DateDoubt.java

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateDoubt {

    public static final String DATE_FORMAT = "EEE MMM dd yyyy hh:mm:ss 'GMT'Z '('zzzz')'";

    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
        String sDate = "Thu May 25 2017 10:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)";
        parseDate(sDate);
    }

    private static void parseDate(String sDate) throws ParseException {

        // works
        DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
        Date oldDate = dateFormat.parse(sDate);
        System.out.println(oldDate.toString());

        //FIXME: can't parse?!
        ZonedDateTime newDate = ZonedDateTime.parse(sDate, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(DATE_FORMAT));
        System.out.println("New Date : " + newDate.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(DATE_FORMAT)));
    }
}