Wellington Region
Encyclopedia
The Wellington region of New Zealand
occupies the southern end of the North Island
.
around the capital city
, Wellington
, and the cities of Lower Hutt
, Porirua
, and Upper Hutt
, each of which also contains a rural hinterland. It extends up the west coast of the North Island, taking in the coastal settlements of the Kapiti Coast district, which includes the southern fringe of the area commonly known as Horowhenua and the town of Otaki
. East of the Rimutaka Range
it includes three largely rural districts containing most of Wairarapa
, covering the towns of Masterton and Carterton
, Greytown
, Featherston
and Martinborough
.
At the time of the census in 2006 Wellington region recorded the largest percentages of people in all of the four highest income groupings ($40,001-$50,000: 8.9%, $50,001-$70,000: 10.5%, $70,001-$100,000: 5.9% and $100,001+: 5.2%) as well as the lowest percentage of residents in the 'loss' group (0.37%). As at December 2007 people in the Wellington Region has a significantly higher average weekly income from all sources ($812/week) than other regions in New Zealand (18% more than second-place Auckland
with $687/week).
As of 2006, 25.8% of employed Wellingtons worked in professional occupations and 14.3% in clerical occupations, the largest percentage for each category of any region in the country. Conversely, excluding 369 people in areas not covered by an official region, Wellington has the lowest percentage of technicians and trades workers in the country (10.6%), the lowest percentage of machinery operators and drivers (4.1%) and the lowest percentage of labourers (7.1%).
In its more restrictive sense the Wellington Region refers only to the cluster of built-up areas west of the Tararua ranges. The much more sparsely populated area to the east has its own name, Wairarapa
, and a centre in Masterton.
To a lesser extent, the Kapiti Coast
is sometimes excluded from the region. Otaki, in particular, has strong connections to the Horowhenua District to the north.
The region occupies the southern tip of the North Island, bounded to the west, south, and east by water. To the west lies the Tasman Sea
and to the east the Pacific Ocean
. At the southern end of the island these two bodies of water are joined by the narrow and turbulent Cook Strait
, which is only 28 kilometres (17.4 mi) wide at its narrowest point, between Cape Terawhiti
and Perano Head in the Marlborough Sounds
.
The region covers 7860 square kilometres (3,034.8 sq mi), and extends north to Otaki
in the west and almost to Eketahuna
in the east. Physically and topologically the region has four basic areas running roughly parallel to each other along a northeast-southwest axis.
The first of these four regions is a narrow coastal strip of plains running north from Paekakariki
. This area, known as the Kapiti coast
, contains numerous small towns, many of which gain at least a proportion of their wealth from tourism, largely due to their fine beaches.
Inland from this is rough hill country, formed along the same major geologic fault
responsible for the Southern Alps
in the South Island
. Though nowhere near as mountainous as these, the Rimutaka
and Tararua Ranges are still hard country and support only small populations, although it is in small coastal valleys and plains at the southern end of these ranges that the cities of Wellington and the Hutt Valley are located.
The third topological stripe of the region is the undulating hill country of the Wairarapa around the Ruamahanga River
. This area, which becomes lower and flatter in the south, terminates in the wetlands around Lake Wairarapa
and contains much rich farmland. The final section of the region's topology is another section of rough hill country, lower than the Tararuas but far less economic than the land around the Ruamahanga River. Both of the hillier striations of the region are still largely forested.
's fish". Legend recounts that Kupe
discovered and explored the district in about the tenth century.
The Wellington region was settled by Europeans in 1839 by the New Zealand Company
. Wellington City became the capital of Wellington Province
upon the creation of the province in 1853, until the Abolition of the Provinces Act came into force on 1 Nov 1876. Wellington became capital of New Zealand in 1865, the third capital of New Zealand after Auckland, and Russell.
Over three-quarters of the region's reside in the four cities at the southwestern corner of the region. Other main centres of population are on the Kapiti Coast and in the fertile farming areas close to the upper Ruamahanga River in the Wairarapa.
