diff --git a/src/omnifocus_operator/repository/hybrid/hybrid.py b/src/omnifocus_operator/repository/hybrid/hybrid.py
index 10b1a2e6..4f241bc0 100644
--- a/src/omnifocus_operator/repository/hybrid/hybrid.py
+++ b/src/omnifocus_operator/repository/hybrid/hybrid.py
@@ -104,9 +104,14 @@
 
 
 def _get_local_tz() -> ZoneInfo:
-    """Get system timezone as ZoneInfo from /etc/localtime symlink (macOS)."""
+    """Get system timezone as ZoneInfo from /etc/localtime symlink (macOS).
+
+    /etc/localtime resolves through /var/db/timezone/zoneinfo, but fully
+    resolving symlinks can land on /usr/share/zoneinfo.default instead of
+    /usr/share/zoneinfo depending on macOS build, so match either variant.
+    """
     tz_path = pathlib.Path("/etc/localtime").resolve()
-    tz_name = str(tz_path).split("zoneinfo/")[-1]
+    tz_name = re.sub(r".*/zoneinfo(?:\.default)?/", "", str(tz_path))
     return ZoneInfo(tz_name)
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_hybrid_repository.py b/tests/test_hybrid_repository.py
index 8bd66c7d..49ca102c 100644
--- a/tests/test_hybrid_repository.py
+++ b/tests/test_hybrid_repository.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+import pathlib
 import plistlib
 import sqlite3
 import time
@@ -32,7 +33,11 @@
 from omnifocus_operator.contracts.use_cases.list.tasks import ListTasksRepoQuery
 from omnifocus_operator.models.enums import Availability, FolderAvailability, TagAvailability
 from omnifocus_operator.models.snapshot import AllEntities
-from omnifocus_operator.repository.hybrid.hybrid import _FRESHNESS_TIMEOUT, HybridRepository
+from omnifocus_operator.repository.hybrid.hybrid import (
+    _FRESHNESS_TIMEOUT,
+    HybridRepository,
+    _get_local_tz,
+)
 from tests.doubles import InMemoryBridge, StubBridge
 
 # Core Foundation epoch: Jan 1, 2001 00:00:00 UTC
@@ -1924,6 +1929,30 @@ async def test_project_reads_plain_text_note(self, hybrid_repo: HybridRepository
 # ============================================================================
 
 
+class TestGetLocalTz:
+    """_get_local_tz() derives an IANA ZoneInfo name from the /etc/localtime symlink."""
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "resolved_path",
+        [
+            "/usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Sydney",
+            "/usr/share/zoneinfo.default/Australia/Sydney",
+            "/var/db/timezone/zoneinfo/Australia/Sydney",
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_resolves_tz_name_across_symlink_variants(self, resolved_path: str) -> None:
+        """Regression: some macOS builds resolve /etc/localtime through
+        /usr/share/zoneinfo.default rather than /usr/share/zoneinfo, which used to
+        break naive `.split("zoneinfo/")` parsing and raise
+        `ZoneInfo keys may not be absolute paths`.
+        """
+        with patch(
+            "pathlib.Path.resolve",
+            return_value=pathlib.PosixPath(resolved_path),
+        ):
+            assert _get_local_tz() == ZoneInfo("Australia/Sydney")
+
+
 class TestLocalDatetimeParsing:
     """dateDue, dateToStart, datePlanned should be parsed as local time with DST."""