Understand
The early settlers that came to Wellington in 1840 settled first in Petone and then moved up the Hutt river valley, looking for suitable land for farming. While much of the valley has now been urbanised, there are still pockets of rural land and large open spaces.
Regular flooding in Petone in the early years meant that the original Wellington settlement was relocated to its current Lambton harbour location. As a result, a lot of the Petone street names were also reallocated to the new Wellington streets. This means many Greater Wellington street addresses are not unique. As a consequence, Wellingtonians often use their addresses without a suburb, merely indicating they live in Wellington. However those living in the Hutt Valley often add the suburb or city and may not even indicate it is a Wellington region postal address.
