03/05/2025
How beautiful and blessed we are to have yet, another House of the Lord in Aotearoa.
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wellington New Zealand Temple.
The groundbreaking services for the Wellington New Zealand Temple will be held on Saturday, August 2, 2025. Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, First Counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency, will preside at the event.
As previously announced, the temple will be built on a 3.35-acre site located near Okowai Road and Whitford Brown Avenue, Aotea, Porirua, New Zealand. Plans call for a two-story temple of approximately 14,900 square feet and an ancillary building with arrival facilities and patron housing.
Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple during the April 2022 general conference.
He said then: “I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple. Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”
The Wellington New Zealand Temple will be the third in the nation, joining the historic Hamilton New Zealand Temple, the first house of the Lord built in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Auckland New Zealand Temple, dedicated by Elder Patrick Kearon on April 13, 2025.
The first New Zealand converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were baptized in 1853. Shortly afterward, missionary work began, including among the native Māori people. The first congregation in New Zealand was organized in 1855.
Today, New Zealand is home to nearly 120,000 Latter-day Saints in about 220 congregations.