What to do in Wellington with a motorhome

This post is spon­sored by Wilder­ness Motorhomes

We love telling peo­ple what to do. Espe­cial­ly telling peo­ple what to do in Welling­ton. That’s why we exist. So when we were offered this spon­sored post we were hap­py to take up the chal­lenge of what to do in Welling­ton if you’re an out-of-town­er vis­it­ing in a motorhome. Most of our advice in the play and eat sec­tions will still be use­ful to any out-of-town­ers, of course.

Sleep

First of all, you’re going to want some­where to stay, and while there is no longer a down­town motorhome park on the water­front, the Welling­ton City Coun­cil has the down­low on legal camp grounds. It’s impor­tant to note that camp­ing is not per­mit­ted in Welling­ton’s reserves, includ­ing the Town Belt and Reserves around the Coast.

There are a num­ber of free­dom camp­ing spots around Welling­ton like Te Kopa­hau Reserve carpark (not the reserve itself), but please make sure you pick up after your­self, because read­ing neg­a­tive arti­cles about free­dom campers is real­ly bor­ing.

If, like us, you don’t ever want to be too far from the good cof­fee, as long as you’re self con­tained, there’s a pow­ered park­ing site just a block or two from Cuba Street. Chances are that your motorhome might be big­ger than some inner city apart­ments any­way!

Play

So what to do while you’re in Welling­ton? We’ve got a cou­ple of ideas for you.

First­ly, we sent our intre­pid Kris out in a van to get a feel for the roads. She reports back

“I went for a dri­ve along Welling­ton’s slim twisty roads on Sun­day in the wind and rain. I think any camper­vans big­ger than van size would be able to dri­ve the roads (if the bus can they should be able to) but hon­est­ly they should just park up some­where and take the free shut­tle bus out to Zealan­dia and the Botan­ic Gar­dens (Zealan­dia tell peo­ple in camper­vans to con­tact them if their vehi­cle is over 3m). Some of those roads are pret­ty steep and windy!”

We do rec­om­mend a dri­ve up to see the view from the top of Mount Vic­to­ria if you’re con­fi­dent in your dri­ving, but sug­gest going via Newtown/Alexandra Road instead of the more direct route. Plus that way you could stop in at the Welling­ton SPCA too!

Otari-Wilton, Makara Peak Moun­tain Bike Park, and Wright’s Hill Fortress, all have carparks suit­able for van-sizes but the turn­ing would be a bit tight for any­thing big­ger. There is enough space to park big­ger vehi­cles fur­ther away from the carparks and that usu­al­ly hap­pens before the roads nar­row and/or get twisty. Bonus for dri­ving to Otari-Wilton is Ian Gal­loway park which includes a skate ramp and an off-lead dog area.

And here are some oth­er ideas…

City Creatures

Make sure you take a stroll around our water­front (and do look up from your devices, even if there is free wi-fi avail­able). There’s a sculp­ture tour to be done, and many things to be pho­tographed! We par­tic­u­lar­ly rec­om­mend Sun­days, so you can also go to the City Mar­kets at Wai­t­an­gi Park, where you can try all kinds of deli­cious local pro­duce. You will be able to park in the Te Papa carpark (and while you’re there, why not check our nation­al muse­um as well), but it will cost you.

Coffee

Welling­ton is well known for its cof­fee cul­ture. Most cafés in the inner city, and many in the sub­urbs, know how to pour good espres­so, lat­te, or that Aus­tralasian spe­cial­i­ty, the flat white. Local chains and roas­t­er­ies whose out­posts are gen­er­al­ly reli­able include Peo­ples (sic), Supreme, Flight and Mojo.

There are also a sev­er­al places that stretch the bound­aries a lit­tle and may be worth a spe­cial vis­it: among these are Cus­toms Brew Bar on Ghuznee Street, Mem­phis Belle on Dixon, and Lama­son, Welling­ton’s first siphon bar; all three of which make fine espres­so as well as sin­gle ori­gin beans brewed in a num­ber of inter­est­ing ways.

Inner city park­ing isn’t easy at the best of times, so once you have your motorhome parked in one place, we rec­om­mend get­ting around on foot, bus or taxi.

Eva Street / Leeds Street

This lit­tle laneway gets a spe­cial men­tion because it’s packed with Welling­ton food­ie des­ti­na­tions — Six Bar­rel Soda Co, Fix & Fogg Peanut But­ter Com­pa­ny, Leeds Street Bak­ery (try the salt­ed choco­late chip cook­ies) and the Welling­ton Choco­late Fac­to­ry, as well as a piz­za joint and two bars. Oh, and a strip club on the cor­ner.

