Wellington’s capital is most beautiful between December and March.
It is easy to make comparisons with Wellington, New Zealand’s pint-sized capital. With its vertiginous streets and colourful clapboard homes, you might think of San Francisco; Seattle and Chicago share a similar obsession with coffee, craft beer and sustainability; and Chicago’s windy weather (it’s the windiest city in the world) makes it well deserved its nickname.
It’s hard to beat Wellington on a good day when the water sparkles, the sky is impossibly blue, and the coasts, forests, and hills are at their best.
In Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the city’s name in the Indigenous Maori language (New Zealand is called Aotearoa), you’re most likely to enjoy a warm day from December to March.
Due to limited imports to New Zealand and a wider commitment to sustainability, even fashion-forward Wellingtonians are avid “op-shoppers.”
Vintage and secondhand shops line Cuba Street, which is thronged with students and buskers. Watch out for the kinetic bucket fountain, which can splash you.
The monstrous sculpture Quasi, a 4.9m human hand bearing a disapproving face, originally stood in Christchurch but was relocated after the 2010 earthquakes.
