Parliament Buildings & Beehive, Wellington

Take a guided tour and learn about how New Zealand's government works. You'll see how laws are passed. Bills are introduced into the democratically elected House of Representatives, who then vote on them. When a Bill is passed, it then becomes an Act. New Zealand remains a constitutional monarchy, officially under the Queen, represented by the Governor General. But she usually consents to the decisions made by elected officials.

One of the building's unusual features is a complex system of earthquake-resistant buffers which support the structure. Like Japan, the country sits on top of some major fault lines, and has re-engineered many buildings to survive all but the worst quakes.

The Corruption Perceptions Index for 2011 has rated New Zealand's government as the cleanest in the world. It's very open and transparent, as any visitor will notice.

The Beehive is a Parliament office building located next to Parliament. It is shaped like, you guessed it, a beehive, and is a unique building that has seen plenty of controversy about its design. Construction on the Beehive was completed in 1982.

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The NZ Parliament House could be placed in any European city without looking bizarre. I do love this kind of architecture, but I would have appreciated more a building representing the 2 cultures sharing the Country.

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The most fascinating thing about this Italian Renaissance style building is that it looks like made of cream-coloured stone cubes, but in fact it is made of wood!

Kauri is the main timber used in this building, located opposite the now used Parliament House and the Beehive on Lambton Quay, and standing on the old seabed that was raised upwards in the 1855 earthquake. Hundreds of cubic metres of recycled timber, from demolished structures around the country, have been used for the restoration of this building to replace lost features. Other timbers used were rimu and matai. Originally the building had 22 chimneys but they were removed as earthquake risks.

Not part of the current parliamentary complex, this massive mansion-like four-storey building was designed by William Clayton and finished in 1876. At the time it was New Zealand’s largest building. Today it is the second-largest wooden building in the world (after Tôdai-ji in Nara, Japan), and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. No longer used by New Zealand's Parliament, it houses Victoria University of Wellington's Law School.

It has a visitor centre where you can get a map for a self-guided tour, and you can walk inside the building and admire the kauri walls and ceilings. You also have access to the former cabinet hall.

Open Mon – Fri 9am – 4.30pm, Sat 10am – 3pm.

Admission free.

The building is beautifully illuminated at night.

The statue in front of Old Government House shows Peter Fraser who was leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister from 1940 to 1949.

Photo 2 shows interior kauri walls.

Some people call it a shocker, some a source of national pride. But one thing is clear: Beside the Cable Car, the Beehive is Wellington’s landmark. It is said that the Scottish architect Basil Spence designed it on the back of a dinner napkin in 1964 while dining with Sir Keith Holyoake, then Prime Minister and later Governor-General. Building started in 1969, and was completed in 1981. On Wikipedia you find the sketch.

Whereas Parliament House can be visited on free tours you do not have access to the Beehive which is really a striking and unique structure.

It has a circular base, like a rotunda, and is shaped like a cone, chopped at the top. It is said that the architect had the idea of a real beehive in mind when he made the sketch.
The building is 72 metres and ten storeys high, plus has four storeys below ground. The roof is constructed from 20 tonnes of hand-welded copper. The interior design was a nightmare, as there are many asymmetrical rooms, and office furniture is not really built with such special features in mind.

The top floor houses the cabinet offices. The Prime Minister’s offices occupy the ninth and part of the eigth floor, and further down are the offices of the cabinet ministers. On the first floor is a banquet hall. In the basement are the country’s main civil defence headquarters (National Crisis Management Centre). A tunnel links the Beehive with Bowen House on the opposite side of Bowen Street. This building houses parliamentary offices.

This area is located at the northern end of Lambton Quay. Even if you only drive through Wellington, arriving by ferry, you drive past those spectacular buildings, and the one you always notice first is the so called Beehive.

Although the buildings are of very different styles somehow they form an interesting agglomeration. On one side – the one closer to the harbour – you find the fantastic Old Government Building, made of Kauri wood, which is now mainly used as the university’s school of law. On the other side of Lambton Quay, and then along Molesworth Street, sit the buildings that are now used by the Government of New Zealand, at an elevated position above the street.

