Project West Wind

Mākara is a locality located at the western edge of Wellington, New Zealand, close to the shore of the Tasman Sea. The suburb is named after the Mākara Stream (mā is Māori for white, kara is a kind of greywacke stone). The Wellington City Council regards the nearby Mākara Beach as a separate suburb. With winding road access from Karori or Ohariu, Mākara is a rural area with sparse development. It has attracted people who want rural living near Wellington.

Cape Terawhiti is the southwesternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand. The cape is located 16 kilometres to the west of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Ohau Point, located on the northern tip of Cape Terawhiti and, along with Perano Head on Arapaoa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, marks the narrowest part of Cook Strait. It is also the closest point in the North Island to the South Island, with West Head, at the mouth of the Tory Channel being only 28 kilometres away (this point in the South Island lies to the northwest of Cape Terawhiti). Cape Terawhiti, from which historic Terawhiti Station gets its name, came into being through a misconception of Captain Cook’s Tahitian interpreter, Tupaea. When, in 1769, Cook asked what the land in the east was, the local Maori replied simply, 'the east'. In fact Te Ra-whiti (The Rising Sun) is the general Maori term for the East Coast of the North Island. Omere is said to be the original name of Cape Terawhiti. At the southern end of Cape Terawhiti is Oteranga Bay, the termination point for the inter-island Cook Strait power cable. The proper name for the bay is Oterongo. The Maria, on its way from Lyttelton Harbour to Wellington, foundered at Cape Terawhiti on 23 July 1851, with the loss of 26 lives and 2 survivors. One of those drowned was the early Canterbury settler William Deans. Gold was found near Cape Terawhiti in 1862 and was mined for several years.

Terawhiti Station is one of New Zealand's oldest and largest sheep stations, located along the south coast of Wellington. Terawhiti Station has seen a diverse range of land uses over the past 160 years. Originally a cattle station, Terawhiti grew into one of New Zealand's largest sheep stations before returning to cattle in 1993. The station originally consisted of the upraised marine terrace at Tongue Point on Wellington's south coast and was purchased by two Wellington businessmen Samuel Revans and William Mein Smith following the sale of Crown 'waste lands'. Captain William Barnard Rhodes later bought Revans’s land at Tongue Point stocking it with shorthorn cattle. His young manager, James McMenamen (known as Terawhiti Jack), later bought the Tongue Point farm and neighbouring blocks, forming Terawhiti Station and (later) Te Kamaru Station (at Te Ika a maru Bay). Today the station is approximately 13,000 acres (53 km2) in size, running from Te Ika a Maru Bay in the north, down to Karori Stream in the south and Cape Terawhiti in the West.The area boasts a rich and varied history. Gold mining was prominent on the station during the 19th century. The first alluvial 'rush' began in the 1850s, while the more concerted effort to extract gold from Cape Terawhiti followed in the 1880s. The latter of which failed to provide an economic return. Problems arose when miners encountered the fragmented geological landforms that make up much of the Wellington region. While payable quartz veins, containing gold, would be located, these seams come to an abrupt end, making mining a fragmented, and expensive exercise. This eventually caused the demise of gold mining on Cape Terawhiti. The company to expend the most time and money into the Terawhiti goldfield was the Albion Gold Mining Company. The Albion Battery, built in 1883, is one of the last remaining remnants of the short-lived gold rush. The farm still remains in the family of James McMenamen's descendants. Wind farming is seen as a new chapter of land-use in the ongoing story of survival in this harsh landscape. Meridian Energy completed the 62 turbine Project West Wind in 2009 in Mākara over the combined project area of Terawhiti Station and Makara Farm. The energy produced by Project West Wind has a capacity of 143 MW – enough power for all the houses in Wellington City, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua.

Mākara Peak Mountain Bike Park (Māori: Mākara Maunga Pahikara) is a mountain biking and walking park in Wellington, New Zealand.

SS Penguin was a New Zealand inter-island ferry steamer that sank off the southwest coast of Wellington after striking a rock near Sinclair Head in poor weather on 12 February 1909. Penguin's sinking caused the deaths of 75 people, leaving only 30 survivors. This was New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.

Long Gully Wind Farm was a proposed wind farm in Wellington, New Zealand. Long Gully is an area adjacent to Zealandia (formerly known as the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary). The proposal involved using turbines manufactured by the New Zealand company Windflow Technology Limited. In 2008, Windflow Technology took on the overall management of the project.Windflow Technology announced in 2009 that Wellington City Council had granted resource consents for the wind farm. Two appeals against the consent were lodged and according to Windflow were resolved in principle by mid-2010.Mighty River Power (now Mercury Energy) was involved in early development of the proposal, but withdrew in 2010. In late 2010, the proposed wind farm was on hold as Windflow Technology did not want to pursue the proposal in the short-term due to low wholesale electricity prices. In 2012 a community group attempted to raise funds to begin construction.Consents for the project have now lapsed.

Karori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, 4 km from the city centre and is one of New Zealand's most populous suburbs, with a population of 15,320 in June 2022.

Mākara Beach, previously spelled Makara Beach, is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand consisting of a small seaside village and its surrounding countryside. The Wellington City Council regards it as a separate suburb to Mākara.

Futuna Chapel is a building in Wellington, New Zealand designed by the architect John Scott. Built by the brothers of the Society of Mary, the chapel is named after the Pacific Island of Futuna on which the missionary Peter Chanel, to whom the project is dedicated, was martyred in 1841. It was awarded the New Zealand Institute of Architects gold medal in 1968 and its 25-year Award in 1986. The Historic Places Trust has placed it on its register as a Category 1 Historic Site.

Wrights Hill Fortress is a counter bombardment coastal artillery battery in the Karori suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It was built between 1942 and 1944 and is predominantly underground, with numerous tunnels linking the war shelters, gun emplacements, magazines, plotting rooms and engine room - which are, at some points, over 50 feet underground. The fort was intended to house three 9.2" Mk. XV guns, but only two guns were installed and the fort never saw action. After World War II was over, fort commanders fired both of the guns (Gun number one in 1946 and the second in 1947). The fall of the shot was observed in Cook Strait and these test firings (three rounds on each occasion) were deemed a success. In 1960, somewhat ironically, both of the guns were sold to the Japanese as scrap metal, the very nation Wrights Hill Fortress was constructed to defend Wellington against. The design of the fort is similar to the Stony Batter and Whangaparaoa 9.2" Mk. XV batteries, near Auckland.Wrights Hill Fortress is currently in the hands of a preservation society and can be visited, by the public, on Waitangi Day, ANZAC Day, the Queen's birthday, and Labour Day. Tours may be booked, at other dates and times, by prior arrangement. The Fortress is listed as a Category I Historic Place.

Karori Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital in Karori. Established in 1854, it was New Zealand's first asylum. The first patient was admitted in the same year, but it would be 1858 before a second patient arrived. Poorly run by untrained staff, there was only an occasional doctor's visit, and no attempt at cures. By 1871, there were 23 patients with a variety of disorders. The facility closed in 1873 with the patients transferred to Mount View Lunatic Asylum. In 1875, Karori School opened on the grounds of Karori Lunatic Asylum.

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School is a private composite girls school located in the Wellington suburb of Karori in New Zealand. It has a socio-economic decile of 10 - on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 reflecting the lowest socioeconomic communities - and provides year one to 13 education for girls, with a co-educational pre-school. Its exam results rank consistently in the top schools in New Zealand. Samuel Marsden Collegiate School students complete the New Zealand National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).