As we know, Welling­ton is full of fun things to do, and on a reg­u­lar basis. Whether giv­ing us some­thing to eat, some­thing to groove to, or some­thing to yell about, these are the events that kept us com­ing back for sec­onds.


Richter City Roller Der­by
Not since “Bret or Jemaine?” has an issue so divid­ed our city. Do you sup­port Bru­tal Pagaent or Smash Mal­ice (If you’re awe­some, you sup­port Smash, by the way)? The win­ners of each bout were real­ly the audi­ence. From its begin­ning days in a bas­ket­ball hall in New­town to bouts that had near­ly 3500 in the audi­ence at TSB Are­na, watch­ing tough-as-shit women on wheels fight­ing it out has tru­ly won over our hearts and minds.

Pecha Kucha
Pecha Kucha around NZ Welling­ton is blessed with an abun­dance of intel­lec­tu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ing events where clever peo­ple stand in front of pret­ty slides and talk about all kinds of ran­dom things, but Pecha Kucha is scop­ing this nom­i­na­tion over Nerd Nite or Ignite because it hap­pens more often and is there­fore more enter­tain­ing. Maths is sim­ple! Held all around the world, PK usu­al­ly has 8 – 14 pre­sen­ters. Pre­sen­ters (and much of the audi­ence) are usu­al­ly from the design, archi­tec­ture, pho­tog­ra­phy, art and cre­ative fields. That may sound a lit­tle dry, but in real­i­ty, it’s like a great big shot of tequi­la to your cere­bral cor­tex.
(Please note: The fact that approx­i­mate­ly 25% of the Welling­ton­ista have pre­sent­ed at Pecha has lit­tle or noth­ing to do with its nom­i­na­tion. Their pre­sen­ta­tions sucked. But all the oth­ers were awe­some.)

Tues­day Night Din­ner at Mike’s
Every Tues­day night for the last 11 years, Tues­day Night Mike has opened his home for a potluck din­ner to who­ev­er wants to come. He turns his kitchen over to the culi­nary skills of both reg­u­lars and strangers who’ve wan­dered in for the first time. Why? Well, din­ner par­ties are fun. Mike’s also turned his focus on help­ing those who have less on their plate, sup­port­ing the Eat So They Can char­i­ty. Deli­cious and enter­tain­ing, Tues­day Night Din­ner is a Welling­ton insti­tu­tion.

Welling­ton Phoenix match­es
With the All Whites mak­ing it to the FIFA World Cup, inter­est in the game for­mer­ly known as soc­cer was high this year. The Phoenix’s reg­u­lar Hyundai A‑League match­es against Australia’s finest proved a choice way to spend 90 min­utes. More than just a sport match, the Phoenix’s staunch Yel­low Fever sup­port­ers liv­en up the game with their infec­tious chant­i­ng. And if you enjoy see­ing pale flab­by man­chests jump­ing with joy, then you’ll like it even more. If you don’t, I guess that’s what Roller Der­by is for.

ASB Gar­dens Mag­ic Con­cert Series
ASB Gar­dens Mag­ic at the Sound­shell is the super pop­u­lar series of free music con­certs in Jan­u­ary that real­ly lets Welling­to­ni­ans know that sum­mer has arrived. Gar­dens Mag­ic nes­tles under the col­or­ful stripy fes­ti­val umbrel­la of free coun­cil events  “Sum­mer City” that run from Jan­u­ary to March.

Got­ta love the spark­ly lights hung through the gar­dens, the mir­ror balls and bub­bles, the wine and pic­nics on the grass, and of course the music. This year a wide range of local musos brought a dif­fer­ent crowd every night, which frankly is just excel­lent pro­gram­ming.

Did we men­tion it is free?