07 Mar 2025

Exploring the bustling capital of Wellington

Our New Zealand Coastal Odyssey adventure saw us arrive at Wellington Harbour under a beautiful clear blue sky. The city hills wrapped protectively around the harbour, creating a captivating urban landscape of tall, gleaming white modern buildings and bush-clad hills.

In the 1990s, New Zealand’s capital city was in a biologically poor state, with the native birds and plants in danger of local extinction. Now, all that has changed. An active community trapping program has greatly reduced the number of introduced rats and possum pests, and the native birds are flourishing in the capital.

We visited the Cable Car, with magnificent views over the city, discovered the Botanic Gardens, and visited Te Papa (New Zealand’s national museum). Afterwards, many of us ended up at the world-renowned Zealandia Wildlife Sanctuary. Behind a protective, predator-proof fence, native birds have flourished to the extent that many have now hopped the fence and are exploring the city. The most successful birds have been the large brown Kākā parrots.

We saw them flying high over the city, uttering their wild screeches and melodious whistles (rather tuneful for a parrot.) We encountered them in the botanic gardens, where they occasionally ‘chew on’ valuable specimen trees and watched as they entered private backyards searching for food and mischief. Another large brown native bird, the New Zealand Falcon, is also back in the city. Since the mammalian pest numbers have dropped – they often chase street pigeons down near the waterfront near Te Papa. Even the iconic Kiwi, New Zealand’s distinctive national bird, is making a comeback here, and security cameras are beginning to record them wandering onto verandas at night or stumbling through backyards. 

The phrase ‘Wellington City’s Nightlife’ once meant bright city lights, clubs, bars, and entertainment. But with several large semi-nocturnal native birds now roaming about after dark (the Kiwi is nocturnal, the Kākā seldom sleeps at night, and the New Zealand Falcon also flies after dusk), the phrase is beginning to have a whole new meaning!

Images © C. Finch & Heritage Expeditions