Along the Kapiti Coast, numerous small towns sit close together, many of them occupying spaces close to popular beaches. From the north, these include Otaki
, Waikanae
, Paraparaumu
, the twin settlements of Raumati Beach and Raumati South, Paekakariki
and Pukerua Bay
, the last of which is a northern suburb of Porirua
. Each of these settlements has a population of between 2,000 and 10,000, making this a moderately heavily populated coastline.
In the Wairarapa the largest community by a considerable margin is Masterton
, with a population of almost 20,000. Other towns in the area include Featherston
, Martinborough
, Carterton
and Greytown.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
occupies the southern end of the North Island
North Island
The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...
.
Governance
The official Wellington Region, as administered by the Wellington Regional Council (under the brand-name "Greater Wellington") covers the conurbationConurbation
A conurbation is a region comprising a number of cities, large towns, and other urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
around the capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
, Wellington
Wellington City
Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Wellington city extends as far north as Linden, and includes the rural areas of Makara and Ohariu. It is New Zealand's third-largest city, behind Auckland and Christchurch.Wellington attained city status in...
, and the cities of Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt is a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Its council has adopted the name Hutt City Council, but neither the New Zealand Geographic Board nor the Local Government Act recognise the name Hutt City. This alternative name can lead to confusion, as there are two cities in the...
, Porirua
Porirua
Porirua is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, immediately north of the city of Wellington, with their central business districts 20 km apart. A large proportion of the population commutes to Wellington, so it may be considered a satellite city. It almost completely surrounds...
, and Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt is a satellite city of Wellington. It is New Zealand's smallest city by population, the second largest by land area. It is in Greater Wellington.-Geography:Upper Hutt is 30 km north-east of Wellington...
, each of which also contains a rural hinterland. It extends up the west coast of the North Island, taking in the coastal settlements of the Kapiti Coast district, which includes the southern fringe of the area commonly known as Horowhenua and the town of Otaki
Otaki, New Zealand
Otaki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated half way between the capital city Wellington, 70 kilometres to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 kilometres to the northeast. It marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region. The town's...
. East of the Rimutaka Range
Rimutaka Range
The Rimutaka Range is one of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand which form a ridge running parallel with the east coast of the island between East Cape and Wellington.The ridge is at its most pronounced in the southern part of the island, where it consists of the Ruahine,...
it includes three largely rural districts containing most of Wairarapa
Wairarapa
Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...
, covering the towns of Masterton and Carterton
Carterton, New Zealand
Carterton is a small town in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and the seat of the Carterton District. It lies in a farming area of the Wairarapa in New Zealand's North Island. It is located southwest of Masterton and northeast of Wellington...
, Greytown
Greytown, New Zealand
Greytown or Te Hupenui, population 2,001 , is a town in the Wellington region of New Zealand. It lies in the Wairarapa, in the lower North Island...
, Featherston
Featherston, New Zealand
Featherston is a town in the north of the Wellington Region region of New Zealand. It lies in the Wairarapa, just north of the Rimutaka Tunnel, in the South Wairarapa District. The population was 2,340 in the 2006 Census....
and Martinborough
Martinborough
Martinborough is a town in South Wairarapa, a district in the Wellington region on the North Island of New Zealand. It is 65 kilometres east of Wellington and 35 kilometres south-west of Masterton...
.
