Wellington - Mount Victoria

Mount Victoria (196m), immediately east of the city center, is the best-known and also the windiest of Wellington's viewpoints. A narrow winding road, signposted 'Lookout', runs up from Oriental Bay to the Byrd Memorial below the viewing platform. From the terrace on the summit there is a magnificent panorama of the broad city, the harbor, Cook Strait, Hutt Valley and Kelburn Park with the university buildings. The Byrd Memorial commemorates the American aviator Richard Byrd, who in 1929 made the first flight over the South Pole from his base in New Zealand.