Wellington

Wellington Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara (Māori[1])
—  main urban area  —
Nickname(s): Wellywood, the Windy City, Welly
Coordinates: 41°17′20″S 174°46′38″E / 41.28889°S 174.77722°E / -41.28889; 174.77722
Country	New Zealand
Region	Wellington
Territorial authorities	Wellington City Lower Hutt City Upper Hutt City Porirua City
Area [2]
- Urban	444 km2 (171.4 sq mi)
- Metro	1,390 km2 (536.7 sq mi)
Lowest elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Population (June 2008 estimate)[3][4]
- Urban	381,900
- Urban Density	860.1/km2 (2,227.7/sq mi)
- Metro	385,600
- Metro Density	277.4/km2 (718.5/sq mi)
Time zone	NZST (UTC+12)
- Summer (DST)	NZDT (UTC+13)
Postcode(s)	6000 group, and 5000 and 5300 series
Area code(s)	04
Local iwi	Ngāti Poneke, Ngāti Tama, Te Āti Awa
Website	http://www.wellingtonnz.com/

Wellington Harbour & Cable Car - view from Kelburn

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, at the southwestern tip of the North Island between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island and is New Zealand's third most populous urban area with 381,900 residents. There are 473,700 residents in the Wellington Region (June 2008 estimates).^[4]

Wellington's suburbs lie across four cities. Wellington City, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district and about half of Wellington's population. Porirua City on Porirua Harbour to the north is notable for its large Māori and Pacific Island communities. Lower Hutt City and Upper Hutt City are suburban areas to the northeast, together known as the Hutt Valley. Although each of the four cities also contains a rural hinterland, almost all of the population is within the urban area.

Name

Wellington was named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo. The Duke's title comes from the town of Wellington in the English county of Somerset.

In Māori, Wellington goes by three names. Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara".^[1] Pōneke is a transliteration of Port Nick, short for Port Nicholson (the city's central marae, the community supporting it and its kapa haka have the pseudo-tribal name of Ngāti Pōneke).^[5] Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, meaning The Head of the Fish of Māui (often shortened to Te Upoko-o-te-Ika), a traditional name for the southernmost part of the North Island, derives from the legend of the fishing up of the island by the demigod Māui.

Wellington also has nicknames including The Harbour Capital, Wellywood and the Windy City .

Importance

Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, housing Parliament and the head offices of all Government Ministries and Departments, plus the bulk of the foreign diplomatic missions that are based in New Zealand.

Wellington's compact city centre supports an arts scene, café culture and nightlife much larger than most cities of a similar size. It is a centre of New Zealand's film and theatre industry. Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Museum of Wellington City & Sea and the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival are all sited there.

Wellington has the 12th best quality of living in the world, according to a 2007 study by consulting company Mercer. Of cities with English as the primary language, Wellington ranked fourth.^[6] Of New Zealand cities only Auckland rated higher, it was ranked fifth in the world in 2006 and 2007.

Settlement

Legend recounts that Kupe discovered and explored the district in about the tenth century.

"The Old Shebang" on Cuba Street ca 1883

European settlement began with the arrival of an advance party of the New Zealand Company on the ship Tory, on 20 September 1839, followed by 150 settlers on the Aurora on 22 January 1840. The settlers constructed their first homes at Petone (which they called Britannia for a time) on the flat area at the mouth of the Hutt River. When that proved swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans, which had been drawn without regard for the hilly terrain.

Earthquakes

New Zealand government "Beehive" and the Parliament Buildings.

Wellington suffered serious damage in a series of earthquakes in 1848^[7] and from another earthquake in 1855. The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake occurred on a fault line to the north and east of Wellington. It ranks as probably the most powerful earthquake in recorded New Zealand history,^[8] with an estimated magnitude of at least 8.2 on the Richter scale. It caused vertical movements of two to three metres over a large area, including raising an area of land out of the harbour and turning it into a tidal swamp. Much of this land was subsequently reclaimed and is now part of Wellington's central business district. For this reason the street named Lambton Quay now runs 100 to 200 metres (325 to 650 ft) from the harbour. Plaques set into the footpath along Lambton Quay mark the shoreline in 1840 and thus indicate the extent of the uplift and reclamation.

