Travel: Six reasons why you will fall in love with Wellington, New Zealand
FOOD, Wellywood, history and art — just a few reasons why you’ll fall in love with Wellington if you give it a go.
Travel
Don't miss out on the headlines from Travel. Followed categories will be added to My News.
YOU’VE probably heard Wellington is windy. That was about the only information I was getting out of anyone ahead of my first visit, so it’s fair to say I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. But good things come in small, easy-to-get-around packages, and New Zealand’s cool capital is bursting with colour, creativity and character. Without being assaulted by so much as a mild breeze, I fell in love with Wellington in one whirlwind weekend. Here are six reasons you will too.
1. YOU DON’T NEED A CHAMPAGNE BUDGET TO SCORE THE ULTIMATE WATERFRONT VIEW
While the CBD is home to a smorgasbord of accommodation, Oriental Bay affords arguably the prettiest outlooks.
Just a couple of minutes’ walk from central attractions, the four-star Copthorne Hotel boasts priceless harbour views.
Soak up the scenery from your bed or cross the road to explore the waterfront walkway.
Lined with bright blue boat sheds (featured in a Miranda Kerr photo shoot in the New York Times), the Saucy Sausage and a sea of other mastheads bobbing gently at anchor, it’s breathtaking on a blue-sky day and just as striking on a moody one.
Copthorne Hotel Wellington: 100 Oriental Parade, Oriental Bay, millenniumhotels.com
2. YOU’VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE
The Lord of the Rings, District 9, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, Ghost in the Shell, Power Rangers — if you’ve seen a movie — any movie — you’ve probably seen more of Wellington than you realise.
Whether welding weapons or bringing whole worlds to life, the biggest filmmakers in the world turn to five-time Academy Award-winning design studio Weta Workshop to make it happen.
Visiting Gollum’s birthplace is a rite of passage for many film-lovers and An Evening with Weta and CoCo is a chance to go behind the scenes in style.
Picked up from the CBD, guests are chauffeured from Middle-earth to Tracy Island before being whisked to the bygone glamour of the Roxy theatre for a three-course meal at on-site restaurant CoCo.
Heavy curtains part to reveal the stunning Art Deco setting, where you can swirl a martini surrounded by incredible art and movie memorabilia.
Unlike Hollywood, they’ve adopted a very Kiwi attitude to their success … one of the biggest film studio’s in the world shares a fence with a New World Supermarket.
Welcome to Wellywood.
An Evening with Weta and CoCo: wetaworkshop.com
3. THE FOOD SCENE IS NEXT LEVEL …
Where to begin in a city claiming more cafes, bars and restaurants per capita than New York …
Here are some ideas: masterful modern Asian at Dragonfly, burgers and brews (and butter chicken fries) at Burger Liquor, high tea at Hippopotamus in the QT Museum, cosy cocktails in The Library and seasonal snacks at alleyway encounter Egmont Street Eatery.
Egged on by my enthusiasm for Kiwi fish and chips, so many locals pointed me to takeaway from The Chippery. And so I found myself happily licking salty fingers overlooking the city lights from a harbourfront perch. Simple pleasures.
For coffee, I really enjoyed Flight Hangar, a specialised roaster on Dixon Street and Memphis Belle.
The choice really is overwhelming, which is why I can’t recommend a Zest food tour highly enough.
The locally guided pilgrimage lets you have a little taste at each of the city’s most savoury secrets.
It includes a stop at Wellington Chocolate Factory where you can sample the Craft Beer Bar, a marriage of house-blended cacao and Nelson Sauvin hops.
Zest food tours: Depart i-SITE Visitor Centre at 101 Wakefield Street, zestfoodtours.co.nz
4. … BUT YOU WON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WORKING IT OFF
If you’re visiting Wellington for a weekend there’s no need to hire a car — the best way to explore this compact city is to just keep walking.
That’s not to say you should skip a ride on the shiny red cable car that’s synonymous with the city — just don’t buy a return ticket.
The charming carriage shoots you to the scenic summit of the Wellington Botanic Gardens and it’s all downhill from there. Paths unfurl through native and exotic gardens, snaking past ancient trees, fields of flowers, lily ponds and secret waterfalls.
Pause at the rambling, romantic Lady Norwood Rose Garden to smell the blooms and enjoy coffee and a cake at the Picnic cafe.
Take a ride between 7-9pm for light shows in the tunnels that depict famous Wellington events.
To step up your workout — and the quality of the panoramas — head for Mount Victoria.
You probably need a reasonable level of fitness to tackle the track that spirals from pine forest to peak, but views over the city, Hutt Valley and Cook Strait are the carrot at the end of your efforts* (*you can also drive to the top in about five minutes, but that’s quitter’s talk).
Wellington Cable Car: Cable Car Lane, 280 Lambton Quay
Mount Victoria Lookout: Access walking tracks from the top of Majoribanks Street
5. YOU’LL PROBABLY LEARN SOMETHING NEW …
Unable to nip down to the local Kathmandu for a compass, New Zealand’s ocean-faring early settlers relied on another sensitive navigation instrument.
“He used his testicles!” Te Papa tour guide Roger Gascoigne gleefully declares, recounting how a wayfarer would read the swell by squatting nearly naked on the bottom of his canoe.
There’s nothing dry about the highlights tour of Te Papa, or indeed about New Zealand’s forward-thinking national museum and art gallery, which specialises in sublime storytelling. It’s way more fun than you thought you could have for free.
Roger (who’d be an ace addition to any trivia team) also introduces me to the museum mascot — the only colossal squid on display in the world, boasting soccer-ball sized eyes and a mean set of rotating tentacle hooks.
The most massive invertebrate on the planet makes its home in the cold depths of the Southern Ocean, but this one was hooked by a longlining vessel fishing for Antarctic toothfish.
One deeply moving exhibit draws on the local filmmaking connections to humanise the legends we’ve grown up.
Gallipoli: The Scale of our War should be mandatory for any Aussie, capturing the cruel eight-month campaign through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
Each is captured frozen in a moment of time on a monumental scale — 2.4 times human size.
The sculptures, detailed down to every spot of stubble, sheen of sweat and spark of anguish, took a 24,000 hours to create and many more were spent researching their rich histories.
Moving through the darkly atmospheric chambers, awed silence broken by the baying of baronets, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Leave your mark by scrawling a message on a red paper poppy, contributing to the grateful outpouring that floods the feet of the final figure.
Te Papa Tongarewa: 55 Cable Street, tetepapa.govt.nz
Open daily 10am — 6pm (except Christmas Day)
6. … EVEN IF THE CULTURE HAS TO COME TO YOU
There are plenty of accidental ways to immerse yourself in Wellington’s vibrant creative culture, starting with a walk along the waterfront.
The Wellington Writers Walk consists of 11 hidden sculptures along the harbour, each unlocking a quote, poem or prose from one of the many literary talents that have made the city their home at some point in their lives.
Discover a 13m-long Gollum fishing in the main terminal building at Wellington Airport, or the anything-but-lonely Solace in the Wind sculpture surveying the harbour.
Instagrammable street art is splashed on every available wall and laneway.
My favourite is the Shark Wall on Cablet Street, a colourful call to arms against shark finning.
For more, check out the guides at wellingtonnz.com
Virus sweeping Bali resorts popular with Aussies
A potentially deadly virus has more than doubled in one of Bali’s top tourist hotspots, sparking urgent warnings from health authorities.
Major overhaul to Bali bombing site for Aussies
The site of the 2002 Bali bombing site, which claimed 88 Australian lives, is set to become a place to promote “tolerance”.