This cat­e­go­ry is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s where we put things that we want to cel­e­brate that did­n’t seem to fit any­where else, but that does­n’t mean these nom­i­na­tions are sec­ond thoughts. Indeed, they’re actu­al­ly the some of the first things we think of when we try to define what makes Welling­ton so very spe­cial.

The new inter­na­tion­al air­port ter­mi­nal
“Waaah! It looks like a pump­kin.” Where­as most air­ports look (and act) like malls, our new one has an out­side as well as an inside. Its bold new design acknowl­edges Welling­to­ni­ans just as much as it does vis­i­tors.

The return of the Maranui
It’s back! Our beloved cafe by the sea has risen like a phoenix from the ash­es, and it’s bet­ter than ever, because while it was get­ting fixed, they man­aged to improve the accoustics so it’s not as loud. It’s still as hard to find a seat, and you may have a long wait for food from the kitchen — which they will always warn you about — but nev­er­the­less, the ser­vice is love­ly, the food glo­ri­ous, and the way the com­mu­ni­ty got involved with the restora­tion was tru­ly heart-warm­ing.

Our new may­or
We wel­come our new Green over­lord may­or Celia Wade-Brown. A quick and con­cise respon­der to ques­tions posed by the Welling­ton­ista we wish Celia all the best liv­ing up to this nom­i­na­tion.  Ride on sis­ter.

Image by Chris Bryant

The Water­front

The Water­front was the begin­ning of the City of Welling­ton, the edge across which the city was fed and grew on peo­ple and goods. We’ve always looked out across the water — we still do, but these days more for the view than the lat­est ship into port. And we’re pret­ty fanat­i­cal about it.

Con­scious Con­sumers

Want to make sure you’re sup­port­ing the busi­ness­es that sup­port the things you believe in, but don’t want to have to do the research your­self? That’s where Con­scious Con­sumers come in.  Launched ear­li­er this year, the con­scious con­sumers cafe project awards badges to cafes that have demon­strat­ed a com­mit­ment to social­ly and envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious busi­ness prac­tices. They give out badges to busi­ness­es for fair­trade, for com­post­ing, for organ­ic, for sea­son­al, for recy­cling, for sup­port­ing BYO cups, for being eco-friend­ly, free-range and for pro­vid­ing eco-pack­ag­ing. It’s a not-for-prof­it char­i­ta­ble organ­i­sa­tion, and they’re doing great work.