Snail mail: Christmas Day delivery cut-off for mail revealed by NZ Post

NZ Post has brought forward the deadlines for sending mail overseas by one week due to the worldwide impact of Covid-19.

The cut-off for sending within the country is December 21 by post and parcels, while the courier cut-off is December 23.

Sending overseas, the deadline for Australia is November 30 by air, December 7 by courier, and December 14 by express courier.

The South Pacific, Asia, North America, United Kingdom, and Europe deadline is November 27 for air, December 4 for courier, and December 10 for express courier.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is November 25 for air, December 2 for courier, and December 8 for express courier.

YouShop to the United States and UK standard is November 30.

The NZ Post distribution centre in Highbrook, Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

NZ Post chief operating officer Brendon Main says they learnt a lot from the Covid-19 lockdowns in New Zealand.

Following the lifting of alert level 4, NZ Post received about 3.5 million parcels in a fortnight, or around 200 parcels a minute.

The service was not expecting volumes that high until many years in the future, Main said.

"We've learnt a lot from that and we have made changes to how we do things to be ready this Christmas to get those presents under the tree," Main said.

"We'd encourage Kiwis to send items as early as they can, both within New Zealand, and internationally, to ensure they are there in plenty of time for Christmas.

"We also encourage people looking to order items from overseas online stores to do this as early as they can."

More than 1500 extra transport runs will be made to ensure mail is delivered on time, as well as three additional sites to manage surges in mail volumes.

The service will also bring on 350 additional processing staff, 200 more courier vans and 185 extra flights.

Christmas is usually the busiest time of the year for NZ Post, however the parcel delivery records have already been broken this year due to Covid-19 with online shopping about 30 per cent up on last year.