Regional Councillors
Greater Wellington Regional Council is a statutory body made up of 13 regional councillors, representing six constituencies:- Wellington has 5 representatives
- Kapiti 1
- Porirua-Tawa 2
- Lower Hutt 3
- Upper Hutt 1
- Wairarapa 1
| Function | Name | Constituency | Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chair | Fran Wilde Fran Wilde The Honorable Fran Wilde QSO , is a New Zealand politician, and former Wellington Labour MP, Minister of Tourism and 31st Mayor of Wellington... |
Wellington | |
| Councillor | Chris Laidlaw Chris Laidlaw Christopher Robert Laidlaw , Rhodes Scholar, All Black, diplomat, MP, talk radio host, author, is a 20th century New Zealand figure.-Academic and Rugby Union:... |
Wellington | |
| Councillor | Judith Aitken | Wellington | |
| Councillor | Paul Bruce | Wellington | Green |
| Councillor | Daran Ponter | Wellington | Labour |
| Councillor | Nigel Wilson | Kapiti | |
| Councillor | Jenny Brash Jenny Brash Jennifer Sylvia Brash, QSO , known as Jenny Brash, is a former Mayor of Porirua City, Wellington Region, New Zealand. Prior to being Mayor in 1998–2010, she served nine years as a City Councillor... |
Porirua-Tawa | |
| Councillor | Barbara Donaldson | Porirua-Tawa | |
| Councillor | Sandra Greig | Lower Hutt | |
| Councillor | Peter Glensor | Lower Hutt | |
| Councillor | Prue Lamason | Lower Hutt | |
| Councillor | Paul Swain Paul Swain Paul Desmond Swain, QSO is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party.-Early life:Swain was born in Palmerston North on 20 December 1951. He attended St. Patrick's College in Wellington... |
Upper Hutt | |
| Councillor | Gary McPhee Gary McPhee Gary McPhee is a Scottish footballer and is also a free agent after leaving Nuneaton Borough.He signed for Coventry City in September 1998 and had a successful loan spell at Newry Town F.C. in which he scored 24 goals 28 appearances... |
Wairarapa |
Production and income
The Wellington Region is by a large margin the most wealthy region in the country. The most up-to-date estimates for regional GDP prepared by the Ministry for Economic Development put the region's GDP at $17.5 billion in the year to March 2004 which was $36,700 per capita, 19% larger than the Auckland Region figure of $30,750, 38% larger than the poorest region, Northland ($26,600) and 3% more than the second highest region (Northern South Island, $35,800).At the time of the census in 2006 Wellington region recorded the largest percentages of people in all of the four highest income groupings ($40,001-$50,000: 8.9%, $50,001-$70,000: 10.5%, $70,001-$100,000: 5.9% and $100,001+: 5.2%) as well as the lowest percentage of residents in the 'loss' group (0.37%). As at December 2007 people in the Wellington Region has a significantly higher average weekly income from all sources ($812/week) than other regions in New Zealand (18% more than second-place Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
with $687/week).
As of 2006, 25.8% of employed Wellingtons worked in professional occupations and 14.3% in clerical occupations, the largest percentage for each category of any region in the country. Conversely, excluding 369 people in areas not covered by an official region, Wellington has the lowest percentage of technicians and trades workers in the country (10.6%), the lowest percentage of machinery operators and drivers (4.1%) and the lowest percentage of labourers (7.1%).
Ethnicity
Wellington Region is second only to Auckland in many statistics related to breadth of ethnicity. As of the 2006 Census, Wellington had the second-highest Asian population (8.4%, Auckland:18.9%) and the second-highest Pacific Islander population (8.0%, Auckland:14.4%). 26.1% of Wellingtonians were born outside New Zealand which is second to Auckland (40.4%).Gender
The Wellington Region has the second-highest percentage of women at 51.52% (Nelson:51.53%, West Coast:49.21%), particularly between the ages of 16-29, where it is at 48.86% with Otago next at 49.11% followed by Gisborne at 49.18%, contrasted with Marlborough at 52.61% for the same age group.Education
As of 2006, 21.1% of Wellingtonians have a degree, compared to only 6.6% on the West Coast, 17.7% for Auckland and 14.5% for Otago (though 0.97% of Otago residents have Doctorate level degrees, compared with 0.87% for Wellington). Auckland and Wellington are equal lowest for "No Qualification" at 18.1%.Transport
11.3% of Wellington households do not have access to a car, which is the highest for any region of the country.Telecommunications
Wellington statistics for mobile phone use at 76.3% is only exceeded by Auckland (76.4%) followed by Waikato (75.3%). Access to the internet is 65.5%, highest equal with Auckland, followed by Canterbury (61.3%). Somewhat surprisingly, Wellingtonians are least likely to have access to a fax machine (21.1%) after Gisborne (20.5%).Economy
The sub-national GDP of the Wellington region was estimated at US$19.3 billion in 2003, 15% of New Zealand's national GDP.Usage of the term Wellington region
The boundaries of the Wellington Region described in this article correspond to the local government region administered by Greater Wellington (the Wellington Regional Council). In common usage the terms Wellington Region and Greater Wellington are not so clearly defined and areas on the periphery of the region are often excluded.In its more restrictive sense the Wellington Region refers only to the cluster of built-up areas west of the Tararua ranges. The much more sparsely populated area to the east has its own name, Wairarapa
Wairarapa
Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...
