Wellington = San Francisco

During our travels, we heard a lot of things about Wellington: how it is rich with culture, how it is a beautiful city, how much better it is than Auckland.  All these things are quite true.  There was one other description that is hinted at in this post's title: the comparison of Wellington to San Francisco.  Considering we stopped in the Bay Area on our way over here (and the fact that I lived there for a summer), we feel it is out duty to settle once and for all the age old question: how similar is Wellington to San Francisco?

Let's start with the weather.  San Francisco is often warm and sunny with little to no humidity.  However, it is better known by the Mark Twain description: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  It's true that the city, surrounded on three sides by water, is subject to cool rain, gusts of wind, and heavy fog, but it's evident that Mr. Twain never lived in the North East or the northern Mid West from December to February.  Wellington is similar in that is subject to crappy weather in the summer time, plagued with clouds and rain that are about as unpredictable as the San Francisco fog, though there is swimming through such dense fog here.  When there are clear skies, both cities enjoy similar, comfortable weather.

How about structure?  Well both cities are major sea ports, with shipping equipment and docks lining the waterfront.  That being said, there isn't a residential beach to speak too enthusiastically about in either place.  They both lie near or on major fault lines, meaning the threat for earthquakes is relatively present and therefore, precautions are taken during construction.  This also accounts for the hills on which the city is situated, although Wellington's hills are not quite as drastic (from what we've seen) as the hills in San Fran, such as Lombard Street.  Both cities have webs of cables and wires hanging in the air over the street that allow buses to connect to and run off the electricity.  Seeing this, along with Wellington's famous cable car, gave us the eerie feeling that we had in fact returned to the states.

Of course, there are differences: the culture, the size, the people, etc.  Instead of AT&T Park for baseball (home of the Giants) and Candlestick Park for American football (home of the NFL 49ers), Wellington has Westpac Stadium and TSB Bank Arena, housing a variety of sports from Rugby (Wellington Hurricanes) to football (soccer for all you Americans, Wellington Phoenix) to cricket (which I have learned and now understand).  But the similarities are amazingly present (I mean, isn't it comforting to know that corporate sponsorship is global?)  Even the Mount Victoria, situated to Wellington City Center's east, although not separated by water, is basically Wellington's Oakland, dotted with houses all the way up to the very tip.  We took a trip to the top of Mt. Victoria and learned a few fun facts, one of which was that the airport, situated between Evans Bay and Lyall Bay, sits on reclaimed land from an earthquake.  Crazy.