It's just turned December in the UK but with time differences, International Date Lines and life on the other side of the world, who knows, it could be New Years Eve right now in New Zealand.
With that in mind, you'll need some party ideas.
Music Festivals
Rhythm and Vines 2011
Music festivals provide a good enough excuse to get blackout drunk whenever, it doesn't have to be a special occasion. However, when some of New Zealand's biggest and best just so happen to coincide with New Year's Eve - the biggest party night of the year - we genuinely debated whether to include these through fear of getting some angry calls from some bereaving parents.
But it's your life and you do what you want with it, if you want to choose to see who can down the bottle of Jager the fastest, find out why you need to keep all hands and feet inside the carriage at ALL times or how high a flame you can jump over - that's up to you.
Rhythm and Vines - Waikohika Estate Gisborne - 29th to 31st
Celebrating its 10th year, 30,000 people are expected to rock up to the Rhythm and Vines Festival where for three days, some of the best acts from around the world including N.E.R.D., Pendulum and Calvin Harris will hit the stages over the course of three days leading up to the big one itself.
Coromandel Gold - Whitianga - 30th to 31st
If you like your festivals to be beach side, then perhaps the Coromandel Gold Festival is more for you. Another three day festival leading up to NYE, acts on show include Shapeshifter, Home Brew and the mighty De La Soul.
La De Da - Martinborough - 30th to 31st
Another great festival featuring many of the same acts as Coromandel Gold, La De Da is also located in prime wine country, so after you've had your fill of the cheapest booze you can find at the festival, you can head out to the wineries and vineyards of the region and cleanse your palette.
Other Christmassy Stuff
It's not even real
Advent Calendar - Auckland - until the 25th
If you had parents that loved you, chances are you were receiving advent calendars until well after it was technically age appropriate, but that didn't stop you opening all the doors before the 10th of December anyway.
But if you're away from home this year on your working holiday you won't be getting one (unless you've got parents that really love you, probably a little too much) so head on down to Silo Park in Auckland for the Wynyard Quarter Advent Calendar when a door of the giant 12 metre high advent calendar will be opened to reveal a lovely Christmas scene.
Christmas in the Park - Auckland - 8th
Everyone knows that Father Christmas was originally green until Coca-Cola came along and decided red was a better look and he's been that way ever since. Not only that, but Coca-Cola has also become one of the best enduring hints that Christmas is on its way ("holidays are coming, holidays are coming...") so it is with barely any bitterness that we recommend the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park festival this weekend.
- Dominic Ladden-Powell is Online Editor with the New Zealand Visa Bureau, an independent migration consultancy specialising in helping people lodge applications for a Working Holiday Visa to New Zealand.
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