8 March – Japanese Warrant OfficerNobuo Fujita of the Imperial Japanese Navy conducts aerial reconnaissance of Wellington. His Yokosuka E14y reconnaissance plane had been catapulted into the air from the Japanese submarine I-25 which stored the plane in a sealed foredeck hangar. After a successful daylight tour the submarine and plane headed north to make an inspection of Auckland on 13 March.
April–June
27 April – Rationing on sugar and women's stockings is introduced. The allowance per person is 12 ounces (340 g) of sugar per week, and one pair of women's stockings every three months.[5][6]
24 May – I-21 briefly operated off northern New Zealand in May 1942. I-21's floatplane flown by Lt Ito Isuma conducted a reconnaissance flight over Thames and then Auckland on 24 May.
29 May – Rationing on clothing, footwear and linen is introduced, with an allowance of 52 coupons per year.[7]
1 June – Tea rationing is introduced, with an allowance of 2 ounces (57 g) per person per week.[5][8]
24 June – A severe earthquake, the 1942 Wairarapa earthquake struck the lower North Island, followed by a severe aftershock on 2 August. Considerable damage resulted in Masterton, other parts of the Wairarapa, Palmerston North and Wellington.
July–September
October–December
9 December – 37 of the 39 female patients in Ward 5 at Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (psychiatric hospital) are killed in a night-time fire – the country's worst fire disaster at that time.[10]
13 December – Abel Tasman's first sighting of New Zealand 300 years earlier is commemorated in Hokitika (initially this was planned for Ōkārito but this was changed after it was cut off by flooding) by a Dutch delegation led by Charles van der Plas and hosted by the New Zealand government[11]
Date unknown
Japanese submarines operate in New Zealand waters in 1942 and 1943. They send reconnaissance aircraft over Auckland and Wellington, but do not carry out any attacks.
