Wellington
:''You might be looking for the
City of Wellington, the (first)
Duke of Wellington, or
other WellingtonsWellington (
Te Whanganui-a-Tara or
Poneke in
Māori) is the
capital of
New Zealand, the country's second largest
urban area and the most populous national capital in
Oceania. Wellington is in the
Wellington Region and stands at the southern tip of the
North Island in the geographical centre of the country.
Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, housing Parliament and head offices for all government ministries and departments.
Wellington is a centre of New Zealand's film and theatre industry.
Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the biennial International Festival of the Arts are all sited here.
Its compact city centre supports an arts scene, café culture and nightlife much larger than most cities of a similar size. Wellington has roughly the same urban area population as
Canberra,
Flint or
Reading.
Wellington was named in honour of
Arthur Wellesley, the first
Duke of Wellington and victor at the
Battle of Waterloo. The Duke's title comes from the town of
Wellington in the English county of
Somerset.
In the
Māori language Wellington goes by two names.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara". The alternative name
Pōneke is often discouraged because of a belief that it is nothing more than a transliteration of the harbour's former nickname in English,
Port Nick, short for
Port Nicholson.
Like many cities, Wellington's urban area extends well beyond the boundaries of a single local authority.
Greater Wellington or the
Wellington Region means the entire urban area, plus the rural parts of the cities and the
Kapiti Coast, and across the Rimutaka Range to the
Wairarapa.
Settlement
The
Māori who originally settled the Wellington area knew it as
Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, meaning "the head of
Māui's fish". Legend recounts that
Kupe discovered and explored the district in about the
10th century.
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 ship
Aurora on 22 January
1840. Legend states that the settlers constructed their first homes at Britannia (now
Petone) on the flat area at the mouth of the
Hutt River but when this proved too swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans without regard for a more hilly terrain " Wellington has some extremely steep streets running straight up the sides of hills.
Earthquakes
 |
Wellington viewed from Mount Victoria |
Wellington suffered serious damage in a series of
earthquakes in
1848 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, with an estimated magnitude of at least 8.2 on the Richter scale. It caused vertical movements of 2 to 3 m 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 m distant from the harbour. Plaques set into the footpath along
Lambton Quay indicate the location of the shoreline in
1840 and thus indicate the extent of the uplift and of subsequent 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 recently restored (1996) Government Buildings, near the
Railway Station and Parliament Buildings, comprise 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 20th century.
New Zealand's capital
 |
Old Government Buildings on the left and the Beehive, Parliament's Executive Wing, in the centre |
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
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 (reference Phillip Temple:
Wellington Yesterday).
Wellington is also the seat of New Zealand's highest court, the
Supreme Court of New Zealand. The historic Old High Court buildings are to be refurbished for the Court's use.
Government House, the official residence of the
Governor-General, stands next to the
Basin Reserve. The official residence formerly occupied the site where the
Beehive, the Executive Wing of the
New Zealand Parliament Buildings, stands.
 |
Satellite photo of the Wellington region. (1) Wellington (2) Lower Hutt (3) Upper Hutt (4) Porirua |
Wellington stands 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.
Wellington is the southernmost national capital city in the world, with a
latitude about 41°S. 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. 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. Approximately 62,000 people work in the Wellington 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 the highest average income of a
main urban area in New Zealand and the highest percentage of people with tertiary qualifications.
 |
Te Papa ("Our Place"), The Museum of New Zealand |
Wellington has a reputation for its picturesque natural harbour and green hillsides adorned with tiered suburbs of colonial villas. The city's 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. As a region Wellington has 50,000 hectares of regional parks and forests.
To the east of the city is the
Miramar Peninsula, connected to the rest of the city by a low-lying isthmus at Rongotai, which is 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).
|
The research wind generator at Brooklyn |
On the hill west of the city centre are
Victoria University and
Wellington Botanic Garden. Both can be reached on a
funicular railway, the
Wellington Cable Car.
Wellington Harbour has three islands:
Matiu/Somes Island, Makaro/Ward Island and Mokopuna. 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.
The city averages 2025 hours of sunshine per annum.
