Wellington City Centre, NZ Live Cam

Wellington fills the webcam picture, the capital of New Zealand wrapped around a harbour at the foot of the North Island. Lambton Harbour and the waterfront lie on the left.

Much of the flat ground here did not exist two centuries ago. An earthquake in 1855 lifted the harbour bed by about a metre and a half, and the land it exposed was built on; the rest of the centre stands on fill.

The city sits at the mouth of Cook Strait, where the wind between the two islands is funnelled and squeezed. Gusts over a hundred kilometres an hour are ordinary, and by average wind speed it is the windiest capital in the world.