Windy Wellington

December 31, our first full day in Wellington began with a guided tour of the city. We started at the top of Mt. Victoria where we could get a 360 degree overlook of the Wellington hills and harbor. With the exception of the winds, it was a spectacular warm, sunny day.

Winds are common for Wellington. The Kiwis call it Windy Wellington. There is an average of 173 days a year when the winds top gale-force speed.






A view of Wellington harbor from Mt. Victoria.

Wellington is New Zealand's center of government and the world's southernmost capital city. It is also the country's cultural capital and, at 125,000 population, is the third most populous urban area in New Zealand.

The city is home to many museums, theaters and arts festivals, and center for creative industries, such as film, Wellywood, and computer technology. It is also the home of the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) which was up 25% in 2012, one of the best performing markets of any developed nation.

The once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson’s visual-effects studio for all the Lord of the Rings movies, including the recent movie, The Hobbit is in Wellington. There were 100,000 people who lined the streets of Wellington for the December premier of The Hobbit.

"Wellywood" is a film making empire that Jackson and close collaborators have built in his New Zealand hometown, realizing his dream of bringing a slice of Hollywood to Wellington for making major movies — not only his own, but other blockbusters like Avatar and The Avengers. Along the way, Jackson has become revered here, even receiving a knighthood.

The city is situated alongside Wellington Harbor and surrounded by natural beauty including the eco-attraction, Zealandia, just minutes from the central business district.

Our tour skirted the hills of some of the residential areas above Oriental Bay, a large part of the harbor near the airport. Houses are located atop steep roadways.

In addition to a public cable car that leads from downtown, there are some 40 hillside residences that have their own private cable cars to get from street parking to the entrances to their homes.

Wellington's public cable car is a popular tourist attraction. The view from the cable car takes in the city's central business district and out across the harbor.



We took a return trip from the city then walked back down through the Botanical gardens.



Our last stop was a one-hour tour of Parliament which sounds boring but actually turned out to be quite interesting.



There are 8 political parties with 120 representatives in a modified UK-style government serving the roughly 4 million Kiwi’s.

The Parliament buildings have been modified, destroyed by fire, half-built and are now all restored. In the 1990’s the buildings were refurbished and strengthened. Specially designed blocks of rubber and lead were placed between the newly poured concrete foundations and the new concrete supporting beams.

Our tour included a basement viewing of the blocks which act like shock absorbers, preventing much of the movement of an earthquake being transferred from the foundation to the buildings. New Zealand has exported this innovative technology to California among other places.

Tonight is New Year's Eve and we celebrated at one of Wellington's best restaurants, Logan Brown.


Once again, we wish you all a great 2013.