What can I pick right now? A New Zealand season calendar
The New Zealand self-pick season is a narrow one. The country is small, and there is no subtropical region warm enough to invert the calendar, so almost everything happens between October and April.
Spring, September to November
The season opens with strawberries, first in the warm north around Auckland and the Bay of Plenty, from about October. This is the longest-awaited crop of the year and the busiest.
Haskaps in Canterbury ripen from late spring and are the earliest berry of all, before anything else is close.
Lavender in the Waikato opens from late spring into early summer.
Summer, December to February
Everything at once. Blueberries across the Waikato, Wellington and the Bay of Plenty from December through to March. Boysenberries in the Bay of Plenty, raspberries in Canterbury and the Manawatū, blackberries and tayberries where they are grown.
Cherries in Central Otago through December and January, peaking at Christmas.
Strawberries continue in the north through December and often into January.
Autumn, March to May
The quiet, comfortable end of the season. Blueberries carry on in the cooler districts into March and sometimes April. Autumn-fruiting raspberries run latest of all, into April in Canterbury and the Manawatū. Apples and pears where they are grown, and vegetable picking in the Manawatū.
Fewer people, softer light and easier picking. Autumn is underrated here.
Winter, June to August
Almost nothing. There is no winter self-pick crop here to speak of, so the gate stays shut until the haskaps and the first northern strawberries. Use the months to plan.
The two rules that beat the calendar
Go south or higher to go later. Canterbury and Central Otago run weeks behind Auckland. If you have missed something, look down the country.
Berry farms open on the week, not the season. They pick when the fruit is on and close when a block is finished, sometimes for good. Every listing here carries the farm’s own contact details, and a check on the morning beats any calendar.
Updated 10 September 2026