WELLINGTON New Zealand is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand. The urban area is situated on the southwestern tip of the country's North Island, and lies between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range.

Wellington was named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo. The Duke's title comes from the town of Wellington in the English county of Somerset.

In Maori, Wellington goes by three names:

* Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara"

* Poneke is a transliteration of Port Nick, short for Port Nicholson (the city's central marae, the community supporting it and its kapa haka have the pseudo-tribal name of Ngati Poneke)

* Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Maui, meaning The Head of the Fish of Maui (often shortened to Te Upoko-o-te-Ika), a traditional name for the southernmost part of the North Island, derives from the legend of the fishing up of the island by the demi-god Maui.

Legend recounts that Kupe discovered and explored the district in about the tenth century.

European settlement began with the arrival of an advance party of the New Zealand Company on the ship Tory, on 20 September 1839, followed by 150 settlers on the Aurora on 22 January 1840. The settlers constructed their first homes at Petone (which they called Britannia for a time) on the flat area at the mouth of the Hutt River. When that proved swampy and flood-prone they transplanted the plans, which had been drawn without regard for the hilly terrain.



This is a list of notable people who were born in Wellington or who spent a significant part of their lives living in the region
- each name (at this link) is a link to a bio and some photos


COMEDY
Raybon Kan - comedian
Steve Wrigley - comedian


DRAMA
Russell Crowe - Oscar-winning actor
Anna Paquin - Oscar-winning actress
Antonia Prebble - actress
Emmett Skilton - actor
Karl Urban - actor


FILM
Costa Botes - film-maker
Jane Campion - Oscar winning film-maker
Richard Clark - film editor
Peter Jackson - Oscar-winning film-maker
Richard Taylor - head of film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop. Multiple Oscar winner.
Fran Walsh - Oscar-winning screenwriter


MUSIC
Jemaine Clement - musician, member of Flight of the Conchords
Moana Ete - singer
Brooke Fraser - multi-platinum selling singer
Andy Kent - bass player for You Am I
Ben Lummis - singer, 2004 New Zealand Idol winner
Tina Matthews - musician (The Crocodiles), puppeteer, writer
Bret McKenzie - musician, member of Flight of the Conchords
John Psathas - composer
Eddie Rayner - musician - Crowded House, Split Enz
Frankie Stevens - entertainer, singer and judge of New Zealand Idol
Jon Toogood - singer and guitarist for the rock band Shihad
Rosita Vai - singer, 2005 New Zealand Idol winner


WRITING
Ivan Bootham - novelist, short story writer, poet and composer
Richard Curtis - movie & tv writer and director
Lauris Edmond (dec.) - poet
Patricia Grace - writer
Lloyd Jones - award winning writer
Elizabeth Knox - celebrated author
Katherine Mansfield (dec.) - writer
Christopher Pugsley - writer
Niel Wright - poet and author


VISUAL ARTS
Tom Scott - cartoonist, political commentator


BROADCASTING
John Campbell - broadcaster and news journalist
Selwyn Toogood (dec) - broadcaster
[edit] BusinessSam Morgan - founder of online auction site TradeMe
Peter Vincent - entrepreneur, founder/CEO of Vincent Aviation, NZ's only 100% Kiwi owned international airline


POLITICS & PUBLIC SERVICE
Robin Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon (dec) - barrister and jurist
Bill Hastings - lawyer, Chief Censor
Jack Marshall (dec) - former Prime Minister


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Rod Drury - technology entrepreneur
Frank Evison - geophysicist
Alan MacDiarmid (dec) - scientist
William Hayward Pickering (dec) - electrical engineer, former head of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California


SPORT
Leo Bertos - footballer
Russell Coutts - professional sailor
Simon Elliott - footballer
Chris Killen - footballer
Melissa Moon - two-time world mountain running champion
Wynton Rufer - footballer
Jonathan Sarfati - chess master and author, raised in Wellington
Ross Taylor - cricketer
Tana Umaga - former captain of the All Blacks