In New Zealand, the switch off of analogue signals started in September 2012, with the digital switchover being completed in Hawke's Bay in the North island and the West Coast region of the South Island.
[1] During 2011–12, the digital terrestrial television network was extended to cover some six-sevenths of the country's people.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage's "Going Digital" group set up an assistance scheme for the first two regions which would complete the changeover, Hawke's Bay in the North island and the West Coast region of the South Island.
Similar schemes were run in each region as its changeover date approached.
Blenheim and parts of Marlborough can pick up analogue television from Wellington's Mount Kaukau transmitter (this ability was most notably demonstrated during the 1968 Wahine disaster, where due to an extratropical cyclone cancelling flights and the then lack of an inter-island network, news footage was relayed to the South Island by filming a Blenheim television tuned to Wellington then rushing the film to Christchurch by road to be broadcast.