Wellington City
Accommodation in Wellington City
Wellington City combines protected nature, city views and a diverse cultural offering. Zealandia’s forest trails, the Botanic Garden, museums and guided tours offer a range of experiences. When choosing a holiday rental, it can therefore be helpful to consider which experiences you would like to focus on during your trip.
Enjoy nature and choose your trails
Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne covers 225 hectares of regenerating forest and bird habitats. During daylight hours, general admission gives you access to 32 kilometres of interconnected trails. If you would rather explore nature with a guide, there are guided day, night and twilight tours, as well as photography tours. There are also tours designed specifically for children. Free electric shuttles run to and from the sanctuary; stops are at the Wellington i-SITE and the Cable Car’s upper station.
Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā offers another green side of the city. Its 25 hectares include protected native forest, plant collections, flower displays and views across Wellington. The Bush Walk leads through native New Zealand bush. The Wellington Cable Car connects Lambton Quay, Victoria University and the Botanic Garden on a five-minute ride. Its 612-metre route reaches an elevation of 120 metres above sea level at the upper station. Housed in the original engine room, the three-storey Wellington Cable Car Museum tells the story of the cable car system’s development.
The trails around the city offer their own highlights. The Mount Victoria Lookout Walkway passes through historic pine forests to panoramic views of Wellington Harbour and the city. The Southern Walkway starts at Roseneath Park and Lookout near the centre, passes through the Town Belt and continues to Island Bay, offering another way to discover Wellington on foot. Its southern section is open to pedestrians and cyclists.
Museums, history and guided experiences
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand’s national museum on Wellington’s waterfront. Its collection includes more than two million artworks, objects and specimens. Guided tours offer an introduction to the museum or focus on Wētā Workshop’s award-winning Gallipoli exhibition. This lets you make your museum visit broad in scope or focus on a particular exhibition.
Wellington Museum regularly adds to the cultural offering with events, lunchtime talks, music events, workshops and temporary exhibitions. If you are interested in Wellington’s early history and cultural background, consider guided walks from Te Wharewaka o Pōneke. E-bike and e-scooter tours are also available there. A guided waka tour introduces the Māori art of navigation, as well as basic commands, songs, haka and greetings.
At Te Nukuao Wellington Zoo, more than 500 animals are spread across 13 hectares. Along with Zealandia’s forest habitats and the trails through the Botanic Garden, the zoo offers another nature-focused experience within the city. If you are travelling with children, you could take Zealandia’s tours designed specifically for children into account when planning your day.
Market and chocolate
On Wellington’s waterfront, Harbourside Market is an open-air food and produce market. It has been at this waterfront location since 2002. Another culinary discovery awaits at Wellington Chocolate Factory, where chocolate is made in small batches using the bean-to-bar method and fairly traded cocoa. Factory tours explain how cocoa beans are sorted and ground, how the chocolate is tempered, and how the bars are packaged. With guidance from experienced chocolatiers, visitors can also make their own chocolate bars.
When choosing accommodation in Wellington, you can weigh up the experiences that best suit your trip: forest trails and guided nature tours, museums and city history, or markets and chocolate. This lets you tailor your holiday rental search to your interests without lumping the different offerings together as a single type of outing.
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