New Zealand, being the last large landmass to be inhabited by human beings, presents phenomena reflecting the primal energy of nature. It is evident in the volcanic geothermal activities and earthquakes in New Zealand. In Wellington, it is the wind. A first-time visitor of Wellington will get flummoxed by the ferocious power of swirling wind, which often reaches gale proportions. Unlike other cities in New Zealand, Wellington has many high rise buildings to mark its skyscrapers, like that of Auckland and Christchurch. But one visitor would not get impressed by its lofty buildings but by the wind which confronts her as an intruder into its ‘pristine’ fiefdom. Even after 750 years of human intervention, nature’s primeval glory is evident in the whistling winds of Wellington. During spring, the screeching wind reaches its crescendo in Wellington. Though I visited Wellington on a chilly winter day, the wind was powerful enough to justify the city’s claim as the windiest metropolis in the world. At Mount Victoria, one of the windiest parts of the city, gusty wind was howling past the visitors trying to off balance them unexpectedly, and to humble them to the humongous fury of nature. The winds, which are known as roaring forties, that come from
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