Wellington (Māori: Te Whanganui-a-Tara) is the capital and third largest city of New Zealand. It also has the distinction of being the world's southernmost capital city.
The Windy City is on the foreshore of Wellington Harbour and ringed by hills, providing the scenic home of many of New Zealand's national arts and cultural attractions.
Wellington (pop. 203,800) is New Zealand's third largest city, a long way behind Auckland and even Christchurch. It's actually just one of the four cities making up the Wellington metropolitan area which is New Zealand's second largest urban area (pop. 398,300) - the other three cities are Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua. There are proposals to merge the four cities into one as was done in Auckland, but there is considerable opposition, especially from the two Hutts. Wellington became New Zealand's capital city in 1865, replacing Auckland; the government wanted a more centrally-located city as capital to quell the South Island nationalist movement.
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