I live in Wellington, the capital, and third-most-populous (364,000 in the conurbation) city of New Zealand. Although technically I live in a suburban core 25 minutes (by train) away, I travel into Wellington at least five days a week, and most of my time spent awake is spent there.

It has had European (and post-European) settlement since 1839, and I have ancestors in the oldest Catholic cemetary in the city. Some time in the 1880s, my great-grandfather shot at a cat with a rifle and beat his wife. Ahh, the drunken Irish.

Wellington is on the southern-tip of 'the North Island' (that's seriously the name of the north island of New Zealand). It's the mouth of a fish (I think a stingray) in Maori cosmogeny. It's basically in the centre of the country, and I have lived here my entire life.



Flight of the Conchords is possibly our most famous export. Jemaine and Bret are both Wellingtonians.

Other famous people:
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are also Wellingtonians, and all the film production facilities are located here, including Richard Taylor's Weta Workshop. That's a whole bunch of Oscars right there.

Jane Campion, who directed The Piano, is also a Wellingtonian.

Russel Crowe was born here and lived here until he was 4.

Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones' Diary, Love Actually, Notting Hill, Blackadder, Mr Bean...) was born here, and lived here until age 11.

Alan MacDiarmid, who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2000, is a Wellingtonian. You should be thankful for him, because he (along with an American and a Japanese scientist) discovered conductive polymers - plastics that can be made electrically conductive. If you're look at a cellphone screen today, you have to thank him.


Aaand here's a really lame video: