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.