We boarded Air New Zealand for our 12 hr flight from Hong Kong to Wellington, via Auckland. Wellington is the capital city and second most populous urban area of New Zealand. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. It is home to 393,400 residents. In 1865, Wellington became the capital city of New Zealand, replacing Auckland, where William Hobson had placed the capital in 1841. The Parliament of New Zealand had first met in Wellington on 7 July 1862, on a temporary basis, but Wellington did not become the official capital city for three more years. The area has high seismic activity even by New Zealand standards, with a major fault line running through the centre of the city, and several others nearby. Several
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