by Emily Mayrand
I must begin this with the confession that I have (sadly) never been to Wellington.
My first real introduction to the city was in watching the vampire-comedy What We Do In The Shadows by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement (in advance of bingeing their television spinoff of the film) in the early days of the pandemic. The film made the most out of the city as I got to wander Cuba Street and the harbour front with Viago, Vlad, and Deacon (at night of course, since this was a vampire movie). This was at a time when New Zealand appeared to be on everyone’s mind. Throughout the early days of the pandemic many of the news reports I saw compared any given Western country’s situation to New Zealand, where they appeared to have a handle on the health crisis that no one else did. This, combined with a wish for an escape from the same four walls I’d been staring at for months, led me to settle on Wellington as my city of study. I wanted to get as far as possible from where I was (at least mentally), so the other side of the planet felt like the place to go!
Though I have not been to Wellington, I do feel a sense of camaraderie as I come from its Commonwealth cousin of Ottawa, Canada. Given this surface level affinity regarding our histories as capital cities in former colonies, I was curious to discover all I could about the city.
What became clear through my research is that geography has been and continues to be one of the driving forces of its development. I explore the challenge posed by earthquakes in my report “Wellington: The City Under Threat – Natural Disasters.” The other element, no pun intended, at play from the earliest days was the combined forces of colonialism and capitalism, notably through the work of the New Zealand Company, which I discuss in my report “Wellington: The City as Ordered Universe.” Lastly, I turned to what first drew my interest and considered the role of tourism and urban branding, examining how New Zealand has worked to pique the interest of wanderers such as myself to pack up and visit for over a century, which can be found in my report “Wellington: Tourism and Urban Branding.”
Though similar in some ways to my hometown of Ottawa, Wellington is entirely unique, and I look forward to the day when I can board a plane and visit this city which now feels so familiar. Kia ora! Cheers!
