What is the capital of New Zealand?

Wellington replaced Auckland as capital in 1865 because the colony's centre of gravity had shifted. Settlement and gold had drawn population south, and South Island politicians objected to a government sitting at the far northern end of the country; a commission of Australian officials was invited to choose a more central site to keep the decision impartial, and it recommended the harbour at the bottom of the North Island beside Cook Strait. The city is squeezed between that harbour and steep hills, so it has always been compact, with much of the central business district standing on land reclaimed from the sea. It sits on a major fault and is exposed to winds funnelled through the strait, both of which shape its architecture and its reputation. Parliament's modernist executive wing, universally known as the Beehive, is one of the country's most recognisable buildings.

Parliament sits in Wellington, but the country's largest population centre is several hundred kilometres to the north.