The other half is worth saying too: 210,000 people, an offer that is not a metropolis's, and wind as a character in the trip. If that does not put you off, it is one of the most rewarding cities in the Pacific.
01 Everything on foot, most of it uphill
The centre runs along two axes parallel to the water. Lambton Quay holds the offices and the shops; Cuba Street, eight minutes to the south, holds the cafés, the bars, the second-hand shops and the nightlife, in low buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Between those axes and the sea lies the waterfront, pedestrian and continuous: the marina, converted wharves, the national museum and, carrying on east, the urban beaches of Oriental Bay.
The only real difficulty is the gradient. The hill suburbs are reached by public stairways and steep streets, and there are stretches where the pavement is a handrail. Shoes with grip, and do not trust straight-line distances on the map.
02 A free national museum
Te Papa Tongarewa opened in February 1998 on the waterfront, covers 36,000 square metres, holds six floors of exhibitions and charges nothing for general admission. It takes over a million visitors a year and is the best place in the country to grasp New Zealand's natural and cultural history in one go.
The building is also a lesson in the city. It stands on land reclaimed from the harbour, the ground was compacted by dropping more than fifty thousand weights of up to thirty tonnes from thirty metres up, and the whole thing sits on base isolators.
With that and a couple of hours on the street you have a full rainy day solved, which in this city is always worth having planned.
03 The forest starts at the funicular stop
A funicular runs from Lambton Quay, climbing 120 metres over 609 metres of track, and has been working since 1902. At the top is the botanic garden, with its tree ferns, and from there you can walk back down to the centre in half an hour.
The green belt set aside in 1840 rings the city with some 425 hectares of bush and tracks. The Mount Victoria lookout, at 196 metres, is walkable from the centre and gives a full 360-degree turn over the harbour, the airport isthmus and the Miramar Peninsula.
And to the west lies Zealandia: 225 hectares of valley closed off by a predator-proof fence, home to kiwi, kākā, tīeke and tuatara. The night visit is the one that pays off, because kiwi and tuatara are nocturnal.
04 The practical part
Stay in the centre or in Te Aro: in a city this compact, sleeping far out does not pay. The bus network covers the slopes and the hill suburbs well, and for everything else the best transport is your legs.
Book the sanctuary's night visit ahead and always carry a windproof layer, even in January. If you plan to cross to the South Island by ferry, leave a day of slack: heavy weather cancels it.
And treat the weather as a variable, not as a backdrop. The city is built for that: there are enough museums, cafés and bars for a day of strong wind not to be a day lost.
05 How to build three days
Day one, the flat city: Lambton Quay and the 1840 shoreline plaques, Cuba Street for lunch, the waterfront and Te Papa in the afternoon.
Day two, the high city: funicular, botanic garden, walk back down to the centre, and in the afternoon Mount Victoria to see where the city's shape comes from. If the day turns windy, swap the lookout for more museum.
Day three, the forest: a morning or a night at Zealandia and, with time left over, a stretch of the green belt or the short harbour ferry. With one more night, cross Cook Strait and come back: the crossing is among the country's best.
