Wellington

THE NEW ZELAND'S CAPITAL WELLINGTON

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. It offers an unforgettable city experience in a natural setting. It is located between a beautiful harbour and rolling green hills. Wellington has excellent shopping, professional theatre and cafes and restaurants all close to untouched nature spots. Wellington is only two kilometers wide so it can be explored easily on foot.

Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum is on the waterfront. Walk to Te Papa from a central city restaurant and stop at a local fashion store or an art gallery on the way. Wellington is the arts and culture capital of New Zealand. Festivals and events are held here throughout the year. A highlight is the bi-annual New Zealand Festival – a month long arts festival.


KEY FACTS

 POPULATION: 163,824 (Wellington City)
423,765 (Wellington Region)

Wellington City has relatively more people aged 20-34 than other areas, relatively fewer elderly people and fewer children. The population mix consists of 80.9% European, 12.5% Maori, 7.9% Pacific Island, 6.8% Asian and 0.9% other.
(2001)

 LAND AREA 26,625 hectares

 CLIMATE

Sunshine hours:
More than 2035 hours per year.


Temperature:
• Mean daily maximum in summer (January) 20.3 C
• Mean daily minimum in summer 13.4 C
• Mean daily maximum in winter (July) 11.3 C
• Mean daily minimum in winter 6.2 C
• Annual rainfall mean 1249 mm



HISTORY

The earliest name for Wellington, from Maori legend, is Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. In Maori it means “the head of Maui\'s fish.” Caught and pulled to the surface by Polynesian navigator Maui, the fish became the North Island.
The Polynesian explorer Kupe is credited with the initial discovery of Wellington Harbour. From Maori tradition it is estimated he arrived with his followers around the 10th century. Several places around the Wellington peninsula were named by Kupe - for example Matiu (Somes) Island and Makaro (Ward) Island. People have lived here since Kupe’s discovery.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the great harbour of Tara) is another Maori name for Wellington.
Tara was the son of Whatonga, another Polynesian migrant, who had settled in Hawkes Bay. Whatonga sent Tara on a tour of inspection of the lower North Island in the 12th century. After a year Tara returned and reported that the best place he had seen was “at the very nostrils of the island.”
As a result Whatonga and his followers shifted south - the first iwi (tribe) in Wellington was thus Ngai Tara.
Ngai Tara eventually amalgamated with another iwi, Ngati Ira. Other iwi associated with the area were Ngati Kahungunu, Ngai Tahu, and Ngati Mamoe. Since the beginning of the 19th century iwi including Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Tama, Te Atiawa and Ngati Toa have migrated to the Wellington region.
Today the manawhenua (local guardianship) interests in Wellington city are administered by the Wellington Tenths Trust/Nga Tekau o Poneke, which comprises descendants from Taranaki iwi, of which Te Atiawa is the largest. Ngati Toa, by virtue of its boundary to the west, also has an interest within Wellington city.
In addition, Maori with tribal affiliations stretching from the Far North to the Deep South live and work in Wellington and contribute to the cultural diversity of the city.
Evidence of early Maori settlement and cultivation can be found at sites all around the Wellington peninsula.
Wellington is named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852). After distinguishing himself in the Indian Army (1797-1805), he commanded the British Army against Napoleon in the Peninsular War (1808-14) and at Waterloo (1815). He was British Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830. The settlement was named Wellington in 1840 by the directors of the New Zealand Company in recognition of the Duke’s influence on the company. The settlement was originally to be called Britannia.


The old photographs of Wellington from 1920 –40

A “one-off” sitting of Parliament occurred in Wellington on 7 July 1862 but it was not until some time later that the city became the official home of Government.
According to Philip Temple in his book Wellington Yesterday, in November 1863 Alfred Domett moved a resolution in the Parliament at Auckland that “it has become necessary that the seat of government...should be transferred to some suitable locality in Cook Strait.” Temple writes that there was genuine concern that the gold-rich southern regions of the country would form a separate colony. A group of Australian commissioners gave the “objective” opinion that Wellington, with its harbour and central location, would suit best and Parliament sat for the first time in the town (pop 4900) on 26 July 1865.


NATURAL REGIONS


A prominent glacial landform of Otago, Lake Wakatipu occupies
a deep trough created and filled by a large glacier during the last ice age.
View from the Remarkables, looking west.



Plume of volcanic ash from Mt Ruapehu, 1995-1996 eruption phase. As seen at a distance of 75 km (46 miles) across Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is itself a caldera (collapsed volcano) that was last active 1800 years ago. Both Ruapehu and Taupo Volcano are part of the Taupo Volcanic Zone.



Lindiss Pass

The Cascade (foreground) and Jackson (middle ground) Rivers
are aligned for 30 km (19 miles) along the Alpine Fault.

INTERESTING FACTS

• Wellington is the world’s most southern capital and the only capital in the “Roaring Forties” latitudes.
• Wellington was the first Capital City to see in the new millennium.
• Nearly all Wellington residents are within 3 km of the sea.
• Wellington has the greatest proportion of open space land per capita at 17.3 ha for every 1000 people.
• More Wellingtonians feel safe in their homes than in other cities. (Quality of Life Report commissioned by national City Councils 2001).
• Wellington gets more sunshine than Auckland, Melbourne and London and less rain than Auckland and Sydney.
• Thorndon is New Zealand’s oldest suburb and is best known for being home of the world renowned author Katherine Mansfield’s Birthplace. It’s also where you will find the oldest hotel in New Zealand, now renovated as The Shepherd’s Arms.