Kelburn Viewing Platform

The platform was built by the upper terminus of the Wellington Cable Car, where the rails emerge onto the crest of the hill. From here, the line runs down toward the city blocks and the harbor, and the red car passes directly beneath the platform. The upper terminus serves as a fork: some passengers ride back toward the center, while others continue on to the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā. The neighborhood's name was once Kelburne, but it was shortened to avoid confusion with Kilbirnie.

In the autumn of nineteen seventy-nine, city bus driver Lorraine Ruka-Isaac applied for a job here, on the newly rebuilt line. The old wooden cars were taken out of service after a safety inspection, the tracks were relaid, and two red steel cars were brought from Switzerland for the new Wellington Cable Car. Lorraine wanted to move to them together with her brother Henry Ruka-Isaac, also a bus driver.

Before Lorraine, only men had operated such cars in New Zealand. The appointment of a woman was met without enthusiasm. Colleagues suggested that Lorraine report for her shift in a skirt. She refused: if men were entitled to a suit, trousers, and a tie, she would wear the same uniform. In surviving photographs, Lorraine stands by a car wearing trousers and a tie.

She got the job and became the country's first woman cable-car driver. Lorraine brought passengers to this upper terminus: from here, some returned to the center, while others went on to the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā. Two years later, she went abroad and continued operating cable cars in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Switzerland. As a farewell gift, the staff of the Kelburn line gave her a fabric wall hanging with her portrait and the inscription: “This is me, and damn it, I’m good.” Lorraine's daughter kept the gift.

The viewing platform was built beside the upper terminus in nineteen eighty. Here the rails reach the crest of the hill, and the city, harbor, and Wellington Cable Car route open up before you. The name Kelburn belongs to the surrounding neighborhood. At first, the suburb was called Kelburne, but the ending was removed so Kelburn would not be confused with another Wellington neighborhood, Kilbirnie.

The red car beneath the platform belongs to the same steel pair on which Lorraine began working. The wooden predecessors now stand in the neighboring Cable Car Museum.