Fact 3: Arterial land ingress - both road and rail - to the capital is by two routes only - both slip and earthquake-prone. These are State Highway 1 (north of Johnsonville), and State Highway 2 through the Hutt Valley. Transmission Gully won't be on stream for several years and, even then, will be reliant on access via SH1 or the Khandallah Road.
Fact 4: The Wellington airport lies immediately adjacent to the Rongotai isthmus, which was submerged before seismic activity a few centuries ago (the Miramar peninsula, on which the airport now sits, was once an island). The 1855 Wairarapa earthquake raised the isthmus further, but further seismic events could just as easily destroy it.
Fact 5: One single major seismic spasm could effectively destroy the capital's land (road and rail), port and fixed-wing air access in one fell swoop. The Wairarapa quake, which devastated the infant colony, is New Zealand's biggest earthquake and still studied in university geology departments all over the world as the par exemplar quake of its type. The maximum horizontal movement along the fault was 18 metres - the largest ever recorded.
An event of similar magnitude today would take out most of Wellington's downtown architecture as effectively as a couple of Hiroshima-sized atom bombs, and probably shuck off half the houses clinging to the Windy City's hillsides.
In such a calamity, it would be an understatement to say the local authorities would have their hands full. And a fair bet, too, that the capacity of Government to govern would be fairly threadbare.
So the events of recent weeks have been the long overdue wake-up call to Government to make the obvious move, and get the hell out of Wellington.
But whence? Anywhere in the South Island is no-go given the choppy waters of the Cook Strait, and the fact that the Prime Minister, at all times, needs to stay in close touch to his public relations department, Paul Henry and Mike Hosking.
The main thing Wellington initially had going for it was its centrality so, as much as Government would like to hive off to its main constituency, Auckland's already been tried.
Palmerston North's pretty central, but it hasn't got a seaport, has no decent views for the civil service mandarins and, besides, it's a fridge in winter.
Whanganui, on the other hand, is not only central but bristling with every type of ingress and egress going.
The port and airport (with superb heritage control tower) only need a wee tickle-up to become fully international. And once Genesis Energy is told where to go, the river can be restored to its full levels and again be touted as the "Danube of the South Pacific", with riverboat access to Taumarunui.
The old railways workshop on Heads Rd will make an excellent debating chamber, and there's no shortage of quality heritage buildings for the various ministries. So, big kudos to Government for going with the only sensible option.
I've come up with a slogan that pretty well sums it all up: "Absolutely Positively Whanganui". And Hamish, it's yours for free.
