Every­body knows that you can­’t beat Wel­ling­ton on a good day. And good days can hap­pen at the most ran­dom of times. There­fore it’s super import­ant that we have our little patches of sun­shine to escape to, when the whole “work­ing for the man” starts to wear you down…

Eat­ing lunch out­side nev­er felt so good:

Let’s go out­side, after the jump…

A. Midland Park


Those foun­tains burst­ing out of the ground in the middle of the park have always reminded some Wel­ling­tonis­tas of War of the Worlds. But instead of a deadly heat-ray they spray out cool refresh­ing water per­fect for tod­dlers to muck around in.

To one side the foun­tain is Astor­ia and a stepped grass area that, when not covered in lunch­ing office work­ers, has hos­ted dance troupes, fash­ion parades and art exhib­i­tions.

On the oth­er side is Mag­netix and its takeaway cof­fee bar and a smal­ler con­crete area, also covered in lunch­ing busi­ness types.

Why is every­one lunch­ing here? Because Mid­land Park is close prox­im­ity to mil­lions of Wel­ling­ton eat­er­ies! Sushi, salad, kebabs, bagels, wine (wink), bur­gers, and (like) 100 cafes. And that makes it every bit as valu­able (if not more so) as parks ten times its size out in the sub­urbs.

B. Cuba Mall


What’s going on here? Cuba Mall is not a park at all … or is it? It has trees for green­ery and shade, benches to relax on, a play­ground for the rugrats, inter­est­ing things to see while you walk through, a foun­tain and pub­lic art; in fact, everything that some of us could ever want from a park. Plus, it has shops and cock­tail bars, and how can a mere park com­pete with that?

C. Oriental Bay


It’s always been a mag­net in sum­mer, and since the recent upgrade it’s just got bet­ter and bet­ter. It’s got some­thing for every­one: swim­mers, strollers, pic­nick­ers, sun­bathers and per­verts. Even on a grey and blustery day it has charm and grandeur, but on a calm even­ing the foun­tain and city sky­line make it one of the most spec­tac­u­lar pub­lic spaces in this or any city. If only someone would put a decent res­taur­ant in the Band Rotunda, it would be close to per­fect.

D. Waitangi Park


There’s still a long way to go, and until the trees reach adoles­cence and the long-awaited build­ings to the north­east and west are com­pleted it will suf­fer from a lack of spa­tial defin­i­tion and con­tin­ue to fizzle out at the edges. But it does amaz­ingly well at car­ry­ing off the nearly impossible trick of doing everything at once. The wet­lands aren’t just pho­to­gen­ic remind­ers of the lagoon that once lay nearby; they actu­ally clean the water from the long-bur­ied Wait­angi stream. The lawn is big enough for con­certs and a game of touch; but the cut-outs through the berm bring the edges to the centre and make it more intim­ate. Best of all, the Chaf­fers Dock build­ing isn’t just an impress­ive piece of late Art Deco; its ground floor hosts all the ice cream, fish ‘n’ chip, cof­fee and deli out­lets you need for a dec­ad­ent pic­nic.

WINNER!!!
E. The Botanic Gardens


It’s been around since 1868 & has its own wiki­pe­dia page. It cov­ers 25 hec­tares of land with nat­ive & exot­ic trees, plants, flowers, lawns, streams, ponds, pic­nic areas, cafes, statues & play­ground. And con­fid­en­tially, seems to be the only place to get fresh tar­ragon out­side of grow­ing it your­self. It’s with­in walk­ing dis­tance of the CBD & there­fore amen­able to lunch­time strolls. And at least one former prime min­is­ter is bur­ied with­in its bound­ar­ies. In the even­ings, young folk gath­er in the cypress tree at the Upland Rd entrance to drink, smoke & gos­sip. At night, many of the paths are illu­min­ated by glow worms. It also sports the coolest retro drink­ing foun­tains in the South­ern Hemi­sphere, although it could do with more. Truly, how can any oth­er park com­pete?

Make your love pub­lic; use the “best­pub­lic­space” tag on Zoom­in.