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Climate
When Wellington’s weather turns bad, it can be truly foul: lacerating winds and sheets of freezing rain coming in sideways. Bus shelters look more like houses – it ain’t called ‘Windy Wellington’ for nothing... November to April are the warmer months and the best time to visit, with average maximums hovering around 20°C. From May to August it’s colder and wetter – daily temperatures lurk around 12°C.
HIGHLIGHTS
Getting acquainted with NZ’s finest museum, Te Papa (p405) Scaling the lighthouse steps on the wild and remote Cape Palliser (p429) Sampling the good coffee and quality beer that Wellingtonians demand at the city’s slick bars (p416) and bohemian cafés (p415) Lassoing Wellington’s wind with a lesson in sailboarding or kiteboarbing (p409) Waxing-on about toasty noses and berry hints while sampling fine Pinot Noir in Martinborough (p427) Riding the ratchety Cable Car (p405) from Lambton Quay to the manicured Wellington Botanic Gardens (p405) Ripping up the trails at Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park (p408) TELEPHONE CODE: 04
WELLINGTON REGION FACTS
Eat A Maori-fusion meal at Kai in the City (p414);
Getting There & Around
Wellington is a major transport hub: anyone going from one NZ island to the other (by sea) passes through here. Wellington airport is serviced by international and domestic airlines. Easy train and bus connections make commuting into Wellington a viable option – many people travel to work (or to party) in Wellington from the hinterland. Approaching the city from the north, you’ll pass through either the Kapiti Coast to the west via State Highway 1 (SH1), or the Wairarapa to the east via State Highway 2 (SH2), before entering the heavily populated Hutt Valley and Wellington itself. InterCity () is the main North Island bus company, travelling just about everywhere. Commuter trains run from Wellington to the Kapiti Coast and The Wairarapa; long-distance Tranz Scenic (www. ) trains run from Wellington to Auckland via Palmerston North. See p420 for details on getting to/from Wellington.
lime-chilli chocolate at Greytown’s Schoc Chocolate (p429) Drink Too much caffeine at Welly’s cool cafés (p415); Pinot Noir from Martinborough (p427) in The Wairarapa Read Katherine Mansfield’s Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield Listen to The General Electric by Wellington’s rock legends Shihad Watch Any film directed by revered local boy Peter Jackson Swim at The beaches along the Kapiti Coast (p423) Festival Fringe NZ (p411) – offbeat Wellington at its most theatrical, musical and visual Tackiest tourist attraction The faux Stonehenge in the Wairarapa (p429) Go Green Check out rare and endangered NZ wildlife at Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary (p406)
HISTORY
Maori legend has it that the explorer Kupe was the first person to discover Wellington harbour. Wellington’s original Maori name was Te Whanga Nui a Tara, Tara being the son of a Maori chief named Whatonga who had settled on the Hawkes Bay coast. Whatonga sent Tara and his half-brother to explore the southern part of the North Island. When they returned over a year later, their reports were so favourable that Whatonga’s followers moved there, founding the Ngati Tara tribe. The first European settlers arrived in the New Zealand Company’s ship Aurora on 22 January 1840, not long after Colonel William Wakefield arrived to buy land from the Maori. The idea was to build two cities: one would be a commercial centre by the harbour (Port Nicholson) and the other, further north, would be the agricultural hub.
© Lonely Planet Publications 398

W E L L I N G T O N • • H i s t o r y 399
Wellington Region
If your New Zealand travels thus far have been all about wilderness and lonesome, one-horse towns, rock into Wellington for a big-city hit. Art-house cinema, hip bars, designer boutiques, live music rooms and late-night coffee shops – it’s all in ‘Windy Welly’. Wellingtonians are geographically isolated and look inwards for inspiration, a habit that fosters a red-hot arts scene. Everyone here seems to be in a band and looks a tad depleted, like they smoke and drink too much and spend their time molesting canvasses and scribbling poetry....except for the politicians of course. NZ’s capital city manages to strike a balance between creative exuberance and an institutional mindset crucial to the day-to-day running of the country. The city is neither altogether bohemian, nor overloaded with bureaucratic stuffed shirts. Wellington is also the major travel crossroads between the North and South Islands. Travellers file through the city, giving it a free-moving, energetic vibe. Steep hills lined with gingerbread-pretty Victorian houses ascend from the harbour to spectacular view points. Wellington punches well above its weight – plan on spending a few days in the ring. If city trappings are something you’re trying to forget, there are great outdoor destinations less than an hour away. Cruise the Kapiti Coast, with it’s low-key beachy towns and mystical Kapiti Island; or head over the Rimutaka Range into the Wairarapa, where the delicate flavours of Pinot Noir (the local grape) are apt reward for a day spent exploring the wild coast.