Mistake most tourists make when visiting New Zealand

If you’re planning on heading to New Zealand in the future, there’s something you should know about one its cities.

There are so many great places to visit in New Zealand, but there’s one city that locals say is often overlooked.

I recently spent five days in Wellington, the country’s capital city, and during the trip I asked as many Kiwis as possible, “what do you think is the biggest misconception about Wellington?”

90 per cent said the same thing.

“People think Wellington’s only good for a one-night stopover, but it’s so much more,” they told me.

And you know what, I think they’re absolutely right.

The basics

Wellington is located down the very bottom of New Zealand’s North Island, just a three-hour flight from Sydney.

In terms of the vibe, locals say it’s comparable to Melbourne, in that it views itself as the country’s cultural capital and has a big focus on the arts, food and coffee.

It also happens to be the windiest city on earth, with locals telling me the easiest way to spot a tourist is to see someone trying to use an umbrella (Wellingtonians don’t even bother).

Wellington is a very pretty city. Picture: News.com.au

What is there to see and do?

Bike tour: Out of everything I did in Wellington, my favourite experience was a two-hour electric bike tour with Switched On Bikes.

My tour guide, Jack, was an absolute champion, sharing amusing anecdotes as he showed me around Wellington’s waterfront and surrounding areas.

One of his most memorable stories had to do with the Carter Fountain, which sits in Wellington Harbour near Oriental Bay.

The fountain was paid for by a local businessman named Hugh Carter in the 1970s.

According to local legend, Mr Carter took his luxury yacht into the harbour in 1973 so he could witness the fountain’s jets being switched on for the first time, but unfortunately there was some kind of horrible accident and Mr Carter was found dead in the water just days later.

The impressive Carter fountain. Picture: News.com.au

Te Papa Museum: I’ll be honest, I usually steer clear of museums as I find them a tad boring.

But Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum, won me over.

It was incredibly interactive throughout and has some mind-blowing exhibitions, the standout being ‘Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War’.

The exhibition tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign in World War 1, and features some truly incredible sculptures of soldiers and nurses which are 2.5 times human size.

The sculptures are massive. Picture: News.com.au

The sculptures took 24,000 hours to create. Picture: News.com.au

Wine tour: Just an hour or two out of Wellington is the Martinborough region which is home to about 30 vineyards.

There are several ways to explore the area, but I highly recommend a half day tour through Zozo Tours which takes you to three different wineries.

The region is best known for its pinot noir and sav blanc, but they also produce rosé and even sparkling.

Food: The food I ate in Wellington was incredible. Seriously.

I won’t list everything I consumed as that would be tremendously embarrassing for me, but there are a couple of dishes and places that are particularly worthy of a shout out.

The pastries at Sixes & Sevens were next level. I will NEVER forget the Croissant Tarte which was filled with lemon curd, cream, pistachio and freeze dried strawberries.

The burger at Charley Noble was 10/10, but even better was the chocolate hazelnut crackle bar that I had for dessert (caramel ganache, chocolate ganache, hazelnut praline, and chocolate caramel crackle).

The chocolate hazelnut crackle bar from Charley Noble. Incredible. Picture: News.com.au

Everything at Rosella was delicious, in particular the potato flatbread that was covered in kewpie mayo and cumin salt (the staff described it as ‘seriously addictive’, and they weren’t wrong).

And last but not least, I highly recommend a visit to Karaka Cafe which serves modern versions of traditional Indigenous dishes (I had the ‘Hangi’ – oven steamed chicken, pork, potato, pumpkin, kūmara, stuffing, cabbage and rēwana).

Wētā Workshop: Wellington is the film capital of New Zealand, and is the home of Wētā Workshop which is an award-winning movie effects company.

It’s famous for its work on The Lord of the Rings movies, and has created items for The Hobbit, Avatar, King Kong, District 9 and many more.

The entrance to Weta. Picture: News.com.au

You can take a 90-minute tour of the workshop where you’ll get to watch the creatives at work, and see a bunch of props and costumes from most of the big name projects they’ve worked on, including several swords from LOTR.

In conclusion

As I mentioned, I was in Wellington for five days, but I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what the city had to offer.

So next time you’re booking a trip to New Zealand, give yourself a few days at least to check out the capital.

You’ll be blown away … and not just by the wind.

This writer travelled to Wellington a guest of WellingtonNZ