It is a view of Wellington I will never see.
The view from the ninth floor of a big building off Molesworth St and within shouting distance of Aotea Quay.
Not too far from a couple of fine restaurants and bars also, but I'll never see them from that ninth floor window.
For it is the Prime Minister's office, in a building appropriately called the Beehive...because it quite simply looks like a beehive.
Wasn't there a hairstyle called a beehive?
And a brand of matches?
A lot of people get a buzz out of visiting the Beehive (groan) but when I was last down there I didn't bother because I didn't want to get stung with the admission cost (second groan here).
But I think I know what the Prime Minister (prepare for third groan) calls to his or her partner after arriving home.
"Hey honey, I'm home."
And if they took a surprise gift with them they'd add "look what hive got for you".
Okay, having realised I have by now probably lost a vast number of potential readers I shall steer a more sensible course and cut to the chase.
I shall beehave myself.
So then, that remarkable building was opened in 1977 although it could not be said that it opened with unanimous acclaim.
Traditionalists regarded it as a blot on the historical landscape and to be honest it does look ever so slightly out of place right next to the original old mortar and pillars building.
But in reality, it is what the city needed in terms of a base to house the ladies and gentlemen who steer this country ... sort of.
It has become a landmark, and rightly so, because as far as I'm concerned, in terms of architecture, anything that challenges the ordinary should be embraced.
If I ever managed to pick the six right numbers I'd get a house built ... in the shape of a pyramid ... up on a big pole ... that revolves.
So The Ninth Floor is a fitting title for what first emerged as a radio documentary series hosted by Guyon Espiner back in autumn for it was the site for a planned six interviews...although they only came away with five after Sir John Key shot the gap as PM while it was still being made.
At the start of the broadcasting project there were only six people alive who knew what it was like to be Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Mike Moore, Jim Bolger, Dame Jenny Shipley, Helen Clark and Sir John Key.
They didn't count Bill English as he wasn't in place at that stage.
While the series was originally planned for radio the interviews were all set up for a four-camera shoot, which kind of made sense.
Guyon and his crew first caught up with Sir Geoffrey Palmer who was in the chair, on the ninth floor, in 1989 and 1990.
I think I once caught up with Geoffrey back in the late '70s when I was a foreman in the wool industry.
I'm sure it was him who staged a meeting for woolstore workers about union rights and things there in Ahuriri ... although I can't be absolutely sure.
All I remember was that at "question time" it had been earlier agreed between us lads that there would be none.
That way we could get to the nearby tavern a little earlier.
The second interview in the series was with Mike Moore (1990) and after that it was Jim Bolger (1990-1997), Dame Jenny Shipley (1997-1999), and Helen Clark (1999-2008).
It was on the day Guyon was interviewing Jim Bolger that they got word John Key had called it quits and was preparing to enter the lift on the ninth floor and head for the ground floor.
They put it to him but be declined the interview.
Basically, this is pretty comfortable one-on-one stuff about how the various leaders handled the perceived requirements of the times and the events which unfolded along the way.
Events that shaped this place.
Now given we have been awash in election news over the past weeks this may seem like one last course too much for the overall political dinner.
Guyon described the meetings as "lively, in-depth conversations".
In radio terms this was a pre-election series of course, but in television terms it is a post-election job.
And with the whole political landscape at this stage sort of up in the air in terms of who will be the next person to get the hang of hitting the '9' button this could be valuable viewing for a couple of people.
For the rest of us, it's arguably the best opportunity to see inside the heads of five previous Beehive lift occupants.
● The Ninth Floor, TV3 at 11am Sunday: A fitting title, although it has a slightly Stephen King sound to it.
Which some may suggest could be quite fitting given there must have been some strange and unsettling words and facial expressions emerge up there in that well-guarded room ... on the ninth floor.
The PMs of the recent past catch up with Guyon Espiner for a chat.
ON THE BOX
● Galapagos: Islands of Change, TV1 at 7pm Saturday: Charles Darwin was understandably astounded by what he saw when he ventured across the main islands of the Galapagos chain back in 1835.
For the curious and unique wildlife, without serious threat from predators, thrived.
Creatures like giant turtles, deep-diving lizards and fish-eating snakes.
A remarkable place which is now on the tourist map, although thankfully it appears the tours there are nature-driven so fingers crossed the original inhabitants can breathe on.
Thanks to illuminating documentaries like this I can travel there and watch in awe, like Charlie did.
● Decades in Colour, Prime at 8.30pm Sunday: It's odd, but the late'50s to me, when I was five going on six, were sort of black and white.
I can't remember a lot of colour about ... except for the light "fert works" blue which saturated our house inside and out after dad came home one day with about 50 gallons of the stuff.
But there was colour, always has been of course (except on TV in 1966) and here Judy Bailey rolls out home movies taken by folk all over the land, through the decades after WW2.
A look at life, as it was.
And it wasn't bad.