Wellington has 215,000 people in the city proper and is the southernmost capital in the world. It occupies a steep amphitheatre around a drowned harbour, which means almost everything is within a twenty-minute walk and almost everything is uphill. The wind is real: gusts over 100 km/h are recorded on more than twenty days a year.
Te Papa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa opened in 1998, is free, and is genuinely excellent. Its Gallipoli exhibition, with figures at 2.4 times life size made by Weta Workshop, is the most affecting museum display in the country. Other highlights are the colossal squid, the only intact specimen on public view anywhere, and the marae on level four, a contemporary meeting house open to all visitors.
The cable car and the ridge
The red cable car has climbed from Lambton Quay to Kelburn since 1902 and takes five minutes. At the top are the Cable Car Museum, the Space Place planetarium and the entrance to the Botanic Garden, through which you can walk back down to the city in half an hour. Mount Victoria, 196 m, is reached on foot in about forty minutes and gives the classic view over harbour, airport and the ranges beyond.
Zealandia
A 225-hectare valley ten minutes from the centre has been enclosed by a predator-proof fence since 1999 and restocked with species that had vanished from the mainland. Takahe, kaka, saddleback, hihi and tuatara live here, and the overflow has repopulated the city — kaka now fly over the suburbs and tui are everywhere. The night tour offers a reliable chance of seeing little spotted kiwi.
Parliament
The executive wing, universally known as the Beehive, was designed by Basil Spence and completed in 1979. Free guided tours run daily and take in the debating chamber and the base isolation system installed under the older buildings — Wellington sits on a major fault and the engineering is part of the tour.
Coffee, beer and film
Wellington roasts its own coffee and takes it seriously; the flat white is claimed by both New Zealand and Australia, and the argument will not be settled here. Cuba Street is the centre of the independent scene, with the Bucket Fountain, second-hand shops and late bars. The craft beer scene is the strongest in the country. In Miramar, Weta Workshop runs tours of its film effects studios, and the airport occasionally hangs a giant eagle from its ceiling.
Beyond the city
The Wairarapa is an hour over the Rimutaka Hill and produces excellent pinot noir around Martinborough. The Interislander and Bluebridge ferries cross Cook Strait to Picton in three and a half hours, one of the most scenic ferry routes anywhere, ending with an hour weaving through the Marlborough Sounds.
Practicalities
The airport runway is short and the approach across the harbour is turbulent — a reputation earned. The city is compact enough that a car is a liability; parking is scarce and expensive. Take a windproof jacket in every season.