Saturday 10th March 2007. Wellington. New Zealand.

I am full of useless facts...I wonder how many people know that today is Osama bin Laden's 50th birthday?

Breakfast this morning is at Bing's Diner in Courtenay Place.

Every day I discover something new in this fascinating little city...

I am staying at present on Kent Terrace which along with Cambridge Terrace was originally planned as parallel canals leading to a ship basin.

However the terraces were built as roads after the 1855 earthquake raised the land and drained an extensive marsh. The ship basin went on to become the Basin Reserve cricket ground.

Each morning I see the statue of HM Queen Victoria which stands at the north end of the terraces. It was the first statue to be owned by Wellington City Council and was unveiled in 1905 (four years after the Queen's death) to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee of 1897.

Alfred Drury's statue originally stood in Post Office Square near the entrance to Queen's Wharf but was moved to its present location six years later as it had become a traffic hazard.

The colourful Bucket Fountain in Cuba Mall which I have passed by and enjoyed frequently since coming to Wellington was designed by the architect Graham Allardice to commemorate Wellington City Council's development of the first pedestrian mall in New Zealand. It was meant to have a short life span but protest surrounded proposals to remove it and it remains a well loved fixture of Wellington today.


Today I learned more about the architect of Old St Paul's which lays claim to being the finest European timber church in New Zealand. I learned that the Reverend Frederick Thatcher was a true renaissance man being not only a clergyman and architect, but a soldier and a Secretary to Governor Grey.

Whilst proposals milled around for almost one hundred years regarding the building of New St Paul's the actual design was chosen in 1937 and it was the work of the Christchurch architect Cecil Wood. The war though delayed construction which did not start until 1956 with the final stage of the building (the work of Sir Miles Warren) completed in 1998-99.

The history behind the controversial Beehive is interesting. The original Parliament Buildings burnt down in 1907 with the present Parliament begun in 1912 and completed in 1922. With only one wing ever built there grew a need for more space and much to the chagrin of home-grown architects the 1964 Beehive design is the work of the British architect Sir Basil Spence (the architect of Coventry Cathedral). It was completed in 1981.

All of this leads me nicely into my day at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea housed in the second oldest structure on the waterfront which opened in January 1892 (on reclaimed land) as a bond store and head office for the Wellington Harbour Board. This building is the work of the English architect Frederick de Jersey Clere.

The museum traces the history of not only Wellington but of the infant New Zealand. You see how the Great Depression was a major event (arguably more so in New Zealand's case) in shaping the national consciousness.

New Zealand had found its sense of nationhood on the bloody slopes of Gallipoli in 1915 but it was the depression and the behaviour attributed to Gordon Coates, the Minister of Public Works, that shattered the sense of confidence kiwi's had about New Zealand as a special place without the inequalities of Europe.

In shades of Marie Antoinette, Coates is reputed to have told a deputation of unemployed workers who visited him in parliament in May 1932 to seek greater government assistance with the crisis to "Send them to the Basin reserve to eat grass".

There is no evidence he ever spoke these words but when the deputation returned to Parliament Gardens news of his lack of concern spread like wild-fire and the mood turned ugly. Following the riot in the city, physical repairs were quickly enacted but not so the political scars.

For New Zealand the twentieth century presented the rise of indigenous rights, mass transit, global communications...no longer was she isolated and to give her credit the nation embraced modernism and led many of the changes in architecture, design, the arts and politics.

New Zealand was now a player (independent from the Mother Country from 1947) on the world stage, even if at times she did not want to be. Involvement in World War II as part of an Empire was one thing; but Korea as part of an American led pro-nuclear, anti-communist stance?

But social changes were many and varied. After all this was the country that first gave women the vote in 1893 (although they could not stand for parliament until 1919). Wellington had been the first city in the southern hemisphere to light its streets with electricity in 1899 and on New Years Day 1901 New Zealand had become the first nation in the world to establish universal penny post.

Yet we need to set all this in context. New Zealand was the Britain of the South Seas. It was a small nation protected by the greatest Empire the world had ever known...it could afford to experiment.

And many of these experiments were borne out of necessity rather than choice. The Secondary Schools Act of 1903 which introduced free places or government grants was not simply a timely reform to offer equal opportunity of access (urban secondary schools had become the preserve of the wealthy who could afford the fees); the desire to have more children attend secondary school was also borne out of the need to fill the increasing number of white collar jobs.

In the years to come Kiwi's would wrestle with the rest of the world over Vietnam and the cold war nuclear debate. New Zealand in the post-war, independent era faced change often head-on.

