People & Places
Wellington Wonders
It’s true, says Ben Stanford, that you can’t beat Wellington on a good day. That’s not bad for a city known as “windy Wellington” for, you guessed it, the wind.
But those who know it well know the wind is not something that should put you off New Zealand's capital city, either as a place to visit or a place to live.
Ben is 25 and an automotive technician. He has lived in Wellington since August 2003. Ben's brother already lived in Wellington and Ben simply moved in with him when he arrived. He says the capital, perched on the rocky south coast of the North Island and looking over the Cook Strait with the South Island's snowy Kaikoura Ranges a spectacular sight in the distance, is absolutely the place to be.
The Wellington Region has about 440,000 residents, while Wellington City has just 179,000.
It may be smaller than Auckland with its population of a million plus, but it is the seat of the New Zealand Government and therefore rather important. Unsurprisingly, the city also has the highest median incomes in New Zealand.
Wellington central is based on the edge of a beautiful large natural harbour and the suburbs vary vastly in appearance, from the flats of the Hutt Valley and Seatoun to the hills covered with native bush and windy, narrow roads in Karori and parts of the Kapiti Coast and the rocky coast of Island Bay.
Central Wellington is a small city with a big social life. It has the highest number of cafés per head of population in the world and a thriving coffee culture. Wellington is one of New Zealand's main arts centres, with many galleries showing both local and international art, plays and concerts and the world-famous annual World of WearableArts show.
There are restaurants, bars and clubs and a thriving local music scene to suit everyone's tastes in a very small area so going from place to place at night rarely requires a taxi.
In saying that, Wellington has a very good public transport system, unusual for New Zealand, with trains linking the city to the Hutt Valley and the Kapiti Coast and trolley buses servicing more central areas surprisingly regularly.
Literally a few steps from city life, however, is what many come to New Zealand for in the first place: Nature, and pristine nature at that. It is a short walk to Oriental Bay and into the native foliage of Mt Victoria, with a stunning 360 degree view of Wellington as a reward for the climb to the top.
In the other direction, the historic cable car will take you from corporate Lambton Quay into the entirely different world of the Botanic Gardens in just minutes. The gardens have 25 hectares of native bush, a world away from the city and various Government departments just metres below.
Also nearby is the Karori Sanctuary. Just minutes from the CBD, the sanctuary is full of New Zealand's reclusive wildlife such as tuatara, weta and abundant birdlife.
A short drive in the other direction, towards the airport, is Lyall Bay, a favourite spot for surfers, body boarders and a good beach for a long walk.
It's the buzz of the city, says Ben, which makes up for being so very far away from his home of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
"It's a fairly big city yet everything is in close proximity," he explains.
"It feels like I have more freedom, there is a more laid-back attitude, cleaner air and it feels right, I feel at home here.
Ben loves Wellington so much he's not keen to share it with too many others: "Stay away, you won't like it! Only joking… Wellington is an excellent place to live. I love the vibe of the city and I haven't looked back."