The area has high seismic activity even by New Zealand standards, with a major fault line running through the centre of the city, and several others nearby. Several hundred more minor fault lines have been identified within the urban area. The inhabitants, particularly those in high-rise buildings, typically notice several earthquakes every year. For many years after the 1855 earthquake, the majority of buildings constructed in Wellington were made entirely from wood. The 1996-restored Government Buildings,^[9] near Parliament is the largest wooden office building in the Southern Hemisphere. While masonry and structural steel have subsequently been used in building construction, especially for office buildings, timber framing remains the primary structural component of almost all residential construction. Residents also place their hopes of survival in good building regulations, which gradually became more stringent in the course of the twentieth century.

New Zealand's capital

The historic former High Court building, future home of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

360° panorama of the old Government Buildings.

In 1865, Wellington became the capital of New Zealand, replacing Auckland, where William Hobson had established his capital in 1841. Parliament first sat in Wellington on 7 July 1862, but the city did not become the official capital for some time. In November 1863 the Premier Alfred Domett moved a resolution before Parliament (in Auckland) that "... it has become necessary that the seat of government ... should be transferred to some suitable locality in Cook Strait." Apparently there was concern that the southern regions, where the gold fields were located, would form a separate colony. Commissioners from Australia (chosen for their neutral status) pronounced the opinion that Wellington was suitable because of its harbour and central location. Parliament officially sat in Wellington for the first time on 26 July 1865. The population of Wellington was then 4,900.^[10]

Wellington is the seat of New Zealand's highest court, the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The historic former High Court building is to be enlarged and restored for the court's use.

Government House, the official residence of the Governor-General, is in Newtown, opposite the Basin Reserve.

Location and geography

The Wellington Urban Area (pink) is administered by four city councils

Wellington is at the south-western tip of the North Island on Cook Strait, the passage that separates the North and South Islands. On a clear day the snowcapped Kaikoura Ranges are visible to the south across the strait. To the north stretch the golden beaches of the Kapiti Coast. On the east the Rimutaka Range divides Wellington from the broad plains of the Wairarapa, a wine region of national acclaim.

With a latitude of about 41° 17' S, Wellington is the southernmost national capital city in the world.^[11] It is also the most remote capital in the World (i.e. the furthest from any other capital). It is more densely populated than most other settlements in New Zealand, due to the small amount of building space available between the harbour and the surrounding hills. Wellington has very few suitable areas in which to expand and this has resulted in the development of the surrounding cities in the greater urban area. Because of its location in the roaring forties latitudes and its exposure to omnipresent winds coming through Cook Strait, the city is known to Kiwis as "Windy Wellington".

More than most cities, life in Wellington is dominated by its central business district (CBD). Approximately 62,000 people work in the CBD, only 4,000 fewer than work in Auckland's CBD, despite that city having three times Wellington's population. Wellington's cultural and nightlife venues concentrate in Courtenay Place and surroundings located in the southern part of the CBD, making the inner city suburb of Te Aro the largest entertainment destination in New Zealand.

Wellington has a median income well above the average in New Zealand^[12] and a much higher proportion of people with tertiary qualifications than the national average.^[13]

The boat harbour, Oriental Bay, Wellington, 1923

Wellington has a reputation for its picturesque natural harbour and green hillsides adorned with tiered suburbs of colonial villas. The CBD is sited close to Lambton Harbour, an arm of Wellington Harbour. Wellington Harbour lies along an active geological fault, which is clearly evident on its straight western coast. The land to the west of this rises abruptly, meaning that many of Wellington's suburbs sit high above the centre of the city.

There is a network of bush walks and reserves maintained by the Wellington City Council and local volunteers. The Wellington region has 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi) of regional parks and forests.

In the east is the Miramar Peninsula, connected to the rest of the city by a low-lying isthmus at Rongotai, the site of Wellington International Airport. The narrow entrance to Wellington is directly to the east of the Miramar Peninsula, and contains the dangerous shallows of Barrett Reef, where many ships have been wrecked (most famously the inter-island ferry Wahine in 1968).

On the hill west of the city centre are Victoria University and Wellington Botanic Garden. Both can be reached by a funicular railway, the Wellington Cable Car.

Wellington Harbour has three islands: Matiu/Somes Island, Makaro/Ward Island and Mokopuna Island. Only Matiu/Somes Island is large enough for settlement. It has been used as a quarantine station for people and animals and as an internment camp during the First and Second World Wars. It is now a conservation island, providing refuge for endangered species, much like Kapiti Island further up the coast. There is access during daylight hours by the Dominion Post Ferry.

