What You Need To Know Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. It 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 Wairarapa. Wellington is the world’s southernmost capital city of a sovereign state. The Wellington urban area comprises four cities: Wellington city, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district and about half the population; Porirua on Porirua Harbour to the north is notable for its large Māori and Pacific Island communities; Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt are largely suburban areas to the northeast, together known as the Hutt Valley. The 2014 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Wellington 12th in the world. Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2011 named Wellington as fourth in its Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2011, referring to it as the “coolest little capital in the world.

Area: 290 km²
Population:  398,300 Residents

Currency

• Dollar

The New Zealand dollar. The currency, affectionately referred to as the Kiwi, trades under the symbol NZD or NZ$.

Cuisine

Café culture is prominent. Restaurants are either licensed to sell alcohol, BYO (bring your own), or unlicensed (no alcohol). Restaurants offer cuisines including from Europe, Asia and Polynesia. “For dishes that have a distinctly New Zealand style, there are lamb, pork and cervena (venison), salmon, crayfish (lobster), Bluff oysters, pāua(abalone), mussels, scallops, pipis and tuatua (both New Zealand shellfish); kumara (sweet potato); kiwifruit and tamarillo; and pavlova, the national dessert,” recommends one tourism website.

Economy

The Government sector has long been a mainstay of the economy, which has typically risen and fallen with it. Traditionally, its central location meant it was the location of many head offices of various sectors – particularly finance, technology and heavy industry – many of which have since relocated to Auckland following economic deregulation and privatization.

Festivals

Wellington is home to many high-profile events and cultural celebrations, including the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival, biennial Wellington Jazz Festival, biennial Capital E National Arts Festival for Children and major events such as Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art, Cuba Street Carnival, Visa Wellington On a Plate, New Zealand Fringe Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival(also hosted in Auckland), Summer City, The Wellington Folk Festival (in Wainuiomata), New Zealand Affordable Art Show, the New Zealand Sevens Weekend and Parade, Out in the Square, Vodafone Homegrown, the Couch Soup theatre festival, Camp A Low Hum and numerous film festivals. The annual children’s Artsplash Festival brings together hundreds of students from across the region. The week-long festival includes music and dance performances and the presentation of visual arts.

Government 

Government House, Wellington is the official residence of the Governor-General of New Zealand, the representative of the New Zealand head of state Queen Elizabeth II. Its current residents are Jerry Mateparae, who has been Governor General since March 2011, and his spouse. The present building was completed in 1910 and it is the third Government House in Wellington.

Language

There are several languages of New Zealand. English (New Zealand English) is the dominant language spoken by most New Zealanders. The country’s de jure official languages are Māori and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)..

Health and security

The healthcare system of New Zealand has undergone significant changes throughout the past several decades. From an essentially fully public system in the early 20th century, reforms have introduced market and health insurance elements primarily in the last three decades, creating a mixed public-private system for delivering healthcare.

The New Zealand Police  is the national police force of New Zealand, responsible for enforcing criminal law, enhancing public safety, maintaining order and keeping the peace throughout New Zealand. With over 11,000 staff it is the largest law enforcement agency in New Zealand and, with few exceptions, has primary jurisdiction over the majority of New Zealand criminal law. The New Zealand Police also has responsibility for traffic and commercial vehicle enforcement as well as other key responsibilities including protection of dignitaries, firearms licensing and matters of national security. The current Minister of Police is Judith Collins. While the New Zealand Police is a government department with a minister responsible for it, the Commissioner and sworn members swear allegiance directly to the Sovereign and, by constitutional convention, have constabulary independence from the government of the day.

Transport

Public transport in the Wellington Region is well developed compared to other parts of New Zealand. It consists of buses, trolleybuses, trains, cars, ferries and a funicular (the Wellington Cable Car). It also included trams until 1964. Buses and ferries are privately owned, with the infrastructure owned by public bodies, and public transport is often subsidised. The Greater Wellington Regional Council is responsible for planning and subsidising public transport, and pays around NZ$30 million for bus and train services each year. The services are marketed under the name Metlink. The system covers Wellington city, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua, the Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa.

Tourism 

Tourism is a major contributor to the economy, injecting approximately NZ$1.3 billion into the region annually and accounting for 9{bdd1564109943ee42aee06049d57007bdb53f804fa02ac495193b22b56876776} of total FTE employment. The city is consistently named as New Zealanders’ favourite destination in the quarterly Fly Buys Colmar Brunton Mood of the Traveller survey and it was fourth in Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2011’s Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2011. New Zealanders make up the largest visitor market, with 3.6 million visits each year. New Zealand visitors spend on average NZ$2.4 million a day. There are approximately 540,000 international visitors each year, who spend 3.7 million nights and NZ$436 million. The largest international visitor market is Australia, with over 210,000 visitors spending approximately NZ$334 million annually. Wellington is marketed as the ‘coolest little capital in the world’ by Positively Wellington Tourism, an award-winning regional tourism organisation set up as a council controlled organisation by Wellington City Council in 1997. The organisation’s council funding comes through the Downtown Levy commercial rate. In the decade to 2010, the city saw growth of over 60{bdd1564109943ee42aee06049d57007bdb53f804fa02ac495193b22b56876776} in commercial guest nights. It has been promoted through a variety of campaigns and taglines, starting with the iconic Absolutely Positively Wellington advertisements. The long-term domestic marketing strategy was a finalist in the 2011 CAANZ Media Awards. Popular tourist attractions include Museum of Wellington City & Sea, Wellington Zoo, Zealandia and Wellington Cable Car. Cruise tourism is experiencing a major boom in line with nationwide development. The 2010/11 season saw 125,000 passengers and crew visit on 60 liners. There were 80 vessels booked for visits in the 2011/12 season – estimated to inject more than NZ$31 million into the economy and representing a 74{bdd1564109943ee42aee06049d57007bdb53f804fa02ac495193b22b56876776} increase in the space of two years. Wellington is a popular conference tourism destination due to its compact nature, cultural attractions, award-winning restaurants and access to government agencies. In the year ending March 2011, there were 6495 conference events involving nearly 800,000 delegate days; this injected approximately NZ$100 million into the economy.

Weather

The city averages 2,059 hours of sunshine per year. The climate is a temperate marine one, (Köppen: Cfb ) is generally moderate all year round, and rarely sees temperatures above 25 °C (77 °F) or below 4 °C (39 °F). The hottest recorded temperature is 31.1 °C (88 °F), while −1.1 °C (30 °F) is the coldest. The city is notorious for its southerly blasts in winter, which may make the temperature feel much colder. It is generally very windy all year round with high rainfall; average annual rainfall is 1,244 mm (49 in), June and July being the wettest months.Frosts are quite common in the hill suburbs and the Hutt Valley between May and September. Snow is very rare at low altitudes, although snow fell on the city and many other parts of the Wellington region during separate events in July and August 2011.