It prob­ably would­n’t be an unfair call to say that the Wel­ling­tonista focuses most of its atten­tions on the inner city, des­pite the fact that some of us live out in the wilds, like Hataitai, Karori and Petone. But that does­n’t mean we’re not aware that there are many awe­some things going on out­side of Te Aro, and so this cat­egory is all about pay­ing trib­ute to them.

Good things hap­pen in the sub­urbs too, hon­est – like this place:

Places after the jump…

A. Elements – Lyall Bay

While last year’s sub­urb­an win­ner, the Maranui Surf Cafe is con­stantly over­flow­ing with people queuing down the stairs, and the ser­vice is rushed, there’s a place three minutes away from the beach where you’re pretty cer­tain to get a table, great ser­vice and deli­cious food. You’ll be able to spread out a news­pa­per (which they always have plenty of cop­ies of), drink the good cof­fee and try to decide if you feel like toasted coconut bread with marscapone or per­haps bubble’n squeak for lunch.

As an added rare bonus, they’re BYO as well as licensed, which makes for a good din­ner (but you’ll need to book), and also offer cook­ing classes. It’s no won­der that at least two Wel­ling­tonis­tas are very very fre­quent vis­it­ors.

B. TheNewDowse – The Hutt

The­New­Dowse opened its doors in Feb­ru­ary this year, with a pretty stonk­ingly good month-long party begin­ning with Hol­lie Smith and end­ing with Craft2.0. Since open­ing they’ve brought some stun­ning exhib­i­tions to Wel­ling­ton, like The Droog, Becom­ing King Kong which took us behind the scenes at Weta Work­shop and cur­rently Philip Treacy’s Hats for Isa­bella Blow (an exhib­i­tion of hats that are bey­ond belief). With great art comes great food and drink at Reka Cafe, which helps ease the early morn­ing pain of set­ting up for Craft2.0. Finally, The­New­Dowse is spe­cial because you can catch the bus ser­vice from Wel­ling­ton to The­New­Dowse without really set­ting foot in The Hutt at all!

C. Mediterranean Food Warehouse – Newtown

One of the Wel­ling­tonista’s favour­ite things to do on a week­end is to head over to New­town to spend a leis­urely couple of hours at the Medi­ter­ranean Food Ware­house. Order a couple of wood­fired piz­zas and cof­fees while you read the papers.

Take a stroll around the ware­house, stock­ing up on spices, pas­tas, jarred good­ies, impor­ted baked goods and fresh cheeses. Raise your eye­brows at their selec­tion of spir­its, includ­ing artichoke liqueur (appar­ently it tastes nas­ti­er than death, so don’t buy a bottle – if you abso­lutely must sample it, you can do so at Scopa), and snar­fle free samples of tasty things. Then you should be diges­ted enough for their fant­ast­ic gelati. Mmmmmm! If they had bed­rooms, we’d nev­er leave.

WINNER!!!
D. Karori Wildlife Sanctuary – Karori

What can you say about a place that has too many tuis (And for once we don’t mean beer)? The Karori Wild­life Sanc­tu­ary is one of those super-cool ideas that actu­ally got some trac­tion, some money and then kudos (which in turn led to more money).

A Sunday stroll through the Sanc­tu­ary can net you sight­ings of rare Robins, endangered ducks, nest­ing shags, and (one of our favour­ites) a cheeky weka. but they don’t just do birds. No! They have endangered nat­ive fish, liz­ards and bats (appar­ently). And all of this wild­life is a five minute drive from the CBD! Nor­mally our response to bigass fences that stretch for miles and miles is to say “You know who ELSE put up fences? The Nazis Com­mun­ists!” but when you come across a tui feast­ing on Moles­worth Street, and hear extra bird calls in all the sur­round­ing sub­urbs, you know that it’s not just Karori that’s reap­ing the bene­fits of this magic­al place.

E. Scorching Bay

Sure, you could go to Ori­ent­al Bay’s new(ish) beach. But on most nice days it’s a bit much of a ruck get­ting in there – and maybe town is just a little too close. So it’s at this point that Scorch­ing Bay comes to mind: beau­ti­ful sandy beach; few­er people; and a fant­ast­ic cafe (Chocol­ate Fish – if you’re quick) just a short walk out of the water away.

View the best of the sub­urbs on Zoom­in, using the ‘best­sub­urb­an’ tag.