was born year of the dragon.. I want one of those for my room!
My daughter was also born in the year of the dragon. She has a special red bracelet that she was given when we were in China during a year of the dragon. I think she can only wear it in a dragon year.
Wow those lanterns look great, bet it is well worth seeing. My friend, who is a photographer, is visiting us for a few days so may even get to play around with some myself. Mind you, it depends on the UK weather!
Don’t let the weather stop you. The reason the festival not so crowded was rain, which sure gave me better photo opportunities.
I like all the lanterns, but the dragons are my favorite.
Have a fabulous day. 🙂
I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day celebration cruise. It sounds lovely.
Wonderful pictures you took. My favorite is the lit up dragon with the moon peeking out between the leaves. Nice.
That was my favorite as well. I am glad you noticed the moon.
Good to hear the book arrived. Wow, that was fast.
I love the goldfish lanterns. Those are adorable.
I thought it seemed really fast. Sometimes mail arrives slow, so you never know. Generally, it seems quicker to use the postal service than a courier company from US to NZ, as the post will leave the package, but the others wont without signature.
I love looking at your pictures. You’re very good! It’s great when timing is perfect, right?
The secret to these was a tripod 🙂
I highly recommend a photo club, if you can find one. It is both a great way to meet people and a wonderful opportunity to get out there and take photos. I tend to take too many, so too much waiting around time for the family.
The Lantern Festival looks cool!
Can’t wait to hear the fine story.
It is really cool, and my story . . . you will just have to wait. I am pretty sure you will laugh when I give it up.
I love the vivid colors and fun displays! Awesome festival and photos.
It is a really fun festival, and the rain last night really kept the crowds down.
My goodness, what a very busy week you’ve had. Congrats on winning the book! Free is always great! Good job on all the errands finished and commitments met. I loved the pics, and I’m waiting for the $fine$ story. 🙂
It was a busy week. I actually won the book a bit ago, but it arrived today. I am thrilled, as it is one I was planning on getting should I ever finish my draft. Now I have an autographed copy. It’s way cool.
Beautiful lanterns!
It’s a fun festival. This is the second year we have gone.
Very colorful photos! With a Chinese daughter-in-law, I have seen similar and always enjoy it. Too bad about the fine!
The lanterns are so beautiful. It would be really neat to have them in the family.