Architecture

Night Harbour view

Wellington contains a variety of architectural styles dating back from the past 150 years; from nineteenth century wooden cottages, such as the Italianate Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in Thorndon, some streamlined Art Deco structures such as the old Wellington Free Ambulance headquarters, the City Gallery, and the Former Post and Telegraph Building, as well as the curves and vibrant colours of post-modern architecture in the CBD.

The oldest building in Wellington is the late Georgian Colonial Cottage in Mount Cook.^[14] The tallest building in the city is the Majestic Centre on Willis Street at 116 metres high,^[15] the second tallest being the structural expressionist BNZ Tower at 103 metres.^[16] Futuna Chapel is located in Karori, was the first bicultural building in New Zealand, and is thus considered one of the most significant New Zealand buildings of the twentieth century.

The bucket fountain, Cuba Street

Old Saint Paul's is an example of 19th-century Gothic Revival architecture adapted to colonial conditions and materials, as is Saint Mary of the Angels. The Museum of Wellington City & Sea building, the Bond Store is in the Second French Empire style, and the Wellington Harbour Board Wharf Office Building is in a late English Classical style. There are several restored theatre buildings, the St. James Theatre, the Opera House and the Embassy Theatre.

Civic Square is surrounded by the Town Hall and council offices, the Michael Fowler Centre, the Wellington Central Library, the City-to-Sea bridge, and the City Gallery.

Being the capital, there are many memorable government buildings in Wellington. Both the National Library of New Zealand, located on Molesworth Street, and the Te Puni Kōkiri building on Lambton Quay are aesthetically unique . The circular-conical Executive Wing of New Zealand Parliament Buildings, located on the corner of Lambton Quay and Molesworth Street, was constructed in the mid-60s and is commonly referred to as the Beehive. Across the road from the Beehive is the largest wooden building in the Southern Hemisphere,^[17] part of the old Government Buildings which now houses part of Victoria University of Wellington's Law Faculty. Further afield, Victoria University's Coastal Ecology Laboratory on the south coast of Wellington is an arresting new structure that was completed in early 2009.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is on the waterfront.

As tastes and trends in architecture have come into and fallen out of fashion, many memorable buildings have been lost.

Wellington also contains many iconic sculptures and structures. Elijah Wood mentioned that he urinated from the Bucket Fountain in Cuba Street in an interview with Jay Leno.^[18] More recently a number of new kinetic sculptures were commissioned^{[citation needed]}, such as the Zephyrometer.

Climate

The city averages 2025 hours (or about 169 days) of sunshine per year.^[19] The climate is generally moderate all year round, and rarely sees temperatures rise above 25 °C (77 °F), or fall below 4 °C (39 °F). The hottest recorded temperature in the city is 31.1 °C (88 °F), while -1.9 °C (28 °F) is the coldest. The city is notorious however for its southerly blasts in winter, which may make the temperature feel much colder. The city is generally very windy all year round with a lot of rainfall. Average annual rainfall is 1249 mm, June and July being the wettest months. Frosts are quite common in the hill suburbs and the Hutt Valley between May and September. Snow is very rare, and the last time snow was known to settle was on July 17, 1995.^{[citation needed]}

Weather averages for Wellington, New Zealand
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	20.3 (69)	20.6 (69)	19 (66)	16.7 (62)	14.2 (58)	12 (54)	11.4 (53)	12 (54)	13.5 (56)	15 (59)	16.6 (62)	18.5 (65)	15.8 (60)
Average low °C (°F)	13.4 (56)	13.6 (56)	12.6 (55)	10.9 (52)	8.8 (48)	6.9 (44)	6.3 (43)	6.5 (44)	7.7 (46)	9 (48)	10.3 (51)	12.2 (54)	9.9 (50)
Precipitation mm (inches)	72 (2.83)	62 (2.44)	92 (3.62)	100 (3.94)	117 (4.61)	147 (5.79)	136 (5.35)	123 (4.84)	100 (3.94)	115 (4.53)	99 (3.9)	86 (3.39)	1,249 (49.17)
Source: NIWA[20] Oct 2007

Energy

The energy needs of the Wellington area are increasing, and one new source is the wind. Project West Wind was granted resource consent for 66 turbines, which is estimated to generate approximately 140MW.^[21] Meridian Energy's Project West Wind is located a few kilometres west of Wellington's CBD, located on Meridian's Quartz Hill and Terawhiti Station. Near Project West Wind is the new proposed project Mill Creek - this is in neighbouring suburbs; Ohariu Valley (behind Johnsonville) and the back of Porirua. It will be smaller than project West Wind, but its exact size is still unknown - as it is going through the environment courts.

