It is with great pride and pleas­ure that we announce the nom­in­ees for the First Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards for Out­stand­ing Achieve­ment in the Field of Excel­lence.

The Wel­ling­tonista have sweated and slaved over the cat­egor­ies, and now it is your turn for action. Step up and send us your votes before Novem­ber 30. The awards will be announced in an elab­or­ate* cere­mony on Fri­day Decem­ber 1 which we would love for you to attend.

Why should you vote? Because your opin­ion counts. And so that you’ll receive an invit­a­tion to the awards. And because you’ll go in to the draw to win awe­some prizes, includ­ing but not neces­sar­ily lim­ited to good­ies from Baby­li­cious, signed cop­ies of 101 Stor­ies That I Want To Tell You, tasty salads from Kapai (dis­claim­er: we wrote nice things about them before they offered up prizes), stun­ning tshirts, signed pho­tos of The Drop­kicks and lifelong Coun­try Club mem­ber­ship.

The cat­egor­ies are after the jump, and nom­in­ees are sug­ges­tions only – you’re free to write-in your win­ners.

Please email your votes to the.wellingtonista(at)gmail.com. One vote per per­son please – we will of course be using scru­pu­lous IP check­ing and all sorts of tech­nic­al wiz­bangadry to pre­vent cheat­ing (but vot­ing for mem­bers of the Wel­ling­tonista in the WWW cat­egory may coin­cid­ently bump up your chances of win­ning a spot prize. If we were cor­rupt­able. Which we’re not. So please do vote for the best can­did­ate for the job). Feel free to dis­cuss the awards, prizes and cere­mon­ies in the com­ments sec­tion, but no cam­paign­ing!

First Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards for Out­stand­ing Achieve­ment in the Field of Excel­lence

EAT/DRINK THINGS

1. When I am not hav­ing a mar­tini, I like to drink a:
A. Masique at Boulot
B. Caipirinha at Havana
C. Fall­ing Water at the Mat­ter­horn
D. Beer in a brew­ery-type bar
E. Oth­er:

2. I spent all my rent money on din­ner here, but at least when the bailiffs beat me to death I will die bliss­fully:
A. Bisque
B. Logan Brown
C. Fran­cois
D. Chamele­on
E. Oth­er:

3. I found $20 in my flat­mate’s room, so it’ll be din­ner at:
A. Sweet Mother­’s Kit­chen
B. Malay­si­an any­where
C. Scopa
D. Bur­ger Fuel
E. Oth­er:

4. When even Win­ston Peters has gone to bed, the best bar to go to is:
A. San Fran­cisco Bath­house
B. Good Luck
C. The Welsh Bar
D. Havana
E. Oth­er:

5. Good things hap­pen in the sub­urbs too, hon­est – like this place:
A. Maranui Surf Club, Lyall Bay
B. The Chocol­ate Fish, Seaton
C. Swell Res­taur­ant, Waik­an­ae
D. Go Bang, Petone
E. Oth­er:

6. The Welly solu­tion to a hangover is:
A. Brunch at Fidel’s
B. Cof­fee, cof­fee, cof­fee – and I don’t care where from
C. A brisk swim on the south coast
D. Hair of that bas­tard dog that bit me
E. Oth­er:

7. The place that’s like, so totally over is:
A. The Mat­ter­horn
B. Dock­side
C. Chow
D. Jet
E. Oth­er:

8. The single best thing I’ve had in my mouth all year:

DOING THINGS

9. How I enter­tain those from out of town who might not want to drink all day:
A. A trip to Moore Wilson’s
B. The view from Mount Vic­tor­ia
C. Te Papa
D. Some­thing to do with Peter Jack­son
E: Oth­er:

10. My favour­ite part of town is:
A. Cuba Quarter
B. Cour­tenay Quarter
C. Wil­lis Quarter
D. Lamb­ton Quarter
E. Oth­er:

11. Wel­ling­ton most needs:
A. A tiki bar
B. An aquar­i­um
C. Light rail
D. A bypass
E. Oth­er:

12. The event that made me get off my arse the most:
A. Craft­werk
B. Hula Laguna
C. The film fest­ivals (well, off your ass to the movie theatre then back onto it)
D. The Sev­ens
E. Oth­er:

SHOPPING THINGS

13. If I was­n’t eat­ing out all the time this is how I’d DIY it food source:
A. Moore Wilson’s Fresh
B. The Medi­ter­ranean Ware­house
C. Wait­angi mar­kets
D. New World for its unbeat­able loc­a­tions
E. Oth­er:

14. I look good because I am dressed by:

15. You can nev­er buy too much stuff from:

PEOPLE THINGS

16. Most bad­dest wick­ed­est evilest supervil­lan of the year:
A. Kerry Pren­der­gast
B. H. West­fold, Hataitai
C. The fog
D. Lyle Lan­ley
E. Oth­er:

17. Damn I’m proud you’re from Wel­ling­ton entertainer(s):
A. The Phoenix Found­a­tion
B. Fat Freddy’s Drop
C. Flight of the Conchords
D. Peter Jack­son
E. Oth­er:

18. I love you the most­est Wel­ling­to­ni­an of the year:

19. Best for­eign per­son or group to come to little old Wel­ling­town
A. Rolling Stones
B. Den­zel Wash­ing­ton
C. John Howard
D. Donny Osmond
E. Oth­er:

20. Best dub dub duber- Web-Writ­ing-Wel­ling­to­ni­an

PUBLIC SPACES

21. If this build­ing was a per­son, I would be mak­ing sweet luuurve to it right now:
A. The Wel­ling­ton Pub­lic Lib­rary
B. The Majest­ic Centre
C. The Embassy Theatre
D. Futuna Chapel
E. Oth­er:

22. My cul­ture fixes are prin­cip­ally delivered by:
A. The Para­mount Theatre
B. Slow­boat Records
C. Unity Books
D. Mag­netix
E. Oth­er:

23. This sub­urb is so hot right now:
A. Hataitai
B. Island Bay
C. New­town
D. Petone
E. Oth­er:

24. For­get park­ing places, the best park is:
A. Mid­land Park
B. Frank Kitts Park
C. The Botan­ic­al Gar­dens
D. Wait­angi Park
E. Oth­er:

25. Best pub­lic art:
A. Water Whirler
B. Ferns in Civic Square
C. The Buck­et Foun­tain
D. The alley between Ghuznee St and the Left Bank
E. Oth­er:

26. In 2007 I will resolve to:
A. Vis­it more art gal­ler­ies
B. Take pub­lic trans­port­a­tion more often
C. Sup­port loc­al busi­nesses instead of chains
D. Learn to enjoy drink­ing mar­tinis
E. Oth­er:

* After many mar­tinis, everything is elab­or­ate