, and a centre in Masterton.
To a lesser extent, the Kapiti Coast
Kapiti Coast
The Kapiti Coast is the name of the section of the coast of the south-western North Island of New Zealand that is north of Wellington and opposite Kapiti Island. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Regional Council...
is sometimes excluded from the region. Otaki, in particular, has strong connections to the Horowhenua District to the north.
Geography
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...
and to the east the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. At the southern end of the island these two bodies of water are joined by the narrow and turbulent Cook Strait
Cook Strait
Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east....
, which is only 28 kilometres (17.4 mi) wide at its narrowest point, between Cape Terawhiti
Cape Terawhiti
Cape Terawhiti is the southwesternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand.The cape is located 16 kilometres to the west of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand...
and Perano Head in the Marlborough Sounds
Marlborough Sounds
The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels at the north of the South Island of New Zealand...
.
The region covers 7860 square kilometres (3,034.8 sq mi), and extends north to Otaki
Otaki, New Zealand
Otaki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated half way between the capital city Wellington, 70 kilometres to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 kilometres to the northeast. It marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region. The town's...
in the west and almost to Eketahuna
Eketahuna
Eketahuna is a small rural service town, the most southerly in the Tararua District in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand, but is considered to be in northern Wairarapa. It was called Mellenskov, but was renamed soon after its founding.The town is located at the foot of...
in the east. Physically and topologically the region has four basic areas running roughly parallel to each other along a northeast-southwest axis.
The first of these four regions is a narrow coastal strip of plains running north from Paekakariki
Paekakariki
Paekakariki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It is 22 km north of Porirua and 45 km north-east of Wellington, the nation's capital city....
. This area, known as the Kapiti coast
Kapiti Coast
The Kapiti Coast is the name of the section of the coast of the south-western North Island of New Zealand that is north of Wellington and opposite Kapiti Island. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Wellington Regional Council...
, contains numerous small towns, many of which gain at least a proportion of their wealth from tourism, largely due to their fine beaches.
Inland from this is rough hill country, formed along the same major geologic fault
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
responsible for the Southern Alps
Southern Alps
The Southern Alps is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the island's western side...
in the South Island
South Island
The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...
. Though nowhere near as mountainous as these, the Rimutaka
Rimutaka Range
The Rimutaka Range is one of several mountain ranges in the North Island of New Zealand which form a ridge running parallel with the east coast of the island between East Cape and Wellington.The ridge is at its most pronounced in the southern part of the island, where it consists of the Ruahine,...
and Tararua Ranges are still hard country and support only small populations, although it is in small coastal valleys and plains at the southern end of these ranges that the cities of Wellington and the Hutt Valley are located.
The third topological stripe of the region is the undulating hill country of the Wairarapa around the Ruamahanga River
Ruamahanga River
The Ruamahanga River runs through the southeastern North Island of New Zealand.The river's headwaters are in the Tararua Ranges northwest of Masterton. From there it runs firstly south and then southwest for 130 kilometers before emptying into the Cook Strait. The towns of Masterton and...
