Street Smart: A series about the places we live, work and play

Here’s a question for you: where is Wellington’s eastern most street?  

Somewhere in Seatoun, surely? Maybe Roseneath? Or is it further south along the coast perhaps? 

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. 

The answer is actually the eastern end of Takapu Road in Tawa. 

Wellington City Council looks after more than 700km of streets across the capital, and each one has its own unique characteristics and history. 

We’re highlighting some of these in Street Smart, a series that showcases interesting facts and figures about the spaces where we live, work and play.  

So along with the eastern most, we’ve found the widest, highest and busiest streets in the capital (answers in this story), along with plenty of other snippets. 

But streets are much more than just facts and figures - they’re also a rich source of colourful local stories. 

We’ve gone back in time, looking at how our streets have changed since pre-European ara (paths), and we’ve gone ahead into the future, where our streets will feature more trees and birds, more art, more bikes and scooters, and a lot more people. 

The series also covers: names you may be mispronouncing; streets with epic views; how we name our streets; and interesting street names explained.
 
We all have strong connections to the streets in which we were born, once lived, or live still. Other streets we visit, walk past or work on.  

Wellington City Council looks after more than 700km of streets across the capital, and each one has its own unique story. Check out Our Wellington and our social media channels for more articles, videos and interesting snippets.