Experience the peace and charm of the past in our fully restored Victorian Bed and Breakfast, one of Nelson's original family homes. Situated beside the beautiful Maitai River and only minutes' walk from central Nelson, Sussex House has retained all the original character and romantic ambience of the era. Join us now for a tour of our delightful Nelson, New Zealand Bed and Breakfast.
The guests living room is decorated and furnished in keeping with its era. A warm and beautiful room that features honey coloured rimu polished floors and period furniture, it is a delightful place to relax in the evenings. Enjoy also, the peace and tranquillity of this room while clearing your e-mail at our guest internet station. A piano and a stereo, complete with a great variety of CD's is also there for your use.
Breakfast is served in the main dining room. Enjoy the open French doors looking out over the river during the summer months, or a blazing fire on cold winter mornings. We offer a continental style breakfast including fresh fruit juices, fresh and preserved fruit, home-made yoghurt, muffins, crumpets, French pastries, cheeses, cereals and a variety of bread. This is accompanied by fresh brewed coffee or tea (Indian or herbal).
Vikki is a very talented sculptress (David wrote this!) - you will be able to see her sculptures scattered around the house. David is a geographer by training but had a language school during our "séjour" in New Caledonia.
We have three children scattered around the world: one daughter moves between Moscow and London, another daughter lives in Paris and our son is a "fonctionnaire" in the French Civil Service in New Caledonia.
Before leaving New Caledonia, we decided to settle in the most hospitable, beautiful and climatically acceptable town we had encountered in our travels - Nelson. We invite you to experience this lovely city through our Bed & Breakfast.
Experience the feeling of treetop living on the top verandahs. Look out over the river, down into our English garden or across the river towards Queen's Gardens. It's difficult to believe you are in the town centre. Both the Strauss and Beethoven Rooms have direct access to the verandahs, with the Mozart, Brahms and Schubert Rooms having access from the upstairs hallway. There is ample seating for guests. The sunsets are magnificent from here, enjoy them with a bottle of our renowned Nelson wines!The view from here is across the river, with bird and fish wildlife, towards the Queen's Gardens - an attractive botanical garden, started in the 19th century.
Your Hosts: Victoria (Vikki) and David Los and Riley (the cat)Our Address: 238 Bridge Street, Nelson, New Zealand. Telephone: (+64)-03-548-9972. Mobile: (+64)-027-478-4846 Fax: (+64)-03-548-9975 Freephone, (New Zealand only): 0800-86-86-87 Email Us: reservations@sussex.co.nz
http://sussex.co.nz/
From Wikipedia
Wellington (unofficially Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke in Māori) is the capital of New Zealand, the country's second largest urban area and the most populous national capital in Oceania. It is in the Wellington region at the southern tip of the North Island, near the geographical centre of the country.
Like many cities, Wellington's urban area extends well beyond the boundaries of a single local authority. Greater Wellington or the Wellington Region means the entire urban area, plus the rural parts of the cities and the Kapiti Coast, and across the Rimutaka Range to the Wairarapa.
Name
Wellington was named in honour of 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 Māori, Wellington goes by three names. Te Whanganui-a-Tara refers to Wellington Harbour and means "the great harbour of Tara". Pōneke 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 Ngāti Pōneke). Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, meaning The Head of the Fish of Māui (often shortened to Te Upoko-o-te-Ika), is a more traditional name, derived from the legend in which the North Island was fished up by the demigod Māui Tikitiki-a-Taranga).
Importance
Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, housing Parliament and the head offices of all government ministries and departments, plus the bulk of the foreign diplomatic missions based in New Zealand.
Wellington's compact city centre supports an arts scene, café culture and nightlife much larger than most cities of a similar size. It is a centre of New Zealand's film and theatre industry. Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the biennial International Festival of the Arts are all sited there.
Wellington has the 12th best quality of living in the world, according to a 2006 study by consulting company Mercer. Of cities with English as the primary language, Wellington ranked fourth.1
Settlement
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 without regard for a more hilly terrain.
Earthquakes
Wellington from Mount Victoria.
Wellington suffered serious damage in a series of earthquakes in 1848 and from another earthquake in 1855. The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake occurred on a fault line to the north and east of Wellington. It ranks as probably the most powerful earthquake in recorded New Zealand history, with an estimated magnitude of at least 8.2 on the Richter scale. It caused vertical movements of two to three metres over a large area, including raising an area of land out of the harbour and turning it into a tidal swamp. Much of this land was subsequently reclaimed and is now part of Wellington's central business district. For this reason the street named Lambton Quay now runs 100 to 200 metres from the harbour. Plaques set into the footpath along Lambton Quay mark the shoreline in 1840 and thus indicate the extent of the uplift and of subsequent reclamation.