In 1967 the laws banning the opening of public houses after 6pm were abolished. Over night women were drinking in pubs and the preserve of the man was now serving food. Older kiwi's felt life was changing too fast.

Giving women the vote had been one thing, but it took time before they got to that next parliamentary stage.

Here we were in a New Zealand that was facing massive social change. After the anti-Vietnam protests, the 1970's brought campaigns for Maori rights. Then there was the outrage of Carmen, the transexual Queen of Wellington's nightlife who stood for City Mayor in 1977 on a platform of legalised prostitution, decriminalised homosexuality, nudity on some beaches and sex education in schools from age 14...New Zealand was outraged...but Carmen still polled 1686 votes and one supporter was the Governor-General and former Prime Minister's wife Lady Holyoake.

1979 brought the Reclaim the Night marches when women stood up (as they have been in recent days here in New Zealand) to campaign against violence and rape. However one of the most bitter social disputes came with the 1981 Springbok tour which led to a wave of anti-apartheid protests, many of which were violent. In a similar vain to Thatcher's miner's strike in Britain, the country was split.

New Zealand then took on the perceived wisdom of the cold war Western World with Wellington joining Christchurch, Lyttelton and Devonport as a nuclear free zone in 1982.

Yet New Zealand relishes its role as a world leader. The 1990's saw the beginnings of bringing back birds and native flora and fauna to re-establish Wellington as a natural city through the rejuvenation of native bush.

By 1993 the country had its first viable commercial wind turbine, the Brooklyn and in 1996 Wellington took a very early lead in global communications laying fibre optic cables throughout the downtown business district. A Knowledge City, Wellington City Council with its City Net had infact been one of only two such internet hubs outside the USA at the time.

The New Zealand of today can be proud of its harmonious bi-racial society.

As I move through the museum I overhear an interesting conversation between two 50-something Kiwi's who are questioning Maori rights to have sold land to the Crown as far back as 1840..."they were a transient race who make you question the claims they are making today. They didn't stay anywhere and so they owned nothing. We gave them stability"...an interesting take on history one presumes.

Wellington is built around one of the largest and most scenic deep water harbours in the world and so its history is linked to the sea.

The highlight of this part of the museum for me was the chance to sit in the Captain's Cabin of the Te Anau a 1652 tonne passenger-cargo vessel employed by the Union Steamship Company in service between New Zealand and Australia. The vessel also served on the coastal trade route until it was laid up in 1921, coming to a grim end when it sank in 1924 at Wanganui.

Oh yes...like so many of the Union Steamship Company vessels it was built by dear old William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton.

The maritime history of Wellington is bound up by two disasters. The Penguin was an inter-island steamer that was also born in Scotland, the work of T.B. Seath & Company in Glasgow in 1864. Built of iron she had a reputation for speed and reliability.

From 1875 she was bought and sold a few times until the New Zealand Union Steamship Company bought her in Scotland in 1879.

Over the years she served on several routes until 1895 when she started regular sailings between Wellington and Lyttelton. But on the evening of February 12th 1909 she was to leave Picton with 64 passengers and 41 crew onboard. Entering the Cook Strait the weather began to worsen. By the time she was halfway through the Strait the sky had turned grey. A south-east wind met her as she entered the Sounds. Such weather though is not uncommon in this unpredictable stretch of water.

With limited visibility Captain Naylor set an outside course in order to keep well clear of the rocky coast. Whilst searching for the harbour entrance at 9.45pm he heard a grating noise. The Penguin had struck Thoms Rock on its starboard side.

She started taking on water fast and it soon became clear she was sinking. The Penguin was well equipped with enough boats and rafts to accommodate all onboard. The boats were lowered, this after all was a vessel that exceeded government safety requirements.

But with the weather so fierce the launching of the lifeboats proved extremely difficult. The old maritime adage of 'women and children first' was applied and many took to the first boat. Sadly this was struck from below by the sea and capsized. The weather conditions led to other lifeboats also capsizing. Three of the five lifeboats did reach shore but only a few survivors remained onboard.

As is always the case the survival stories are miraculous. A Mrs Hannam (a steerage passenger) travelling with her husband and four children survived along with a young boy by clinging to one of the rower's seats of an upturned lifeboat. Eventually washed ashore and still underneath the boat they were found by another survivor and taken to a nearby farmers home for help.

