WellingtonNZ.com,
New Zealand 

The national museum, Te Papa, has 36,000 square metres of public floor space, taking up five floors and the size of three rugby fields. The museum sits on 150 shock absorbers to protect if from earthquake movement and has enough reinforcing steel to stretch from Wellington to Sydney.

Legend has it that Wellington's well-known Parliament building, the Beehive, was actually sketched as a joke. While some say the architect’s paper of choice was a napkin, others claim it was drawn on a cigarette packet.

Said to have more cafes, bars and restaurants per capita than New York, Wellington is also fuelled by some of the strongest coffee you’ll ever find. The city’s famed café culture has slightly less caffeinated roots - the country’s first milk bar opened in Manners Street in 1935.

Wellington’s compact geography isn’t just handy for visitors; 11% of the city’s residents walk to work and the waterfront is popular with runners.  While Wellingtonians may be keen on foot traffic these days, it was a local man – William McLean – who imported the first car into New Zealand in 1898.

At the start of the 21st century, Wellington’s inner city residential population increased by 41% in just five years due to the thriving downtown and apartment development.

Much of Wellington’s downtown is built on reclaimed land, with earthquakes raising the land in the 19th century - one major quake in 1855 lifting the lower North Island by up to 3m. The original 1840 shoreline is now one of Wellington's main shopping streets, Lambton Quay.

Wellington’s Cable Car has been transporting residents and visitors for over a century. That may not seem long to European folks, but it’s kind of ages in New Zealand terms. Many visitors are entertained to find many visitors around the city’s scenic bays have personal cable cars to reach their hilltop homes.

Thorndon is New Zealand’s oldest suburb and is the birthplace of one of New Zealand’s greatest authors, Katherine Mansfield. The suburb is also home to New Zealand’s oldest hotel (now named The Shepherd’s Arms) and the oldest public bar, The Thistle Inn, where it’s said that Maori chief Te Rauparaha used to pull up his canoe and stop for a drink.