Lost beneath a canopy of oak and pohutukawa, between freeway off-ramps and apartment towers, this fabulously dank and atmospheric remnant dates back to the 1840s. Thousands of Wellingtonians were buried here up until 1892. They rested in peace until 1972 when the Wellington Urban Motorway was bulldozed through the middle of the boneyard. The remains of 3693 people were exhumed then reinterred in a common vault at the bottom of the cemetery.
Bolton Street Cemetery
Wellington
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Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.52 MILES
For an imaginative, interactive experience of Wellington’s social and maritime history, head to this bewitching little museum, inside an 1892 bond store…
1.22 MILES
This groundbreaking ecosanctuary is nooked into a valley in the hills about 2km west of downtown Wellington. Living wild within the fenced, predator-free…
0.34 MILES
These hilly, 25-hectare botanic gardens can be effortlessly visited via the Wellington Cable Car (nice bit of planning, eh?), although there are several…
1.66 MILES
The city's most impressive viewpoint is atop 196m-high Mt Victoria (Matairangi), east of the city centre. You can take bus 20 most of the way up, but the…
0.93 MILES
New Zealand's national museum is hard to miss, taking up a sizeable chunk of the Wellington waterfront. ‘Te Papa Tongarewa’ loosely translates as …
3.32 MILES
Academy Award–winning special-effects and props company Weta Workshop has been responsible for bringing the likes of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit,…
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0.3 MILES
New Zealand might be a young country but it has one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world and has chalked up more than its share…
0.68 MILES
Housed in the monumental old library in Civic Sq (the new library is next door), Wellington’s much-loved City Gallery does a cracking job of securing…
Nearby Wellington attractions
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New Zealand might be a young country but it has one of the oldest continuously functioning parliaments in the world and has chalked up more than its share…
0.33 MILES
Across the road from Parliament, this grand Italianate structure (1876) is the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere, although it does a…
0.34 MILES
These hilly, 25-hectare botanic gardens can be effortlessly visited via the Wellington Cable Car (nice bit of planning, eh?), although there are several…
4. Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
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At 88m long and 18m high, this modern Anglican cathedral exudes quasi-Moorish architectural vibes inside its lofty interiors. It first opened its doors in…
0.37 MILES
One of Wellington’s big-ticket attractions is the little red cable car that clanks up the slope from Lambton Quay to Kelburn. At the top are the…
0.39 MILES
Inside the Carter Observatory at the top of the Botanic Gardens, this full-dome planetarium offers space-themed multimedia shows and stargazing sessions…
7. National Library of New Zealand
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As well as being a wonderful resource for researchers, the National Library has various exhibition spaces including the Turnbull Gallery, displaying rare…
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Ngā Taonga is a vortex of NZ moving images into which you could get sucked for days. Its library holds tens of thousands of titles: feature films,…