[Feature] Support for New AWS Region ap-southeast-6 (New Zealand) in eksctl

[natiwho]

What feature/behavior/change do you want?

AWS has officially launched the new region ap-southeast-6 (New Zealand).
However, when using eksctl to create or manage clusters in ap-southeast-6, users get the following error:

Error: --region=ap-southeast-6 is not supported - use one of: us-west-1, us-west-2, us-east-1, ...

I believe this means that eksctl does not yet officially support this new region, despite AWS backend and APIs being live and accessible via the AWS CLI (aws eks list-clusters --region ap-southeast-6 works, returning an empty list if no clusters exist).

Steps to reproduce:

1. Run the following command to create a cluster in the new region: eksctl create cluster --name test-cluster --region ap-southeast-6 --nodegroup-name linux-nodes --node-type t2.micro --nodes 2
2. The command fails with: Error: --region=ap-southeast-6 is not supported - use one of: ...

Why do you want this feature?

AWS has made the New Zealand (ap-southeast-6) region generally available, and EKS is now officially supported there. I am able to list clusters with the AWS CLI using this region, and the endpoint is reachable.

However, eksctl currently blocks usage of this region, which prevents developers and teams from creating or managing EKS clusters in New Zealand using this tool.

Adding this support would:

• Bring eksctl in line with AWS’s regional support
• Enable users in New Zealand and surrounding areas to use eksctl without workarounds
• Improve developer experience and automation consistency across regions

I would also be happy to contribute a pull request if guidance is provided on the correct place to add this region in the codebase.

[NicholasBlaskey]

Thanks for the report, this is something we want to support

If you want to take an attempt at contributing a PR that would be great

Here is an example of adding a region before
019bd06

The node account looks for ap-southeast-6 looks to be 333609536671

I can also look to take this on early next week if you prefer / don't get to it

[natiwho]

Thanks for the quick reply and the helpful info. I am keen to contribute to the PR. If I run into any issues, I’ll reach out. Otherwise, feel free to pick it up if you get to it before me.

Thanks again!

[NicholasBlaskey]

Fixed in https://github.com/eksctl-io/eksctl/releases/tag/v0.216.0