Two life rafts that were launched were overturned but the occupants managed to reach the shore without further casualty.Just a short time after the ship had been evacuated the cold water reached the engines and the boilers burst sending the Penguin to the seabed. Fortunately the rafts were far enough away to avoid being dragged down.

Captain Naylor, in true maritime tradition was the last to leave his ship. He was swept ashore clutching a piece of wreckage.

When they reached the shore some survivors collapsed in the scrub and tried to keep warm whilst the stronger survivors set off for a nearby farm. Farmer McMenamin did his very best for them and also sent men along the coast to search for more survivors. Only six others were found.

In the following days 61 bodies were discovered along the coastline. The inquest found the cause of the wreck to be an exceptionally strong flood tide but the Court of Inquiry also suspended Captain Naylor's Captain's Certificate for a year.

This remains the worst shipwreck in Wellington's history with a total of 75 lives lost. The event though confirmed the need for the Karori Rock Light to prevent such a disaster happening again.

Yet disaster came again to Wellington on April 10th 1968 when the Union Steam Ship Company ferry Wahine (8948 tonnes that had entered service in August 1966)foundered in the harbour with the loss of 51 lives.

After its overnight voyage from Lyttelton the Wahine encountered a violent southerly storm with winds gusting at over 100mph. She entered Wellington Harbour at just after 0600 hours and just before her radar went out. She unexpectedly sheered off course to port and failed to repond to her controls.

As a result the Captain decided to turn the ship around in an attempt to put back out to open sea. But with nil visibility and huge swells the ship was moved back and forth in the raging storm for around half an hour.

Her stern then struck the southernmost rocks of Barrett Reef causing the loss of her starboard propeller and shaft. Shortly afterwards the port engine also failed. The Wahine began drifting slowly without power, dragging her anchors until she finally reached a position close to Steeple Rock at around 1100 hours.

Several vessels made attempts to reach her including the Union Steamship Company tug Tapuhi and the harbour pilot launch Tiakina but the storm was to drive them back.

When conditions improved slightly Tapuhi did manage to get a line to the stricken ship but it parted under the strain.

Around 1215 the Deputy Harbour Master managed to board the Wahine from the pilot launch. She was by now listing to starboard and within another half hour that list had increased to about 25 degrees with the ship becoming more unstable.

Around 1320 under the influence of a premature ebb (Outward) tide she swung to port and on to the weather. The opportunity was seized to abandon ship from the leeward side (which was sheltered). A request went out for vessels to assist in picking up survivors as the wind had now lessened in intensity. So a rescue operation began.

Although the port side lifeboats could not be launched because of the list all the starboard lifeboats were launched along with a number of inflatable liferafts. The first of the lifeboats though capsized in heavy seas as did some of the liferafts with their occupants thrown into the water near the Wahine. Many were carried by the tide to the rocky eastern shore where there were fewer rescuers to pull people from the surf. Most of those who died perished on that side of the harbour. Yet 223 people came ashore to safety there (including 20 from rescue craft). Another 500 or so survivors were landed by rescue craft at Seatoun or at the Inter Island Ferry Wharf in Wellington.

Sometime after 1400 when everyone onboard had left the ship the Wahine heeled over and came to rest on her side on the seabed in 38 feet of water. Though the ship was a total loss plans were immediately enacted for salvage and removal of the wreck (which lying close to the main shipping channel threatened commercial interests). A southerly storm the following year broke the hull into three sections but it was 1973 before the salvage work was complete.

The museum show an excellent film of the day disaster struck.

I will be making this same journey by sea next Wednesday...let's hope the weather is kind.

Lunch was at Masala on Allen Street.

Tonight I am off to the Opera House to see Menopause the Musical with Gretchen. One of two Edwardian theatres in the city, the Opera House has a fine decorative interior and was completed in 1912 to the design of the Melbourne architect William Pitt. Previously known as the Grand Opera House the building had to be saved from demolition in 1977.

The show was terrific. Celebrating women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or who have survived The Change this show was set (as this musical always is) locally. We are in Kirkcaldie and Stains lingerie sale with four very different women who have nothing in common except hot flushes, night sweats, memory loss, chocolate binges, not enough sex, too much sex etc etc etc.

Tonight I dine after the show at Istana Malaysia on Allen Street where I was served the biggest expresso ever (it was like a bucket)...i'll be awake for weeks!!

Late night Wellington is not pleasant. The area around Courtenay Place is very threatening. This is boy-racer heaven and the street is thronged with drunks in all shapes and sizes. The atmosphere is not pleasant. This is neither Times Square nor Picadilly Circus...it is more like a sports stadium at a grudge match.