Description
Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or
Poneke in Māori) is the capital of New Zealand, the
country's second largest urban area and the most
populous national capital in Oceania. Wellington is in
the Wellington Region and stands at the southern tip of
the North Island in the geographical centre of the
country.
Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, housing
Parliament and head offices for all government
ministries and departments.
Wellington is a centre of New Zealand's film and theatre
industry. Te Papa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New
Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet
and the biennial International Festival of the Arts are
all sited here.
Its compact city centre supports an arts scene, café
culture and nightlife much larger than most cities of a
similar size. Wellington has roughly the same urban area
population as Canberra, Flint, Michigan or Reading,
Berkshire.
Wellington was named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, the
first Duke of Wellington and victor at the Battle of
Waterloo. The Duke's title comes from the town of
Wellington in the English county of Somerset.
In Māori Wellington goes by two names. Te Whanganui-a-Tara
refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great
harbour of Tara". The alternative name Pōneke is often
discouraged because of a belief that it is nothing more
than a transliteration of the harbour's former nickname
in English, Port Nick, short for Port Nicholson.
Like many cities, Wellington's urban area extends well
beyond the boundaries of a single local authority.
Greater Wellington or the Wellington Region means the
entire urban area, plus the rural parts of the cities
and the Kapiti Coast, and across the Rimutaka Range to
the Wairarapa.
Settlement
The Māori who originally settled the Wellington area
knew it as Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, meaning "the head
of Māui's fish". Legend recounts that Kupe discovered
and explored the district in about the tenth century.
European settlement began with the arrival of an advance
party of the New Zealand Company on the ship Tory, on 20
September 1839, followed by 150 settlers on the ship
Aurora on 22 January 1840. The settlers constructed
their first homes at Britannia (now Petone) on the flat
area at the mouth of the Hutt River but when this proved
too swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans
without regard for a more hilly terrain — Wellington has
some extremely steep streets running straight up the
sides of hills. |
