Dixon Street, looking towards Courtenay Place, in the heart of Te Aro

Te Aro is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district, and covers the mostly flat area of city between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace at the base of Mount Victoria. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 1064 KB) Dixon Street looking across Taranaki Street to Courtenay Place I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2048x1536, 1064 KB) Dixon Street looking across Taranaki Street to Courtenay Place I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... “Suburbia” redirects here. ... Wellington city is the area of New Zealand administered by the Wellington City Council, one of several territorial authorities in the Greater Wellington region. ... The Central Business District of Sydney, Australia. ... A view of Wellington looking north-west from the top of Mount Victoria. ...

Demographics

The population of Te Aro roughly doubled between 1991 and 1996 and again between 1996 and 2001. The rapid growth rate of population in the area has become particularly evident in the last five years as apartment buildings have been erected (or converted out of former office buildings) all over the suburb. Particularly characteristic are new rooftop apartments on existing buildings. These can be attributed to the relaxation of city by-laws governing commercial building zones in the early 1990s.

Quick facts

At the 2001 census:

• There were 3,024 people usually resident in Te Aro[1].
• 16,281 people worked in Te Aro, the fourth-largest for any suburb in New Zealand, after Auckland Central, Wellington Central and Christchurch Central
• A quarter of the population were professionals.
• 15% of the businesses in Wellington City were in Te Aro, 0.9% of all the businesses in the country.
• About one in 20 Te Aro residents had no qualifications.
• 62% of Te Aro residents walked or jogged to work.
• Of the languages spoken by residents, 98.3% spoke English, 4.6% spoke French, 4.1% spoke Māori, 3.1% spoke German. Other languages were all spoken by less than 2% of those people.

(Caution: statistical areas do not always coincide with the local council's definitions of suburbs.) The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Māori or Te Reo Māori, commonly shortened to Te Reo (literally the language) is an official language of New Zealand. ...

Major ethnic groups in Te Aro

Pākehā is a Māori term generally used to describe New Zealanders of British or European ancestry, but it can also be used to refer to any non-Māori person. ... This article is about the Māori people of New Zealand. ... This article describes the archipelago in north-Western Europe. ...

Gay and lesbian community

Te Aro is the focal point of Wellington's gay and lesbian community. It is home to two gay bars, two saunas and a cruise club. During the 1990s the suburb played host to an annual Devotion Parade, part of the Devotion festival, but the festival went bankrupt and the parade has not been revived.

Entertainment district

Te Aro is New Zealand's largest entertainment district and thrives at night when the business district to the north closes down. Much of the nightlife is in the north of the suburb around Courtenay Place, Dixon Street, and lower Cuba Street. Saturdays are the biggest nights when most bars and clubs stay open to at least 3am.

Movies are a popular pastime in Te Aro, which boasts five commercial cinema complexes including the iconic Embassy Theatre, symbolic home of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy comprises three live action fantasy epic films; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). ...

Te Aro is home to several small theatres, including Circa, Bats, Downstage, and Griffin. Larger venues include The Opera House on Manners Street and the St. James Theatre on Courtenay Place. The St. ...

Waterfront

Te Papa, The Museum of New Zealand

Te Aro is a coastal suburb, and has a popular publicly accessible waterfront area that boasts the Museum of New Zealand and the Overseas Passenger Terminal, a large function venue. A new outdoor recreation area, Waitangi Park, opened in 2006. The Wellington waterfront west of Taranaki Street, including Frank Kitts Park and Civic Square, is part of Wellington Central, not Te Aro. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (993x660, 260 KB) Summary Te Papa (Our Place), The Museum of New Zealand (1 February 2005. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (993x660, 260 KB) Summary Te Papa (Our Place), The Museum of New Zealand (1 February 2005. ... Te Papa (Our Place), The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is the national museum of New Zealand. ... Waitangi Park showing Chaffers Dock Apartments Waitangi Park - ECO (ecological) messages abound Waitangi Park showing walk-on world map and Les Arts Sauts performance dome Waitangi Park - Emerging Wellingtonian visual artists engage in the Earth From Above exhibition Waitangi Park is a newly re-created recreation space in Te Aro... Civic Square is an open public area at the centre of Wellington, New Zealand. ...

The popular beach at Oriental Bay is five minutes' walk from the northeastern edge of Te Aro. Positively Wellington Tourism divides Te Aro into smaller areas - Courtenay Quarter, Courtenay Place, Waitangi Park - to help visitors find their way. Courtenay Quarter is one of five quarters in Wellington, New Zealand. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Te Aro. ...

Politics

As the heart of the capital city, Te Aro is a highly politicised suburb. A number of issues in Te Aro have garnered national attention. The long-proposed and much-protested Inner City Bypass has been a news story for decades.

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast has been accused of nepotism for allowing high-rise development by her husband to go ahead in the predominantly low-rise area of southern Te Aro. Kerry Prendergast is in her second term as Mayor of Wellington. ...

