Upper Hutt is a city of 38,500 just 25 minutes' drive or a 40-minute scenic train ride north from Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand.
The city derives its name from an English Member of Parliament, Sir William Hutt, who was a director of the New Zealand Company (formed in the late 1830s) that organised the settlement of the Wellington and Hutt Valley areas beginning with the arrival of the first immigrant ships from 1840.
The southern boundary is Silverstream and the northern boundary the top of the Rimutaka Hill, covering an area of 53,962 hectares and making Upper Hutt one of the largest city councils by area in New Zealand.
