Wellington

1. c. 1250

   Kupe Names the Harbour

   The navigator Kupe pauses inside the narrow entrance he has just punched through Cook Strait and names two islands for his daughters: Matiu and Mākaro. The names stick like salt to the cliffs. For centuries afterwards, Taranaki, Rangitāne and later Te Āti Awa crews will beach their waka here and read the weather in the same ripples Kupe watched.

2. c. 1822

   Te Rauparaha’s Muskets Echo

   Ngāti Toa war-leader Te Rauparaha lands with a flintlock in each hand and a northern alliance at his back. The musket’s roar bounces off the hills he will soon claim. Within a decade he controls the harbour, re-names it Te Whanganui-a-Tara after his ancestress, and re-draws the tribal map of the lower North Island without ever signing a parchment.

3. 1839

   Wakefield’s Ship Drops Anchor

   The NZ Company barque Tory ghosts through the heads at dusk, William Wakefield aboard with land-deeds already half-printed in London. Within weeks he has bought—on paper—20,000 acres that no one on deck can yet walk across. The price: axes, blankets and a promise that the Crown will sort out the details.

4. 22 Jan 1840

   Settlers Wade Ashore at Petone

   The Aurora’s passengers splash through low-tide mud to reach a beach already crowded with tents and speculation. They name their muddy outpost Britannia, hoist the Union Jack, and wake the next morning to floodwater lapping at their baggage. Within months the entire town shifts around the headland to firmer ground beside Lambton Harbour.

5. 1846

   Hutt Valley Campaign Ignites

   Gun-smoke drifts across the river flats as British redcoats skirmish with Māori defenders led by Te Rangihaeata. The disputed 1839 land purchases are now measured in musket range. After months of raids and sieges, the Crown confiscates further land and Wellington’s frontier pushes another valley inland.

6. 23 Jan 1855

   Earthquake Lifts the Harbour

   At 9:17 pm the Wairarapa fault unzips 150 kilometres of coastline. In eight violent seconds the harbour floor rises two metres, exposing new mudflats and tilting the infant town. Wooden buildings sway but survive; brick façades crumble like stale bread. From this night on, Wellington will build light and flex with the earth.

Who lived here

• Modernist short-story writer · 1888–1923

  Katherine Mansfield

  Born here

  She grew up in a wooden house on Tinakori Road, turning Wellington’s hills and rain into the sharp, luminous prose that later cracked open English fiction. Today the house is a museum; she’d probably linger in the garden, notebook out, catching the same slanted light.

• Film director & effects pioneer · born 1961

  Sir Peter Jackson

  Born and still based here

  He built Weta Workshop in his parents’ garage in Miramar and turned Wellington into Middle-earth’s back-lot. Drive past the airport and you’re on roads he cycled as a kid, dreaming up orcs.

• Academy Award-winning director · born 1954

  Dame Jane Campion

  Studied here

  Anthropology lectures at Victoria University fed her obsession with power and silence; you can still sit in the same 1970s lecture theatres she doodled in before heading off to make film history.

• Physicist, ‘father of nuclear physics’ · 1871–1937

  Sir Ernest Rutherford

  Educated here

  He conducted his first experiments on radio waves in a tin shed behind the university library now named after him. The same hilltop still hums with student radios and late-night labs.

• Oscar-winning actor · born 1964

  Russell Crowe

  Born here

  His first breath was in Wellington Hospital; four years later he left for Australia but still claims the harbour whenever he’s back filming. Locals nod, unimpressed—everyone here has a cousin in Hollywood.

• All Blacks captain · born 1973

  Sir Tana Umaga

  Born and played here

  He learned to sidestep on the Petone rugby fields where his family still watches weekend club games. Walk past and you’ll hear coaches yelling drills he invented—fast feet, low centre, same grin.