The area has high seismic activity even by New Zealand standards, with a major fault line running through the centre of the city, and several others nearby. Several hundred more minor fault lines have been identified within the urban area. The inhabitants, particularly those in high-rise buildings, typically notice several earthquakes every year. For many years after the 1855 earthquake, the majority of buildings constructed in Wellington were made entirely from wood. The 1996-restored Government Buildings, near Parliament and the Railway Station, are the largest wooden office building in the Southern Hemisphere. While masonry and structural steel have subsequently been used in building construction, especially for office buildings, timber framing remains the primary structural component of almost all residential construction. Residents also place their hopes of survival in good building regulations, which gradually became more stringent in the course of the twentieth century.
New Zealand's capital
In 1865, Wellington became the capital of New Zealand, replacing Auckland, where William Hobson had established his capital in 1841. Parliament first sat in Wellington on 7 July 1862, but the city did not become the official capital for some time. In November 1863 the Premier Alfred Domett moved a resolution before Parliament (in Auckland) that "... it has become necessary that the seat of government ... should be transferred to some suitable locality in Cook Strait." Apparently there was concern that the southern regions, where the gold fields were located, would form a separate colony. Commissioners from Australia (chosen for their neutral status) pronounced the opinion that Wellington was suitable because of its harbour and central location. Parliament officially sat in Wellington for the first time on 26 July 1865. The population of Wellington was then 4,900.
Wellington is the seat of New Zealand's highest court, the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The historic former High Court building is to be enlarged and restored for the court's use.
Location and geography
Satellite photo of the Wellington conurbation: (1) Wellington; (2) Lower Hutt; (3) Upper Hutt; (4) Porirua.
Wellington stands at the south-western tip of the North Island on Cook Strait, the passage that separates the North and South Islands. On a clear day the snowcapped Kaikoura Ranges are visible to the south across the strait. To the north stretch the golden beaches of the Kapiti Coast. On the east the Rimutaka Range divides Wellington from the broad plains of the Wairarapa, a wine region of national acclaim.
Wellington is the southernmost national capital city in the world, with a latitude of about 41°S. It is more densely populated than most other settlements in New Zealand, due to the small amount of building space available between the harbour and the surrounding hills. Wellington has very few suitable areas in which to expand and this has resulted in the development of the surrounding cities in the greater urban area. Because of its location in the roaring forties latitudes and its exposure to omnipresent winds coming through Cook Strait, the city is known to Kiwis as "Windy Wellington".
More than most cities, life in Wellington is dominated by its central business district (CBD). Approximately 62,000 people work in the CBD, only 4,000 fewer than work in Auckland's CBD, despite that city having three times Wellington's population. Wellington's cultural and nightlife venues concentrate in Courtenay Place and surroundings located in the southern part of the CBD, making the inner city suburb of Te Aro the largest entertainment destination in New Zealand.
Wellington has the highest average income of a main urban area in New Zealand and the highest percentage of people with tertiary qualifications.
Te Papa ("Our Place"), the Museum of New Zealand.
Wellington has a reputation for its picturesque natural harbour and green hillsides adorned with tiered suburbs of colonial villas. The CBD is sited close to Lambton Harbour, an arm of Wellington Harbour. Wellington Harbour lies along an active geological fault, which is clearly evident on its straight western coast. The land to the west of this rises abruptly, meaning that many of Wellington's suburbs sit high above the centre of the city.
There is a network of bush walks and reserves maintained by the Wellington City Council and local volunteers. The Wellington region has 500 square kilometres of regional parks and forests.
In the east is the Miramar Peninsula, connected to the rest of the city by a low-lying isthmus at Rongotai, the site of Wellington International Airport. The narrow entrance to Wellington is directly to the east of the Miramar Peninsula, and contains the dangerous shallows of Barrett Reef, where many ships have been wrecked (most famously the inter-island ferry Wahine in 1968).
On the hill west of the city centre are Victoria University and Wellington Botanic Garden. Both can be reached by a funicular railway, the Wellington Cable Car.
Wellington Harbour has three islands: Matiu/Somes Island, Makaro/Ward Island and Mokopuna. Only Matiu/Somes Island is large enough for settlement. It has been used as a quarantine station for people and animals and as an internment camp during the First and Second World Wars. It is now a conservation island, providing refuge for endangered species, much like Kapiti Island further up the coast. There is access during daylight hours by the Dominion Post Ferry.
The city averages 2025 hours (or about 84 days) of sunshine per year