Welcome to Wellington!
Wellington (Māori: Te Whanganui-a-Tara) is the capital and second largest urban area of New Zealand. It is also the world's southernmost capital city.
The Windy City is on the foreshore of Wellington Harbour and ringed by hills, providing the scenic home of many of New Zealand's national arts and cultural attractions.
Wellington (Māori: Te Whanganui-a-Tara) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the major population centre of the southern North Island and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region, which also includes the Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed. Wellington was originally designed by Captain William Mein Smith the first Surveyor General for Edward Wakefield's New Zealand Company in 1840. The city has served as New Zealand's capital since 1865, a position that is not defined in legislation but established by convention. The New Zealand Government and Parliament, the Supreme Court, and most of the public services are based in the city. Its metropolitan area comprises four local authorities: Wellington City, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district, 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 largely suburban areas to the northeast, together known as the Hutt Valley. These four cities are considered large parts of Wellington but are governed separately. The Wellington urban area, which only includes urbanised areas within Wellington City, has a population of 215,900 residents as of June 2021. The urban areas of the four local authorities have a combined population of 432,800 residents as of June 2021. As well as governmental institutions, Wellington is home to several of the largest and oldest cultural institutions in the nation, such as the National Archives, the National Library, New Zealand's national museum Te Papa and numerous theatres. It plays host to many artistic and cultural organisations, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet. Architectural sights include the Old Government Buildings, one of the largest wooden buildings in the world, as well as the iconic Beehive, the executive wing of Parliament Buildings. The city has a strong art scene, with hundreds of art galleries. Most of these are small and independent, but the four major ones are Te Papa, City Gallery Wellington, Pātaka and the Dowse. Wellington also leads in large summer festivals, such as CubaDupa and the Newtown Festival. Wellington's economy is primarily service-based, with an emphasis on finance, business services, and government. It is the centre of New Zealand's film and special effects industries and is increasingly a hub for information technology and innovation, with two public research universities. Wellington is one of New Zealand's chief seaports and serves both domestic and international shipping. The city is served by Wellington International Airport, the third busiest airport in the country. Wellington's transport network includes train and bus lines which reach as far as the Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa, and ferries connect the city to the South Island.
The culture of Wellington is a diverse and often youth-driven one which has yielded influence across Oceania. One of the world's most liveable cities, the 2016 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Wellington 12th in the world, and first in the world for both liveability and non-pollution Deutsche Bank, from 2017 to 2018. Cultural precincts such as Cuba Street and Newtown are renowned for creative innovation, "op shops", historic character, and food. The city is known for its coffee scene, with now-globally common foods and drinks such as the flat white perfected here. Coffee culture in Wellington is vastly overrepresented, the city has more cafés per capita than New York City in the United States, and was pioneered by Italian and Greek immigrants to areas such as Mount Victoria, Island Bay and Miramar. Nascent influence is derived from Ethiopian migrants.
Wellington's cultural vibrance and diversity is well-known across the world. It is New Zealand's 2nd most ethnically diverse city, bested only by Auckland, and boasts a "melting pot" culture of significant minorities such as Malaysian, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Chinese, Greek, Indian, Samoan and indigenous Taranaki Whānui communities as a result. Described by Lonely Planet in 2013 as "the coolest little capital in the world", the global city has grown from a bustling Māori settlement to a remote colonial outpost, and from there to an Australasian capital that has experienced a "remarkable creative resurgence".