Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city, and "de facto" second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and often the Kapiti Coast, are taken into account; these, however have independent councils rather than a supercity governance like Auckland, and so Wellington City is legally only third-largest city by population, behind Auckland and Christchurch). It consists of the central historic town and certain additional areas within the Wellington metropolitan area, extending as far north as Linden and covering rural areas such as Mākara and Ohariu. The city adjoins Porirua in the north and Hutt City in the north-east. It is one of nine territorial authorities in the Wellington Region.