Things to do in Wellington

Culture · Waterfront

The national museum — free to enter, with Māori taonga, an earthquake house, and a colossal preserved squid.

Local tip: Most visitors do the ground floors and leave. Go straight to level four for Te Marae, the museum's own contemporary marae, which is the only one of its kind and where the building is actually making an argument rather than displaying objects.

Nature · Karori, 10 minutes from the centre

A 225-hectare valley behind a predator-proof fence, restoring a pre-human ecosystem on a 500-year plan — and the reason kākā and tūī are all over the city.

Local tip: The night tour is the one worth booking: kiwi, tuatara and glow-worms in a valley inside a capital city. The birds that spill over the fence into Kelburn and Aro Valley are the sanctuary's most visible result, and residents' feeders are why they keep coming.

Neighborhood · Central

The city's counter-cultural spine — second-hand shops, the Bucket Fountain, live music, and most of Wellington's good cheap eating.

Local tip: The Bucket Fountain has splashed pedestrians since 1969 and is a listed part of the streetscape. Look up while you are dodging it: most of Cuba Street is exactly the kind of unreinforced masonry the earthquake-prone system was written about, and several of the notices are visible from the footpath.

Landmark · Lambton Quay to Kelburn

A 1902 funicular from the middle of the shopping street to the top of the Botanic Garden, with the classic view over the harbour.

Local tip: Ride up and walk down through the garden rather than buying a return — it takes about half an hour, passes the Lady Norwood Rose Garden and the Carter Observatory, and drops you at the Bolton Street Memorial Park, which is the old colonial cemetery the motorway was driven straight through.

Landmark · Eastern peninsula

A quiet suburb that happens to contain a complete film-production pipeline, plus the airport and the best swimming beaches in the city.

Local tip: Skip the tour bus and take the coastal road round to Scorching Bay and Breaker Bay. The peninsula has the calmest water in Wellington on a northerly, which is exactly when the harbour side is unusable.

Nature · Owhiro Bay

A wild volcanic coastline facing the Southern Ocean, with a fur seal colony that hauls out through winter and views to the South Island.

Local tip: The seals are there roughly May to October and they are wild animals — stay well back and never get between one and the water. Go on a southerly day if you want to understand what Wellington's weather actually is; go on a still day if you want to enjoy it.