Wellington

Wellington really reminds me of San Francisco, although I have never been to San Francisco. It is a city of 400,000 on a bay, with much of the city build on steep hillsides. There are a lot of roads that are shockingly steep and extremely winding. The most central part is built on reclaimed land, so it is flat and pedestrian friendly. It is a pretty walkable and attractive with lots of small shops and restaurants. My guide book says it has more restaurants per person than NYC. It also has quite a centralized nightlife area, much more so than DC. Overall, the capital of NZ seems like quite a nice place to be.

May 3 Update: Now that I have been to San Francisco, I can say that the two cities are pretty different. For one thing, San Francisco is much much larger and more urban than Wellington. SF is also much more vibrant, ethnic, and diverse with it's large Chinatown, Hispanic Mission district, plus Little Italy in North Beach, Japantown, and the hippie and gay neighborhoods, to go with the modern downtown financial district. SF also has about 1000 homeless people for every one in Wellington. I have been in some big American cities (foreign ones too) and I have never seen as many homeless people, although very few ask for money. The other difference that I noticed right away is the colorful wooden Victorian homes that are so widespread in SF. I think most of Wellington was built much more recently, plus no self-respecting Kiwi man would live in a pink or powder blue house. The only thing that I was initially correct about, is that both have lots of hills and a bay that is too cold for swimming.