The ‘windy city’ of Wellington is New Zealand’s capital and its cultural center. Try scaling Mount Victoria and enjoying the views, or doing a similar thing on the Wellington Cable Car. If vertigo is your enemy, perusing the serious culture at the City Gallery and sampling the wide variety of cuisine on offer make for great alternatives.
The nightlife is pretty good, with loads of bars concentrated along Courtenay place. Get ready, because this place gets absolutely packed at weekends. Compact and manageable, walking is the best way to get around so long as you haven’t had one too many Kiwi produced sauvignon blancs.