New Zealand isn’t just the home to Lord of The Rings and more vineyards than we care to count. Australia’s neighbour is now also officially home to the world’s most liveable city. Wellington has been declared number one (for the second year in a row) by Deutsch Bank’s most recent Liveable City Index. The study takes into account things like safety, health care, cost of living, pollution and climate in its ranking system.

Wellington is perhaps better known as New Zealand’s answer to Melbourne. The windy city is a haven of cafés, bars and restaurants, as well as a rather creative community. It also sits smack bang between two of New Zealand’s finest wine regions, Wairarapa and Marlborough.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester hopes this new accolade will help the city to attract more visitors to its shores. “Being the world’s best place to live also makes Wellington one of the best places to visit. It has all the benefits of a big city – great restaurants, shopping, art, events, markets – but all in a compact area surrounded by a beautiful harbour on one side, and bush-clad hills on the other,” he says.

“On an international scale we are safe, affordable and we’ve got good transport connections. Most importantly we’ve got a city full of wonderful people, which makes being here a pleasure.”

While Wellington was named the overall winner, the remaining top five included Zurich (2nd), Copenhagen (3rd), Edinburgh (4th) and Vienna (5th).