Demographics

The urban area of Wellington stretches across the city council areas of Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua. The four cities have a total population of 385,600 (June 2008 estimate),^[4] and the Wellington urban area contains 99% of that population. The remaining areas are largely mountainous and sparsely farmed or parkland and are outside the urban area boundary.

Demographic statistics from the 2006 census are not readily available for the Wellington urban area, so the following statistics are for the four city council areas:

Age distribution

The relative lack of older people in Wellington is less marked when the neighbouring Kapiti Coast District is included. Nearly 7% of Kapiti Coast residents are over 80. Overall, Wellington's age structure closely matches the national distribution.

Arts and culture

Film

Wellington is the centre of the nation's film industry. Peter Jackson famous for The Lord of the Rings, Richard Taylor, and a growing team of creative professionals have turned the eastern suburb of Miramar into one of the world's most acclaimed film-making infrastructures. Directors like Jane Campion and Vincent Ward have managed to reach the world's screens with their independent spirit. Emerging Kiwi film-makers, like Robert Sarkies, Taika Waititi, Costa Botes and Jennifer Bush-Daumec [1], are extending the Wellington-based lineage and cinematic scope.

Museums and cultural institutions

Te Papa ("Our Place"), the Museum of New Zealand.

Wellington is home to Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand), the Museum of Wellington City & Sea, the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Museum, Colonial Cottage, the New Zealand Cricket Museum, the Cable Car Museum, Old Saint Paul's, and the Wellington Law school (largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere) and the Wellington City Art Gallery.

Food

Wellington's cafe culture is prominent. The city has more cafes per capita than New York City.^[22]

Festivals

Wellington has become home to a myriad of high-profile events and cultural celebrations, including the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival, biennial Wellington Jazz Festival, and major events such as World of Wearable Art, Cuba Street Carnival, New Zealand Fringe Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival (also hosted in Auckland), Summer City, The Wellington Folk Festival (in Wainuiomata), New Zealand Affordable Art Show, The New Zealand Sevens Weekend and Parade, Out in the Square, Vodafone Homegrown, and numerous film festivals.

Music

The local music scene has, over the years produced bands such as The Warratahs, The Phoenix Foundation, Shihad, Fly My Pretties, Fat Freddy's Drop, The Black Seeds, Fur Patrol, Flight of the Conchords, Connan and the Mockasins and Odessa. The New Zealand School of Music was established in 2005 through a merger of the conservatory and theory programmes at Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington. New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Nevine String Quartet and Chamber Music New Zealand are based in Wellington.

Performing arts

Wellington is home to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, City Gallery, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, St James' Theatre, Downstage Theatre, Bats Theatre, and the New Zealand International Arts Festival; the Wellington Performing Arts Centre is also an important local source for theatre.

Wellington is also home to groups that perform Improvised Theatre and Improvisational comedy, including Wellington Improvisation Troupe (WIT), The Improvisors and youth group, Joe Improv. Poet Bill Manhire, director of the International Institute of Modern Letters, has turned the Creative Writing Programme at Victoria University of Wellington into a forge of new literary activity. Te Whaea, New Zealand's university-level school of dance and drama, and tertiary institutions such as The Learning Connexion, offer training and creative development.

Arts

Art Ferns & Civic Square.

From 1936 to 1992 Wellington was home to the National Art Gallery of New Zealand, when it was amalgamated into Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Wellington is also home to the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. The city's new arts centre, Toi Poneke, serves as a nexus of creative projects, collaborations, and multi-disciplinary production. Arts Programmes and Services Manager Eric Vaughn Holowacz and a small team based in the Abel Smith Street facility have produced ambitious new initiatives such as Opening Notes, Drive by Art, the annual Artsplash Festival, and new public art projects. The city is also home to experimental arts publication White Fungus Magazine.

