Wellington the Capital City

Kia Ora (in Maori - Hello) capital of New Zealand! The first stop on the North Island was also the capital of New Zealand. Why was it the first stop? It's quite simple, it's the destination port of the ferry.

Although it is the capital (203 thousand inhabitants), it is not the most populous, because that is Auckland (1.4 million inhabitants)!

Wellington is a very modern and lively city. A lot is happening along the harbor: whether it's pop-up stores in small containers, cafes or ships constantly coming and going in the harbor. Of course, the locals also use the harbor for sports.

Wellington is also called 'Welliwood' because two very famous directors live here. Firstly, Peter Jackson (trilogy of Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and more) and James Cameron (Avatar - who bought an estate here specially for the future trilogy).

We were lucky to experience Wellington with sun and little wind, as that doesn't happen too often. We were told that it is windy for at least 233 days a year, with an average speed of 29 km/h. The strongest recorded wind was 248 km/h. Wellington is located between two long mountain ranges and the wind cannot escape, so it constantly sweeps through the city.

A good deed at the end: as we were driving through the streets of Wellington with our van, we saw a duck sitting in the middle of the road. It apparently didn't know how to get to the harbor or the sea. So we turned around and went to rescue the little duck. I put on a pair of disposable gloves from our emergency kit and together we caught the duck and took it to the sea. Afterwards, we fed it with some bread and left it with its friends. :D