The most unique building is the Beehive which houses the cabinet and the ministerial offices, so the site of the country’s executive power, a chopped cone consisting of seven segments that is made up of ten storeys inside. It is directly linked with Parliament House which was built in neo-classic style. Next in the row is the fairy-tale-like General Assembly Library, built in a mixture of Victorian and Gothic style. Thanks to the pastel colours it looks more like a moorish castle.

An additional parliamentary building is – if you stand in front of and face the Beehive – to your left, across Bowen Street. Its name is Bowen House, a simple office building, and it is linked to the Beehive by a tunnel under Bowen Street.

Some steps further up the hill and right into Aitken Street you find the Archives of New Zealand. The biggest treasure is conserved in the Constitution Room. There you find the original Treaty of Waitangi in the Maori language Te Reo. It was saved from rotting in the damp cellar of the Old Government Building in 1908. Open Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm, Sat 9am – 1pm, admission free.

This greyish building spreads rather a cold atmosphere but the row of big cabbage trees along the driveway give it a nice NZ style feeling. Watch the TV news and you see all the parliamentary reporters standing in front of those trees - if they are not chasing a minister inside the building ;-)

Parliament moved from Auckland to Wellington in 1865. On 11 December 1907 a fire destroyed all – then wooden - parliamentary buildings but the library. The ballroom and conservatory of (Old) Government House, across the road, were an interim solution until a new Parliament House was built. Parliament moved into half unfinished premises in 1918 – and the other half of the neo-classic structure was never built, due to labour and material shortages during World War I. Government architect John Campbell was the designer.

In 1991 Parliament House (and the library next door) were renovated and strengthened to make it earthquake-safe. It is said to have been New Zealand’s largest renovation project in history.

Free guided tours

Parliament House has a visitor centre which is open daily (Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm, Sat and public holidays 9.30am – 4pm, Sun 11.30am – 4pm; closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, 1 and 2 Jan, Waitangi Day/6 Feb and Good Friday).

Free guided tours start on the hour and take one hour. You must leave your bags and cameras in a storage area, so you cannot take photos of MP’s who poke their noses.

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I have really got a liking for this guy standing under a huge tree in front of the Old Government Building. I visited him several times a day, hoping to get the perfect light and the perfect photo. However, I must say: No photo is perfect. The tree influenced my efforts in not the best way, and I did not really like the results of flash photography.

This guy looks like the average Joe going to work with his briefcase, and the coat over his arm. But he was an extraordinary man, and – as you can deduct from the statue’s location – played an important role in New Zealand politics. We are talking about Peter Fraser, prime minister from 1940 to 1949. Born in Scotland, he died in Wellington in 1950, only 66 years old, one year after he had lost the election and his post.

Quite some politicians of the first century after the start of European immigration have inconvenient histories. This one is no exception. Peter Fraser came to NZ in 1911 because he could not find a job back home. He soon got into the unions and politics, played a leading part in founding the Labour Party in 1916, strongly opposed World War I, and was arrested several times for his views. He even spent one year in jail for sedition for advocating repeal of conscription.

Before becoming leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister in 1940, he was minister for health and education (from 1935).

Photo 2 shows the whole statue.

This statue in front of the Parliamentary Library features John Ballance, New Zealand’s Prime Minister from 1891 to 1893.

He was born on 27 March 1839, came to New Zealand in 1865, and died on 27 April 1893 at the age of 54.

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… is a spectacular fairy-tale-like building to the right of the Parliament building, and I just love the Moorish style of it. Looks a bit like made of sugar and icing but not kitschy at all, although the colours are cream and pinkish terracotta.

This library for the use of the members of Parliament was designed by Thomas Turnbull and completed in modified form in 1899. It is the only parliamentary building that survived the big fire of 1907.

On photo 2 you see a detail of this outstanding building.