MPs often talk green, but Parliament is lowering its carbon footprint with hundreds of surreptitious solar panels; and providing a much wanted excuse to climb onto the roof.
In the years I've been reporting from Parliament I've been itching to climb to the very top. Some politicians dream of clambering over the crushed dreams of their rivals up to the ninth floor of the Beehive.
Why stop there? I want to get onto the roof.
This week I finally ascended to a slightly less giddy height when I got onto the roof of Parliament House (the grey stone neo-classical edifice where all the legislative action happens). The opportunity was a visit to inspect Parliament's new solar panels.
Listen to the radio version of this story, as well as a report on the week's action in the debating chamber.
Parliament House is a big building with a lot of roof, and a lot of room for 561 surreptitious solar panels to lower its carbon footprint.
That many solar panels generate a lot of power, even under Wellington's smothering grey blanket. They will also pay their way, saving the institution about $30,000 a year in power and 22 tonnes of carbon annually.
Up, up, up and...
Appropriately, you can reach the roof via an antique iron, spiral staircase. A pretty one with shiny black filigree - the kind that would look nice in your chateau library.
Up on Parliament's roof the view is only so-so, but the wind is impressive. How could it not be - this is Wellington.
James Hogg from sunergise (who are installing the panels) agrees about the wind.
"It has been probably one of our largest challenges, on a day-to-day basis. Just making sure we've got the roof tied down and safe and sound."
Steve Barron, the Project Manager for the Parliamentary Service laughs and calls that an understatement. They have somehow managed not to sail any solar panels across Wellington's skyline.
It's a summer morning in Wellington so up on the roof it is bleak, blustery and chilly. It does make you wonder why the roof isn't festooned with windmills rather than solar panels; probably the lateral stress in a gale would reduce the building to its constituent bricks (or atoms).
Before we get to the electrical details we shouldn't ignore the view. Not many folk get to see up here.
Tinakori Hill (looming over Thorndon) looks lovely from here with its increasingly native hues. The Beehive is surprisingly close in all its concrete-gun-implacement-with-windows glory, (but no-one is looking out the windows for me to wave at).
The marvelous and much overlooked Parliamentary Library is exactly that. Its tall fake chimneys and unecesarry rooftop fripperies look even better from up here…