This cat­egory is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s where we put things that we want to cel­eb­rate that did­n’t seem to fit any­where else, but that does­n’t mean these nom­in­a­tions are second thoughts. Indeed, they’re actu­ally the some of the first things we think of when we try to define what makes Wel­ling­ton so very spe­cial.

The new inter­na­tion­al air­port ter­min­al
“Waaah! It looks like a pump­kin.” Where­as most air­ports look (and act) like malls, our new one has an out­side as well as an inside. Its bold new design acknow­ledges Wel­ling­to­ni­ans just as much as it does vis­it­ors.

The return of the Maranui
It’s back! Our beloved cafe by the sea has ris­en like a phoenix from the ashes, and it’s bet­ter than ever, because while it was get­ting fixed, they man­aged to improve the accous­tics so it’s not as loud. It’s still as hard to find a seat, and you may have a long wait for food from the kit­chen – which they will always warn you about – but nev­er­the­less, the ser­vice is lovely, the food glor­i­ous, and the way the com­munity got involved with the res­tor­a­tion was truly heart-warm­ing.

Our new may­or
We wel­come our new Green over­lord may­or Celia Wade-Brown. A quick and con­cise respon­der to ques­tions posed by the Wel­ling­tonista we wish Celia all the best liv­ing up to this nom­in­a­tion.  Ride on sis­ter.

Image by Chris Bry­ant

The Water­front

The Water­front was the begin­ning of the City of Wel­ling­ton, the edge across which the city was fed and grew on people and goods. We’ve always looked out across the water – we still do, but these days more for the view than the latest ship into port. And we’re pretty fan­at­ic­al about it.

Con­scious Con­sumers

Want to make sure you’re sup­port­ing the busi­nesses that sup­port the things you believe in, but don’t want to have to do the research your­self? That’s where Con­scious Con­sumers come in.  Launched earli­er this year, the con­scious con­sumers cafe pro­ject awards badges to cafes that have demon­strated a com­mit­ment to socially and envir­on­ment­ally con­scious busi­ness prac­tices. They give out badges to busi­nesses for fairtrade, for com­post­ing, for organ­ic, for sea­son­al, for recyc­ling, for sup­port­ing BYO cups, for being eco-friendly, free-range and for provid­ing eco-pack­aging. It’s a not-for-profit char­it­able organ­isa­tion, and they’re doing great work.