Light pollution in New Zealand

20 cities · estimated Bortle class at each city centre

1 of 20 cities read Bortle 8–9 · 5 of 20 cities read Bortle 7–8 · 13 of 20 cities read Bortle 6–7 · 1 of 20 cities read Bortle 5–6. The darkest city centre on the list is Rolleston (Bortle 5–6).

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Cities, brightest first

#	City	Bortle (est.)	Brightness	2 classes darker
1	Auckland	8–9	255	~25 km NE
2	Manukau City	7–8	255	~25 km ESE
3	Christchurch	7–8	255	~25 km ENE
4	Hamilton	7–8	251	~25 km W
5	Hastings	7–8	251	~25 km ENE
6	Wellington	7–8	239	~25 km W
7	Palmerston North	6–7	254	~25 km SSW
8	Tauranga	6–7	203	~25 km NNE
9	Porirua	6–7	234	~25 km NW
10	Napier	6–7	254	~25 km ENE
11	Dunedin	6–7	240	~25 km S
12	Rotorua	6–7	244	~25 km E
13	Invercargill	6–7	249	~25 km WSW
14	Whanganui	6–7	250	~25 km SSW
15	Whangarei	6–7	201	~25 km E
16	Nelson	6–7	213	~25 km NNW
17	New Plymouth	6–7	192	~25 km NNE
18	Gisborne	6–7	196	~25 km SE
19	Upper Hutt	6–7	114	~25 km NW
20	Rolleston	5–6	94	~50 km S

Brightness is the NASA VIIRS Black Marble 2016 value at the city centre on a 0–255 scale; 255 is saturated. Cities are ordered by estimated sky brightness, which also counts the light within 30 km.