Wellington & the Lower North Island

The region was home to many iwi: Te Āti Awa and Ngāti Toa around the harbour and Kāpiti coast, Taranaki iwi on the west, Ngāti Kahungunu in Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa, and Ngāti Porou and others on the East Coast. James Cook's first landfall in New Zealand, at Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (Poverty Bay) near Gisborne in October 1769, led to Māori being killed and wounded in clashes with his crew.

The New Zealand Company planted settlers at Port Nicholson, Wellington's harbour, in 1840 and at New Plymouth in 1841, buying land in deals whose extent Māori disputed. Fighting over a contested sale at Waitara began the Taranaki War in 1860, and confiscations of Taranaki land followed. At Parihaka, the prophets Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi led a campaign of non-violent resistance, ploughing settlers' land, until Crown troops invaded the village in 1881; the Crown apologised in 2017. Whanganui iwi pursued their claim to the river for well over a century.

Wellington became the capital in 1865 for its central position, and the Wairarapa earthquake of 1855 had already raised its shoreline, giving the city new flat land. On 3 February 1931 the Hawke's Bay earthquake killed more than 250 people and levelled Napier and Hastings; both were rebuilt in the styles of the day. Treaty settlements have since produced world-first legal ideas: the Whanganui River was recognised as a legal person in 2017, and Taranaki Maunga followed in 2025.

Wellington is the country's political and creative capital: the seat of Parliament and the public service, and home to much of the film industry, centred on Peter Jackson's Wētā companies in Miramar. It has a dense café and craft-beer culture, theatres, and the World of WearableArt show. Wellingtonians take pride in their compact, hilly, walkable city and its wind.

Outside the capital the culture is provincial and rural. Palmerston North is a university and army town; Taranaki is dairy and oil country with a fierce provincial rugby following; Hawke's Bay mixes wine money with orchard and shearing towns. Māori life is strongest on the East Coast, where Ngāti Porou is one of the largest iwi, and Māori tradition and the iwi and marae structure remain strong.

Napier's Art Deco Festival each February fills the streets with vintage cars and 1930s dress. Gisborne has hosted the Rhythm and Vines music festival over New Year, and Parihaka holds its own peace festival.

The Wellington region has about 550,000 people, including the Hutt Valley, Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast. The city lives on government, universities, finance and film, and it carries the cost of strengthening old buildings against earthquakes. Its housing climbs steep hillsides, and many commuters come in by train.

Palmerston North, home to Massey University, has about 90,000 people; Napier and Hastings together about 140,000; New Plymouth about 60,000; Whanganui around 40,000 and Gisborne under 40,000. Taranaki earns its living from dairy and the offshore oil and gas fields, Hawke's Bay from apples, stone fruit, wine and processing, and Gisborne from forestry, farming and horticulture. Forestry slash, the debris washed down during storms, became a bitter local issue after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Hawke's Bay is one of the country's leading wine regions and a major fruit bowl. Its Gimblett Gravels are known for Bordeaux-style reds and syrah, and its chardonnay is highly regarded; its orchards are led by apples. Martinborough in the Wairarapa is known for pinot noir, and Gisborne for chardonnay.

Wellington is known for its cafés and flat whites, its craft breweries and a winter food festival, Wellington on a Plate, with its festival-only dishes and burgers. Its restaurants range across Asian, Pacific and modern New Zealand cooking.

On the East Coast, kaimoana (seafood) is central to hospitality: crayfish, pāua (abalone), and kina, the spiny sea urchin eaten raw. Taranaki's dairy farms feed some of the country's largest milk-processing plants, and the Wairarapa has olive groves and farm shops.

Wellington's waterfront runs from Te Papa, the national museum, past Oriental Bay to the Mount Victoria lookout. The red cable car climbs to the Botanic Garden, Zealandia's fenced sanctuary in the hills brings back native birds, and the Parliament buildings, Cuba Street and the Wētā Workshop in Miramar draw visitors. Kāpiti Island, a bird sanctuary, lies off the coast to the north; in the Wairarapa, the Putangirua Pinnacles and the seal colony at Cape Palliser mark the southern tip of the island.

Hawke's Bay centres on Napier's Art Deco streets and Marine Parade, the wineries around Hastings, the view from Te Mata Peak, and the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. Gisborne and the East Cape have Tolaga Bay's long wharf, the East Cape lighthouse, and beaches below Hikurangi, the mountain sacred to Ngāti Porou.

In the west, Taranaki Maunga stands in the national park of Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki, which also takes in the Pouakai Range, and New Plymouth has its Coastal Walkway, Pukekura Park and the Len Lye Centre. The Whanganui River winds through Whanganui National Park; the multi-day canoe journey is one of the Great Walks, and a side walk leads to the Bridge to Nowhere, while in Whanganui itself an elevator climbs through Durie Hill.