Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

The house: If you’ve been in Wellington on a windy day (which is most of the time so the chances are good), you may have noticed a flag bravely breaking into pieces high above the Beehive. It’s a cruel thing to do with a piece of cloth, but, fully deployed in the gentle zephyr of the capital, it’s at least easy to identify the blue flag.

House staff recently visited the Beehive roof, along with some enclosure staff who leave flags up to rage needlessly against our caressing breeze.

In August, upon the death of Kiingi Tuheitia, the Speaker of Parliament, Gerry Brownlee, decreed that flags in the precinct should be flown at half-mast. It was quite a windy day for Wellington, so there was barely a gust of wind.

Flag-wrestling Locky Lockington has the muscle to fight Hauraro and Tonga ten stories up.

Steve Barron, Parliament’s acting director of facilities engineering, displays one of the blue flags flying atop the hive. The flag is approximately five meters long.
Photo: VNP / Louis Collins

Steve Barron, Parliament’s acting director of facilities engineering, displays one of the blue flags flying atop the hive. The flag is about five meters long and you can dine on one of the stars.

The upper floors of the Hive seen from the roof of Parliament.
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

And yet, seen from a distance, the flag seems small. Previously there were three sizes, used depending on the likely wind conditions. They were called the handkerchief, the tea towel and the tablecloth. In recent years, a President (I haven’t determined which one) requested that the tablecloth alone be used.

The smaller flag, usually flown during stormy weeks, looked a bit absurd – like a little hat on a huge man, but it had the distinct advantage of better resisting the wind.

Wind damage to the leading edge of the National Beehive Flag.
Photo: VNP / Louis Collins

Flags are damaged and often need to be repaired. For this, there are usually four or five at a time: one on the roof, one or more under repair and some waiting in the wings, just in case. Sometimes they last for months, but a grueling spring week can do a lot of damage in just a few days.

The cradle that holds the massive Hive flag pole if it is folded down.
Photo: VNP / Louis Collins

It’s not just flags that suffer the consequences. The post is also punished, often with flags.

The mast is made to pivot at its immense base, for repair and repainting. At the edge of the hive’s roof is a cradle in which it can rest when it is on maintenance rest. When at rest, the pole points squarely towards the Ministry of Defense. I idly wondered if the direction the flag pointed caused the uniformed personnel next door to consider swinging their own flagpole downward to aim at the hive in response. A dead end in Wellington.

A view from the roof of the Hive, including the Treasury, Reserve Bank Education and the Ministry of Defence.
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

Parliament and the Hive (the executive wing) sit geographically at the center of government, like the center of a wheel of power. Most of the department’s main offices are within a block or two.

A view to the southwest takes in the financial twins of the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, beyond which the former base of the Department of Education and the Department of Defense can be seen. Behind Defense are Waka Kotahi and Primary Industries. Smaller entities also share buildings. For example, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel are among those residing in the Reserve Bank building.

It’s not just about immediate proximity to government; To the east and southeast you can see the district, high, appellate and supreme courts.

The new parliamentary building under construction, seen from the top of La Ruche.
Photo: VNP / Louis Collins

Behind Parliament, a new Parliamentary Precinct building is under construction, after a delay of almost three decades. The new building will be largely made of wood and easily reconfigurable for the offices of MPs and ministers.

A view from the roof of the Beehive, including Parliament and the Parliamentary Library (foreground) and behind them the British High Commission, the Catholic and Anglican cathedrals, the State Services Commission and the National Library.
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

The view north from the roof shows Te Ahumairangi Hill (which rises to the west of the Prime Minister’s Residence and the narrow winding lanes of Old Thorndon – off-camera). Along Hill Street, behind the Parliamentary Library, the Catholic Cathedral is the centerpiece of the sandwich between the British High Commission and the Anglican Cathedral. Across Molesworth Street from the Anglicans is the National Library, as well as a number of embassies and other ministries (Justice, Environment, Archives, etc.).

A view east from the roof of the Beehive, including the original wooden government buildings (now the Victoria University of Wellington Law School).
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith

If you want to step back in time, look east towards Wellington Harbour, where you’ll find the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere – the former government office building which is now the Faculty of Law from Victoria University of Wellington.

New Zealand’s blue flag does its best against a typical Wellington spring day atop the Beehive, but the edge of the flag is starting to give way.
Photo: VNP/Louis Collins

The brave little blue ensign watching all this almost can, throwing himself into an early grave with joy and abandon.