Where houses have their own cable cars

Luxury in fair form triumphs here: anyone who lives in the elegant but steep hills of New Zealand’s capital needs toned calves. Or your cable car.

ShFor us to be able to bear this possibility, money alone is not enough. Here, foresight literally costs sweat. Nestled in the highlands of New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, surrounded by lush greenery, the picturesque homes front a paradisiacal Pacific bay – and on such steep hills, you’ve got to have strong calves. In the best locations, such as around Oriental Bay, direct street access or even a parking space in front of the front door is not a given. If you want to transport a box of wine or even a new sofa into your home, you will often have to climb 30 meters of stairs with a 40 percent incline. Go beyond the neighbor’s balcony, which you usually like to look at.

But the need to climb is the mother of invention, and Wellington, with a population of just 213,000, has become the unofficial capital of cable cars. The more than 120-year-old specimen has been transporting tourists from the shopping street to the city’s high-altitude botanical garden for decades. In miniature, vehicles also make their way through residential areas. Not as part of local public transportation, but as a private residential luxury.