. This area, which becomes lower and flatter in the south, terminates in the wetlands around Lake Wairarapa
Lake Wairarapa
Lake Wairarapa is a lake at the southern end of the North Island of New Zealand, 50 kilometers east of Wellington. The lake covers an area of 78 km², and is the third largest in the North Island, fractionally smaller than Lake Rotorua...
and contains much rich farmland. The final section of the region's topology is another section of rough hill country, lower than the Tararuas but far less economic than the land around the Ruamahanga River. Both of the hillier striations of the region are still largely forested.
Regional parks
There are 5 regional parks:- Battle Hill Farm Forest ParkBattle Hill Farm Forest ParkBattle Hill Farm Forest Park is a Wellington Regional park located near Paekakariki, New Zealand. It contains the site of the Battle of Battle Hill and is intersected by Transmission Gully....
- Belmont Regional ParkBelmont Regional ParkBelmont Regional Park is a Wellington Regional park located between Lower Hutt and Porirua, New Zealand. It is the largest of the Wellington Regional parks, stretching close to 15km from Wellington Harbour to Haywards and 10km to Porirua, containing farm land, native bush, and peaks up to 456m...
- East Harbour Regional ParkEast Harbour Regional ParkEast Harbour Regional Park is a Wellington Regional park stretching from Baring Head along the east side of the Wellington Harbour along the east side of Eastbourne, New Zealand....
- Kaitoke Regional ParkKaitoke Regional ParkKaitoke Regional Park is a Wellington Regional park located in Kaitoke, New Zealand, past Upper Hutt. The park is adjacent to the Hutt water collection area and comprises mostly native bush...
- Queen Elizabeth ParkQueen Elizabeth Park, New ZealandQueen Elizabeth Park is a Wellington Regional Park located on the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand. The park contains the last area of natural dunes on the Kapiti Coast. The park is steeped in history including pa sites at Whareroa Beach and Wainui Beach....
History
The Māori who originally settled the Wellington area knew it as Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, meaning "the head of MāuiMaui (Maori mythology)
In Māori mythology, Māui is a culture hero famous for his exploits and his trickery.-Māui's birth:The offspring of Tū increased and multiplied and did not know death until the generation of Māui-tikitiki . Māui is the son of Taranga, the wife of Makeatutara...
's fish". Legend recounts that Kupe
Kupe
In the Māori mythology of some tribes, Kupe was involved in the Polynesian discovery of New Zealand.-Contention:There is contention concerning the status of Kupe. The contention turns on the authenticity of later versions of the legends, the so-called 'orthodox' versions closely associated with S....
discovered and explored the district in about the tenth century.
The Wellington region was settled by Europeans in 1839 by the New Zealand Company
New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company originated in London in 1837 as the New Zealand Association with the aim of promoting the "systematic" colonisation of New Zealand. The association, and later the company, intended to follow the colonising principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of...
. Wellington City became the capital of Wellington Province
Wellington Province
The Wellington Province was a province of New Zealand until the abolition of provincial government in 1876.-Area:...
upon the creation of the province in 1853, until the Abolition of the Provinces Act came into force on 1 Nov 1876. Wellington became capital of New Zealand in 1865, the third capital of New Zealand after Auckland, and Russell.
People
Along the Kapiti Coast, numerous small towns sit close together, many of them occupying spaces close to popular beaches. From the north, these include Otaki
Otaki, New Zealand
Otaki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated half way between the capital city Wellington, 70 kilometres to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 kilometres to the northeast. It marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region. The town's...
, Waikanae
Waikanae
Waikanae is a small town on New Zealand's Kapiti Coast. The name is a Māori word meaning "The waters of the yellow eyed mullet". Another settlement called Waikanae Beach exists near Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand....
, Paraparaumu
Paraparaumu
Paraparaumu is a town in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It lies in the Kapiti Coast, 50 kilometres north of the nation's capital city, Wellington....
, the twin settlements of Raumati Beach and Raumati South, Paekakariki
Paekakariki
Paekakariki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It is 22 km north of Porirua and 45 km north-east of Wellington, the nation's capital city....
and Pukerua Bay
Pukerua Bay
Pukerua Bay is a small seaside community at the southern end of the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand. In local government terms it is the northernmost suburb of Porirua City...
