The only New Zealand city where "do I need a car?" has an interesting answer. Four rail lines, a cable car, a harbour ferry, and a walkable centre.
Converting your licence, buying a car, a warrant of fitness and registration are all in Driving & licences. This chapter is about moving around Wellington specifically.
Probably not for work. Probably yes for weekends.
This is the answer and it holds for most clinicians here. If you live in an inner suburb or on a rail line, getting to work without a car is straightforward and often faster than driving. Plenty of Wellington staff don’t own one.
But the things people move to Wellington for — the south coast in a swell, a trailhead in the Remutakas, Martinborough on a Saturday, the ferry terminal at seven in the morning — mostly need a vehicle. Many households here run one car between two adults rather than none or two.
- You live in Newtown, Mount Cook, Mount Victoria, Aro Valley or Te Aro.
- You work at the regional hospital and are happy to walk or cycle.
- You’re on a rail line and your shifts fit the timetable.
- You’re willing to rent or borrow for the occasional weekend trip.
- You work nights, and the timetable thins out when you finish.
- You live in Karori, Brooklyn, Miramar or anywhere hilly off a main route.
- You have children, sports bags and a school run to manage.
- Weekends in the Wairarapa, the coast or the ranges are the point of moving.
Night shifts are the deciding factor for most people. Services run late but thin considerably after midnight, and a 3am finish isn’t a public transport journey. If your roster includes nights, plan for a car, a taxi budget, or a suburb you can walk home from. It’s the thing new arrivals most often get wrong.
Six ways around a small city
Wellington has more transport options than anywhere else in the country, mostly because the geography left no room to build motorways through it.
- Walking
- The most Wellington answer. The CBD is about two kilometres end to end, and Newtown to the city is a twenty-five minute walk along a flat road. Invest in a proper coat rather than an umbrella — the wind destroys them within a fortnight, and locals find them mildly funny.
- Trains
- Four suburban lines converge on Wellington Station at the north end of the CBD — the best commuter rail network in New Zealand, and the reason the valley and northern suburbs are viable. Frequent at peak, sparser off-peak. Check the timetable against your actual roster, not the advertised frequency.
- Buses
- The network that reaches the hills. Metlink runs the whole region, and the routes through Newtown and the hospital are among the busiest in the city. Reliability has been a live public complaint for years — locals allow more time than the app suggests.
- The cable car
- Everyday commuter infrastructure as well as a tourist attraction. Lambton Quay to Kelburn in five minutes, and the reason the university suburb feels close to town.
- The harbour ferry
- Queens Wharf to Days Bay and Seatoun. Slower than driving and infinitely more pleasant, and the reason some people live on the eastern bays.
- Cycling
- Improving quickly, and e-bikes have changed what the hills mean. The waterfront route is flat and good; the hill suburbs are for the committed.
The four rail lines
If you’re choosing a suburb for a car-free life, this is the map that matters.
Indicative — each line has more stops than shown. Check Metlink for the full timetable, and check it against your roster rather than the advertised peak frequency.
Parking, driving and the tunnels
- Off-street parking is a valuable amenity. Many older houses have none, and inner-suburb street parking is resident-permit and competitive. Check before you sign.
- There’s no motorway through the middle. Traffic funnels through a small number of routes, and an incident on one of them affects everything.
- The Terrace and Mount Victoria tunnels are the pinch points. Locals plan around them the way Aucklanders plan around the bridge.
- Hill driving in winter is narrow, wet and steep. Nothing dramatic, but a small car with good tyres beats a large one.
Leaving the city
Travel time from the city, to scale against each other. The airport is the outlier that makes Wellington feel small; the road north is the one that reminds you the country is long.