It’s one of the world’s greatest wooden buildings, has an address on busy Lambton Quay in Wellington and for years was the engine room of our fledgling democracy, yet for whatever reason the Old Government Buildings often fly under the radar for passers-by. Few would know that behind the four-storey Italianate façade is a labyrinth of offices that once housed the entirety of the Wellington-based civil service as well as the New Zealand Cabinet, and the Native Land Court.