She has also been criticised for forcibly ejecting a group of homeless people from an out-of-the-way park. This strategy backfired when the homeless took up residence in Cuba Street, in the heart of the retail area. The homeless now have regular altercations with retailers who accuse them of being drunk. In response, the city council has announced plans to establish a 'wet house' for the homeless.^[1]

Transport

Te Aro is served by trolleybuses and buses, which have taken the place of trams. A Polish Solaris trolleybus in Landskrona, Sweden. ... This article refers to public transport vehicles running on rails. ...

The Wellington tramway system served Te Aro from 1878 to 1964, with a number of routes to other Wellington suburbs. For over two decades, Te Aro was also served by the Te Aro Extension, a railway line from the New Zealand Railways Department's old Lambton station (not to be confused with Wellington Railway Station on Bunny Street). It opened in 1893; at its peak, approximately 30 trains daily used the line, but local businesses complained of the dirt and noise of steam locomotives and the trains caused delays to traffic on important city streets. This led to the line's closure and removal in 1917. The Wellington tramway system, which existed between 1878 and 1964, was a network of tram services operating in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. ... The Te Aro Extension, also known as the Te Aro Branch, was a short branch line railway in Wellington, New Zealand. ... The New Zealand Railways Department, or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways), often known as the Railways, was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealands rail infrastructure. ... Wellington Railway Station at night Wellington Railway Station is the southern terminus of New Zealands North Island Main Trunk railway. ... One of the last mainline steam locomotives built in the UK: British Railways Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 no. ...

There are suggestions to re-extend rail services back to Courtenay Place, either as light rail or underground.

Characters

• Ben Hana is a famous homeless man who can often be found around the streets of Te Aro in a blanket and a loin cloth.
• Mark Blumsky is a former mayor and now a list MP for the National Party. Blumsky lives in Te Aro and had a notorious evening during the 2005 election campaign, which resulted in him sporting bruises and a black eye.
• Tom Beard, architecture and urban issues commentator.
• Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs, is not a Te Aro resident but is jocularly referred to as the Member for Courtenay Place. This refers to his supposed penchant for a wee dram, and to a high-profile late night argument with a taxi driver.
• Colin Martien is a notable busker who as eschewed traditional instrumentation in favour of his own distinctive, heavily distorted accapella vocal style. Usually seen wearing the headdress of a Native American chieftain.

Ben Hana, who prefers to be called Brother but is more widely known as Blanket Man as headlined by the local media is an infamous character in Wellington, New Zealand. ... Mark Blumsky Mark Blumsky QSO is a former Mayor of Wellington (1995 to 2001) and a current member of New Zealand Parliament for the National Party. ... A list MP is a Member of Parliament (MP) who is elected from a party list rather than from a geographical constituency. ... The New Zealand National Party (National or the Nats) currently forms the second-largest (in terms of seats) political party represented in the New Zealand Parliament, and thus functions as the core of the parliamentary Opposition. ... Winston Raymond Peters, PC, (born April 11, 1945) is a New Zealand politician and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, outside cabinet. ... Current New Zealand First logo New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand. ... A minister for foreign affairs, or foreign minister, is a governmental cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign nation. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... 203. ...

Neighbouring suburbs

A panorama of Wellington centred on Te Aro, taken from Kelburn. The high-rises on the left are in Wellington Central.

• Wellington Central, the city's high-rise office district, is to the north. The boundary between the two halves of the central business district is at Civic Square where the ridge to the west comes closest to the sea.
• Kelburn is on the hills to the west, accessible via The Terrace and a few streets climbing from it, such as Salamanca Road and Bolton Street, and separated from Te Aro by Victoria University's main (Kelburn) Campus.
• Aro Valley lies beneath Kelburn to the southwest, and the turn into Aro Street marks the transition from Te Aro.
• Mount Cook is the low hill south of Te Aro; it contains the National War Memorial and Carillon, visible from much of southern Te Aro. Te Aro's southern boundary runs along Webb and Buckle Streets.
• Mount Victoria, the suburb on the western slope of the hill of the same name, is divided from Te Aro by the twin roads of Kent Terrace and Cambridge Terrace. The land for these roads was initially planned to be a channel into an inner harbour at the Basin Reserve. The plans were dropped when the 1855 earthquake lifted the land by several metres.
• Oriental Bay is the capital's inner-city beach suburb, accessible from Te Aro via Oriental Parade to the northeast.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (9104x1728, 2511 KB) Summary 180 degree panorama taken from the 5th floor of the Cotton building on the Kelburn Campus of the Victoria University of Wellington. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (9104x1728, 2511 KB) Summary 180 degree panorama taken from the 5th floor of the Cotton building on the Kelburn Campus of the Victoria University of Wellington. ... Kelburn can be: Kelburn Castle, a Scottish castle. ... Victoria Universitys Kelburn Campus. ... The Aro Valley forms a small inner-city suburb of Wellington in New Zealand. ... Mt Cook is a suburb of Wellington located on the southern fringe of the central city alongside Te Aro. ... A view of Wellington looking north-west from the top of Mount Victoria. ... Oriental Bay is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. ...

Notes