, the last of which is a northern suburb of Porirua
Porirua
Porirua is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, immediately north of the city of Wellington, with their central business districts 20 km apart. A large proportion of the population commutes to Wellington, so it may be considered a satellite city. It almost completely surrounds...
. Each of these settlements has a population of between 2,000 and 10,000, making this a moderately heavily populated coastline.
In the Wairarapa the largest community by a considerable margin is Masterton
Masterton
Masterton is a large town and local government district in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a region separated from Wellington by the Rimutaka ranges...
, with a population of almost 20,000. Other towns in the area include Featherston
Featherston, New Zealand
Featherston is a town in the north of the Wellington Region region of New Zealand. It lies in the Wairarapa, just north of the Rimutaka Tunnel, in the South Wairarapa District. The population was 2,340 in the 2006 Census....
, Martinborough
Martinborough
Martinborough is a town in South Wairarapa, a district in the Wellington region on the North Island of New Zealand. It is 65 kilometres east of Wellington and 35 kilometres south-west of Masterton...
, Carterton
Carterton, New Zealand
Carterton is a small town in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and the seat of the Carterton District. It lies in a farming area of the Wairarapa in New Zealand's North Island. It is located southwest of Masterton and northeast of Wellington...
and Greytown.
Famous sons and daughters
- Jane CampionJane CampionJane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States...
– film-maker - Russell CroweRussell CroweRussell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
– actor - Peter JacksonPeter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
– film-maker - Anna PaquinAnna PaquinAnna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
– actress - Raybon KanRaybon KanRaybon Kan is a Masterton, New Zealand-born Han Chinese comedian and newspaper columnist.-Early life and family:Kan's family moved to Wellington, New Zealand soon after his birth, where he began his education at St Mark's Church School and continued through to Wellington College where he was...
– comedian - Katherine MansfieldKatherine MansfieldKathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
– writer - Jack MarshallJack MarshallSir John Ross Marshall, GBE, CH, , generally known as Jack Marshall, was a New Zealand politician. After spending twelve years as Deputy Prime Minister, he served as the 28th Prime Minister for most of 1972....
– former Prime MinisterPrime Minister of New ZealandThe Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand... - Tana UmagaTana UmagaJonathan Ionatana Falefasa "Tana" Umaga, ONZM is a New Zealand rugby union footballer and former captain of the national team, the All Blacks. He played for the Hurricanes starting with the Super 12's inception in 1996 and took over the captaincy in 2003...
– former All Black Captain - Nancy WakeNancy WakeNancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM , served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.-Early life:Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in...
– war hero - Michael CampbellMichael CampbellMichael Shane Campbell, CNZM is a New Zealand golfer who is best known for having won the 2005 U.S. Open and the richest prize in golf, the £1,000,000 HSBC World Match Play Championship, in the same year. He is a member of the European Tour.Ethnically, he is predominantly Māori, from the Ngati...
– Winner of US Open 2005 - PollyfillaPollyfillaPollyfilla is a drag artiste originally from Wellington, New Zealand. The drag persona of Colin McLean, Pollyfilla through the years has become an icon not only of Wellington's Queer community, but the wider community and New Zealand as a whole, performing regularly at social and community...
– drag queenDrag queenA drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and... - Sir Bob Charles – Professional Golfer
- Ben HanaBen HanaBen Hana or "Blanket Man" is a homeless man who wanders the inner city streets of Wellington, New Zealand. Ben is a local fixture and something of a celebrity and is typically on the footpath in the precincts of Courtenay Place which has 24-hour activity.Ben is a self-proclaimed devotee of the...
– Blanket Man - Jack YanJack YanJack Yan is a publisher, designer and businessman, born 1972 in Kowloon, Hong Kong.Yan founded his own company in 1987 while a teenager and grew it, initially, into the region's leading font software firm, claiming to be the first New Zealander to design digital typefaces...
– publisher and graphic designer - Karl UrbanKarl UrbanKarl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor.He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Julius Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess...
– actor