scubish.com: Scuba diving Wellington - New Zealand

Understand

Wellington, known as New Zealand’s arts and culture capital, offers an unmatched blend of culture, heritage, fine food, and lively arts and entertainment.

Surrounded by hills and a rugged coastline, the city boasts a stunning harbor. Wellington’s charm is that it serves up a vibrant inner city experience with a slice of New Zealand scenery. And because of its compact nature, you can sample it all - boutique shopping, art galleries, trendy cafes and restaurants. Right on its doorstep is a network of walking and biking trails with beautiful wineries and vineyards just a few hours away.

Wellington is a city that brims with energy and vitality, it offers an almost overwhelming array of theater, music, dance, fine arts and galleries and museums. It also home to one of the nation’s key attractions, the museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which is recognized as a world leader of interactive and innovative museum experiences.

Wellington offers a unique mix of experiences few cities could lay claim to. With so many options at your fingertips, you’ll need at least three days to slip into the groove of this amazing place.

Politics
Because it is the capital city, the New Zealand Parliament and the head offices of many Government Departments and large businesses occupy central Wellington.

Geology

Much of the central city is built on reclaimed land that was raised up after a major earthquake in 1855. More land has been reclaimed since then. The shoreline as it was in 1840 is marked by plaques in the footpaths on Lambton Quay (hence the street name). There are several Quays which are now nowhere near the harbor. The harbor's former name was 'Port Nicholson' and the smaller bay surrounded by the city is called 'Wellington' or 'Lambton Harbour'.

Earthquakes have played a major part in forming the whole Wellington region - the exposed face of the Wellington fault being prominent as the line of hills adjacent to the harbor between Thorndon and Petone. There are several major earthquake faults in the region, some of which slip a meter or more in one jump every few centuries. Building regulations have meant that most of the older city buildings have been either demolished or strengthened in the last 20 years or so. Small and moderate earthquakes occasionally rock Wellington; so if the earth seems to move for you, it may not be just your imagination: stay indoors unless a "warden" or similar authority advises evacuation, and take shelter against potentially falling objects wherever you are.

Climate
Wellington is known as the Windy City. The prevailing wind is from the northwest but the strongest winds are southerly. The wind speed and direction can be seen by the flag being flown from the Beehive. A large flag is flown only on calm days, a small flag is flown when windy days are expected.

The temperature in Wellington rarely drops below 0 degrees Celsius, even on a cold winter's night, while daytime winter temperatures are rarely lower than 8 degrees Celsius. During summer, the daytime maximum temperature...