Windy Wellington

---

Sometimes, labels are unfair. Wellington can be a nice hot sunny city. It is the capital of New Zealand, even though it's only a third of the size of Auckland. Today, our group saw the city at its best. We had a knowledgeable guide, and the sun beat down. It was my last day with the group, and it turned out to be a good one.

As capital cities go, Wellington does quite well. It doesn’t seem to get seriously snarled up with traffic, has a lot of smart tall modern buildings as well as a few old classics in the centre, has enough posh shops, but most of all, has some dramatic hills. As you arrive by road, you weave through a steep sided valley or come along a coastal road, and there are only 2 ways in, both being from the north. Of course there is a broad harbour area, but you really notice those hills. Mount Victoria is the highest, and the view from there is impressive - not only can you see all of Wellington, but you can also see the airport, the South island and the Cook Straights in between. As you drive up Mount Victoria you see how the other half live. There are some great houses up there and a few of them have private cable lifts so they can get from their car parking space up to their house.

Our group had a trip on the public Lambton Quay cable car. Unlike ski resort cable cars, this one runs on rails, but has cables pulling the cars up, and letting them down. The facility saves a 600m climb up to the botanical gardens and the village of Kelburn, and the view from on top are worth the ride. One of the intermediate stops is at part of Wellington’s Victoria University.

Another part of the university is located in the Old Government buildings. This impressive old construction looks as if it is made of Italian stone, but incredibly, it’s actually made of wood, and claims to be the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere. I had to knock the outer wall to verify this - it’s still tough and used a lot of Kauri in the original version.

Next to the Old Government buildings are the New Government buildings. One of these causes much discussion because of its shape. It is either called the beehive or an alien space ship, and houses the ministerial offices.

The biggest attraction in Wellington however is the Te Papa (The Earth) museum. This is an enormous modern building on the quayside with a focus on all things linked to New Zealand. You need about a week to get through it all, but even in a few hours, you can gain much. For starters, you can view the foundations of the museum and inspect the rubber shock absorbers between the foundations and main structure. Apparently, New Zealand has about 10,000 earth quakes a year, though only 4 or 5 are noticed by the general public, and as the major fault line runs along the Cook Straights between North and South islands, a huge amount of public work has been carried out to protect Wellington. The theory used is that you can’t stop earth quakes, or the movement they will generate, but if you place a layer of material under the main structure that resonates at a different rate to the main building material, the movement will be wider but less juddery, so fewer structures will collapse. Since the 1960’s, all public buildings in Wellington have either been rebuilt or underpinned with these shock absorbers.
One of the main exhibits in Te Papa is a house with a simulated earth quake - pretty interesting for those of us who have never felt the earth move!

Another unique section shows a Holden (that’s big in Australia) car that was covered with corrugated iron and driven for 3 years by the ‘artist’ Jeff Thomson. I remember now that a few days ago, we drove through the town of Tirau north west of Rotorua, and saw the huge collection of corrugated iron artwork that decorates shop fronts, car parks, and random spaces. It’s pretty wacky, but fantastically different too.

For me, one of the most interesting sections of the museum was the one that looked into detail of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). There are countless discussions, committees, and legal battles going on today about this treaty, and many hold the opinion that the Maori were not treated 100% fairly by the implementation of the agreements in the Treaty. The museum exhibition explained that Maori was not a written language until the arrival of the settlers, and the translation of the Treaty documents into Maori were therefore a little rough and ready. Significantly, it also points out that Captain Hobson has little choice, as to translate thoroughly would have meant that no Maori chiefs would have agreed to the terms. Therefore, words like sovereignty were watered down for pragmatic reasons as much as any. The museum takes the documents, compares the translated Maori version with the English version, and clearly shows the small but significant differences that have lead to the current debate. From a translator’s point of view, this is a brilliant example of the need for accuracy and the generation of clear meaning.

So, at the end of day 12, Wellington did not live up to its windy reputation, and I had my last evening meal with the Kirra group. I’d like to thank Dave, David, Andrew, their families and all the other Aussies there who made this POM feel so welcome for a week - I hope we’ll meet again one day, maybe down under.

---

Photos

Wellington harbour
View from Mount Victoria

The Old Government Buildings
Unbelievably constructed out of wood

The Beehive
Part of the new Government buildings holding the ministerial offices

Treaty of Waitangi - Maori version
This is what the chiefs signed

Treaty of Waitangi - Maori version subsequently translated
This can be compared with the original English version - spot the differences

Treaty of Waitangi - Original English version
This is what Captain Hobson signed on behalf of the English crown

Jeff Thomson's Holden
Coverred in corrigated iron, and still used to drive around New Zealand for 3 years before parking in Te Papa