The energy needs of Wellington are increasing, one likely source is from the wind, and a large farm is currently under construction for that purpose. "The project will consist of 70 turbines with a maximum capacity of 210 MW and it will be situated just a few kilometres to the South West of Wellington between Makara Beach and Cape Terawhiti." Wellingtonians often refer to the city as "Windy Wellington" because of the gale force winds common there.[
1]
The population of Wellington, including the oulying areas, is approaching 400,000. As at the last census, 18.5% of people in Wellington were under the age of 15 years, compared with 22.7% for all of
New Zealand. Around 8.6% of people were aged 65 years and over compared with 12.1% for all of
New Zealand.
85.6% of people in Wellington city said they are of
European ethnic origin. Around 4.1% are
Māori, with the remainder being of
Pacific Islander,
Asian or other ethnicity.
Wellington is the arts and culture capital of New Zealand, and is the centre of the nation's film industry. Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and a growing team of creative professionals have managed to turn the eastern suburb of Miramar into one of the world's finest 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
Taika Waititi,Charlie Bleakley,
Costa Botes and Jennifer Bush-Daumec are extending the Wellngton-based lineage and cinematic scope.
Wellington is home to
Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand), the national opera company,
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,
City Gallery, Chamber Music New Zealand,
Royal New Zealand Ballet,
Downstage Theatre,
Bats Theatre, Arts Foundation of New Zealand, and dozens of leading presenters and producers.
The city hosts a biennial International Festival of the Arts and major events such as
Cuba Street Carinval, Fringe Festival, Summer City, New Zealand Affordable Art Show, numerous film festivals, and World of
Wearable Art. Many of the city's neighbourhoods and rthnic communities also host annual festivals, all helping transform the once prosaic capital into the envy of New Zealand.
The local music scene, on the success of bands like
The Phoenix Foundation,
Shihad, Fat Freddy's Drop, and The Black Seeds has become a diverse and thriving pool of talent. 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.
Poet
Bill Manhire, director of the International Institute of Modern letters, has turned the Creative Writing Programme at Victoria University 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 for the next generation.
The City's new Arts Centre,
Toi Poneke serves as a nexus of creative projects, collaborations, and multi-disciplinary production. Arts Programmes & Services Manager
Eric 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.
As a world capital, Wellington is also home to diplomatic missions with cultural officers ready to interface with these aspects of the City's life. In the early part of the 21st century, Wellington has confirmed its place as a vibrant centre of arts, culture, and creativity in the South Pacific.
* Home of the
Wellington Hurricanes "
Super 14 (formerly
Super 12) Rugby Team)
*
Wellington Lions "
Air New Zealand Cup (formerly
NPC Rugby Team)
* Home of the
Wellington Firebirds cricket team
* Home of the
Capital Shakers "
The National Bank Cup Netball Team
* Home of
Team Wellington - Wellington's franchise in the New Zealand Football Championship
* Home of
The Saints -
The National Basketball League Basketball Team
* Wellington City hosted a
Wellington 500 street race for
touring cars between 1985 and 1996.
*
Jane Campion "
Oscar winning film-maker
*
Russell Crowe "
Oscar winning actor
*
Lauris Edmond (dec) " poet
*
Peter Jackson "
Oscar winning film-maker
*
Richard Taylor "
Oscar winning Special Effects Supervisor
*
Katherine Mansfield (dec) " writer
*
Jack Marshall (dec)" former Prime Minister of New Zealand
*
William Hayward Pickering (dec) " electrical engineer who became the head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California
*
Anna Paquin -
Oscar winning actress
*
Pollyfilla -
drag performer*
Jon Toogood " singer and guitarist for the rock band
Shihad*
Tana Umaga " former captain of the
All Blacks*
Karl Urban " actor
*
List of suburbs in Wellington*
Public transport in Wellington*
Wellywood*
Civic Square*
Courtenay Place*
Wellington on Google Maps*
Wellington City Council*
Greater Wellington Regional Council*
Wellington City Libraries*
What's On In Wellington*
What's on and happening in Wellington, New Zealand from restaurants and cafes to events and services*
Official NZ Tourism website for Wellington*
Wellington street map and directory*
Wellington history*
360° views of and from NZ Parliament buildings*
the wellingtonista " blog about Wellington
*
wellurban " blog about urban issues in Wellington
*
A different kind of Wellington " Images
*
Welcome to Wellington*
City Gallery, Wellington*
Wellington Zoo*
Wellington Rugby*
National Observatory of New Zealand*
Images of Wellington*
WindProjects*
windenergy.org.nz[[mi:Te Whanga-nui-a
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