How to turn 20 days annual leave into 46 days off

Maximise your vacation time over the next annual leave period

Almost all employees in New Zealand are entitled to 20 days paid annual leave per year. 

But if you’re resourceful about the timing of your holidays, you can turn your 20 days into stretches adding up to 46 days over the upcoming year. 

Kiwis have 11 days of public holidays, including one regional public holiday. 

When booking your time off around those public holidays and weekends, you can more than double those numbers in actual time taken off. 

Although not all Kiwis take their full annual leave within the year they are accrued. 

And not all employees in New Zealand work Monday to Friday, but for those who do, the dates below will maximise vacation allowance for 2020. 

These are the dates that will maximise your leave for 2020: 

December 2019/January 2020 

Take 16 days holiday by booking 6 days annual leave 

Dates: 23 December – 5 January 

April 2020 

Take 16 days holiday by booking 8 days annual leave 

Dates: 6 April – 19 April 

June 2020 

Take 9 days holiday by booking 4 days annual leave 

Dates: 2 June – 7 June 

October 2020 

Take 5 days holiday by booking 2 days annual leave 

Dates: 27 October – 28 October 

Total annual leave taken: 20 

Total days off in four stretches (including weekends): 46 

Westpac NZ’s HR analytics show that only 53% of employees at Westpac use all their annual leave within the year that they are accrued.  

The other 47% of staff let a portion of their annual leave allowance roll over into following years.