Transport

Wellington is served to the north by State Highway 1 in the west and State Highway 2 in the east, meeting at the Ngauranga Interchange north of the city centre, where SH 1 runs through the city to the airport. Road access into the capital is lower in grade that most other cities in New Zealand - between Wellington and the Kapiti Coast, SH 1 travels along the Centennial Highway, an narrow accident-prone section of road, and between Wellington and Wairarapa, SH 2 transverses the Rimutaka Ranges on a similar narrow accident-prone road. Wellington has two short motorways, both part of SH 1: the Johnsonville-Porirua Motorway and the Wellington Urban Motorway, which in combination with a small non-motorway section in the Ngauranga Gorge, connect Porirua with Wellington City.

Bus transport in Wellington is supplied by several different operators under the banner of Metlink. Buses serve almost every part of Wellington City, with most of them running along the "Golden Mile" from Wellington Railway Station to Courtenay Place. Most of the buses run on diesel, but nine routes within Wellington use trolleybuses - the only remaining public system in Oceania.

Two of Tranz Metro's EM class electric multiple units working a southbound morning service on the Hutt Valley Line. Wellington is the only New Zealand city with electric suburban trains.

Wellington lies at the southern end of the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) and the Wairarapa Line, converging on Wellington Railway Station at the northern end of central Wellington. Two long-distance services leave from Wellington Railway Station: the Capital Connection, for commuters from Palmerston North, and The Overlander to Auckland.

Four electrified suburban lines radiate out of Wellington Railway Station to the outer suburbs - the Johnsonville Line north to the northern Wellington City suburbs, ending at Johnsonville; the Paraparaumu Line along the NIMT to Porirua and to Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast; the Melling Line to Lower Hutt City centre via Petone, and the Hutt Valley Line along the Wairarapa Line via Waterloo and Taita to Upper Hutt. A diesel-hauled carriage service, the Wairarapa Connection, connects several times daily to Masterton in the Wairarapa via the 8.8-kilometre (5.5 mi) long Rimutaka Tunnel.

Wellington is the northern terminus of Cook Strait ferries to Picton in the South Island, provided by state-owned Interislander and private Bluebridge. Local ferries connect Wellington city centre with Eastbourne, Seatoun and Petone.

Wellington International Airport is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south-east of the city. It is serviced by flights from across New Zealand, and several flights to Australia and the Pacific Islands. Flights to other international destinations require a transfer at another airport, as larger aircraft cannot use Wellington's short (1,936-metre/6,350-foot) runway.

Sport

Westpac Stadium

Wellington is the home to:

• The Hurricanes - Super 14 rugby team representing the Lower North Island, primarily based in Wellington
• Wellington Lions - Air New Zealand Cup rugby team
• Wellington Phoenix FC - football (soccer) club playing in the Australian A-League, the only fully professional football club in New Zealand.
• Team Wellington - Wellington's franchise in the semi-professional New Zealand Football Championship
• Central Pulse - netball franchise representing the Lower North Island in the ANZ Championship, primarily based in Wellington
• Wellington Firebirds and Wellington Blaze - men's and women's cricket teams
• Wellington Saints - Basketball team competing in New Zealand's National Basketball League.

Sporting events hosted in Wellington include:

• the Wellington Sevens - a round of the IRB Sevens World Series. Held at the Westpac Stadium over a weekend every February, this rugby sevens tournament contributes $6.8 million to the local economy each year.
• the World Mountain Running Championships in 2005.
• a Wellington 500 street race for touring cars, between 1985 and 1996
• The McEvedy Shield (athletic meet for College students from Wellington college, St Pats Town, Silverstream and Rongotai)

Gallery

Wellington Harbour and the Lagoon panorama

Night panorama of the city centre taken from Mt. Victoria

Panorama from Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn

Panorama of the city centre taken from Mt. Victoria.

Panorama of Mt. Victoria.

Notable Wellingtonians

See also

• Helengrad
• Courtenay Place
• Civic Square
• Wellywood
• Public transport in Wellington
• The Bucket Fountain
• Cuba Street
• Lambton Quay
• Te Aro

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wellington

• Greater Wellington Regional Council
• Official NZ Tourism website for Wellington
• Wellington City Council
• Wellington in Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Wellington travel guide from Wikitravel

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Coordinates: 41°17′20″S 174°46′38″E / 41.28889°S 174.77722°E / -41.28889; 174.77722