Wellington
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand.
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Wellington
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa, it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand and the National Art Gallery.
400 m · national museum of New Zealand · Wikipedia - 02Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington is a public research university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by an act of the New Zealand Parliament, and was originally a constituent college of the University of New Zealand until the dissolution of that institution in 1961.
700 m · public university in New Zealand · Wikipedia - 03National Library of New Zealand
The National Library of New Zealand is New Zealand's national library, headquartered in Wellington on the corner of Aitken and Molesworth Streets, close to other national government buildings such as the New Zealand Parliament Buildings and the Court of Appeal. Under the National Library of New Zealand Act 2003, the library's purpose is to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations." The Act also enumerates other duties for the library, including collecting, preserving and protecting New Zealand's documentary heritage, supporting other libraries in New Zealand, and collaborating with peer institutions abroad.
1.4 km · national library · Wikipedia - 04Wellington Zoo
Wellington Zoo is a 13-hectare zoo on a hilly site in the green belt of Wellington, New Zealand. Wellington Zoo opened in 1906 and is the oldest public zoo in New Zealand.
3.8 km · zoo in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia - 05Sacred Heart Cathedral
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Mary His Mother, better known as Sacred Heart Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral church on Hill Street, Wellington, New Zealand. It is the parish church of the Thorndon Catholic parish and the seat of the Archbishop of Wellington.
1.4 km · Roman Catholic cathedral in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia - 06Basin Reserve
The Basin Reserve, commonly referred to as the Basin and also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for test matches, and is the main home ground of the Wellington Firebirds first-class team.
1.3 km · sports ground in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia - 07St Mary of the Angels
St Mary of the Angels is a Catholic church on the corner of Boulcott Street and O'Reily Avenue in Wellington, New Zealand. It is the parish church for Wellington Central and one of the major churches of the city.
300 m · Catholic church in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia - 08Futuna Chapel
Futuna Chapel is a building in Wellington, New Zealand designed by the architect John Scott. Built by the brothers of the Society of Mary, the chapel is named after the Pacific Island of Futuna on which the missionary Peter Chanel, to whom the project is dedicated, was martyred in 1841.
3.3 km · heritage church building in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia - 09Wellington Botanic Garden
Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā is a botanical garden close to central Wellington in New Zealand. It covers 25 ha of land in a valley between Thorndon and Kelburn, with Glenmore Street as a boundary along the valley floor.
1.2 km · public botanical garden · Wikipedia - 10Wellington Museum
Wellington Museum is a museum on Queens Wharf in Wellington, New Zealand. It occupies the 1892 Bond Store, a historic building on Jervois Quay on the waterfront of Wellington Harbour.
400 m · museum in Wellington, New Zealand · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
As the capital city, Wellington is the centre of New Zealand's government. Wellington/City is home to the residence of the Governor-General (the King's representative in New Zealand), offices of the New Zealand Government (executive), the New Zealand Parliament (legislative), the New Zealand Supreme Court and Court of Appeal (the country's highest and second-highest courts respectively) and the head offices of many…
From Wikivoyage: Wellington, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
The Wellington Botanic Garden is a nice place to go for a picnic, or just an afternoon walk (or run for a challenging fitness experience). At the top of the Gardens, there are several attractions: the Cable Car Museum, the Lookout, and the Carter Observatory. The Bolton Street Memorial Park is a great place to meander through and check out the epitaphs of early pioneers and historical figures.
From Wikivoyage: Wellington, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Wellington has a lot of restaurants and cafés, in fact more cafés, bars and restaurants per head than New York City. Malaysian food is surprisingly popular and available in most areas. You can also get good Turkish kebabs anywhere in the city, or Lebanese at the Phoenician Falafel on Kent Terrace (their kebabs are better than all the Turkish places too).
From Wikivoyage: Wellington, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Wellington
- Airports
- Wellington (WLG), 5 km
- Stations
- Wellington Airport, 5.3 km · Wellington Railway Station, 1.2 km · Wellington Harbour, 5.6 km
- Christchurch → Wellington305 km · quickest by air, 3h 54m · NZ$140–210
- Auckland → Wellington493 km · quickest by air, 4h 37m · NZ$170–270
- Queenstown → WellingtonTrain, bus, flight, ferry and road, side by side
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Wellington
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Wellington. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inThere are regular ferries between Wellington and Picton in the South Island operated by Interislander and Bluebridge, connecting with buses and the train to Christchurch.
- Get inHitchhiking from central Wellington is difficult as most traffic stays within the metropolitan area, and it is illegal to hitchhike on the motorway until the Hutt Valley (about 15 km or 9 mi northeast of Wellington) or Ōtaki (about 65 km or 40 mi north).
- Get inIf you are intending to hitchhike, you are best to catch a train to Waikanae or Upper Hutt and walk to the main highways to catch a lift from there (the best spot for Upper Hutt hitchhikers is at the Caltex petrol station about a 3 km walk north from the railway station along Fergusson Drive).
- Get aroundWellington has an extensive and well-patronised public transport network, with buses, trains and ferries serving the city and beyond extending into the Greater Wellington region.
- Get aroundThe Kelburn cable car is a Wellington icon.
From Wikivoyage: Wellington, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01672 km
- 022,262 km
- 032,678 km
- 043,296 km
- 053,469 km
If you know how people move in Wellington – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Wellington
- Eastbournetown in New Zealand9.9 km
- Oriental Baysuburb of Wellington, New Zealand1.4 km
- Khandallahsuburb of Wellington, New Zealand4.9 km
- Aro Valleysuburb of Wellington, New Zealand1.1 km
- Kelburnsuburb of Wellington, New Zealand1.2 km
- Brooklynsuburb of Wellington City, New Zealand2.3 km