While you’re there, you might want to pop into one of our favourite bars, Hang­ing Ditch. This bar is pret­ty new but it’s rapid­ly become one of our favourites. It offers exquis­ite cock­tails, decent wine list and a beer selec­tion that’s all craft but lim­it­ed out of def­er­ence to Golding’s next door. You’ll be enter­tained by all the bot­tles hang­ing from the ceil­ing and there’s plen­ty of space to sit and chat.

Markets

Need to buy presents? The Frank Kitts Under­ground Craft Mar­ket on Sat­ur­days is a good bet. If you’re look­ing to fill your face­hole, the Har­bour­side Mar­ket right next to each oth­er on Sun­days in Wai­t­an­gi Park is the place to be. Fri­day nights has the night mar­ket in Left­bank off Cuba Street, and Sat­ur­day night has a food mar­ket in Low­er Cuba Street.

Movie fans

You’ll want to head out to Mira­mar (but if you’re dri­ving your motorhome, be care­ful dur­ing heavy winds cos it gets real gusty going past the air­port). There you’ll find the Weta Cave, as well as the Roxy Cin­e­ma, which is co-owned by Weta guy Sir Richard Tay­lor. The Roxy has recent­ly reopened, restored to its for­mer glo­ry with bonus amaz­ing murals by Greg Broad­more — it has to be seen to be believed. While you’re there, get great Mex­i­can food at La Boca Loca — we love them not just because they’re deli­cious but also because they pay their staff a Liv­ing Wage.

Shopping

You can walk around Welling­ton so eas­i­ly that no doubt you’ll be brows­ing freely, but here are the Wellingtonista’s nom­i­nees for the best shops in town:

• Wan­da Har­land (Petone): Owned by one of the Welling­ton­istas, we‘d still pimp this quirky design/gift shop even if we didn‘t get drunk with its own­er.
• Hol­land Road Yarn Com­pa­ny (Willis Street): You might not realise it but Web­stock Spe­cial Agent Tash 2.0 is not just a girl with an ear­piece – she also makes fan­tas­tic yarn and runs her own shop. Hol­land Road is burst­ing with knit­ting sup­plies and acces­sories, as well as books and oth­er asso­ci­at­ed good­ness.
• Uni­ty Books (57 Willis St): It’s an inde­pen­dent book­shop that is a plea­sure to browse, with knowl­edge­able staff who are more than hap­py to guide you in the direc­tion of a book you’ll love. They fre­quent­ly host launch­es and oth­er events too.
• Slow Boat Records (183 Cuba St): In this mod­ern dig­i­tal age, where the local record shop is a dying breed, Slow Boat is still around and still thriv­ing with their bins full of love­ly love­ly vinyl. Whether you’re after some­thing spe­cif­ic or just want­i­ng to browse for inspi­ra­tion, Slow Boat is a jew­el of Cuba Street.
• Moore Wilson’s Fresh: Recent­ly rede­vel­oped to open it up to the “gen­tri­fied” Col­lege Street, Moore Wil­son will over­pow­er you with its glo­ri­ous smell when you walk past — a mix­ture of fresh pro­duce, cut flow­ers, fresh baked bread and the antic­i­pa­tion of all the glo­ri­ous cheese and choco­late inside. Although we‘re secret­ly a lit­tle sad you no longer need a club card to shop there, it‘s a great place to load up on food, or to just pop into for a few things.

Wi-fi

Free wi-fi is avail­able out­side around the water­front thanks to Trade Me, and in the CBD thanks to @cbdfree. Many cafes and bars — espe­cial­ly the craft beer bars — also offer free wi-fi.

Eat

If you’re want­i­ng to save mon­ey by cater­ing your­self, hit up the super­mar­kets. We’ve seen plen­ty of camper­vans parked at Chaf­fers New World at 227 Wake­field Street, so we know they fit into that car park, but Thorn­don New World has a height lim­it. Try­ing to park near New World Metro at 68 Willis Street or Count­down Metro on Cable Car Lane off Lambton Quay is not rec­om­mend­ed but they are on bus routes.

If you want to buy wine or beer, you’ll be able to find it at most dairies in the Cuba Street area and the New Worlds. There is also a very nice wine shop called Wine Seek­er on Vic­to­ria Street. If spir­its are your thing, there’s Glen­gar­ry on Courte­nay Place, Liquor King at 29 Kent Ter­race, or the stu­den­ty Liquor­land at 233 Vic­to­ria Street. Please remem­ber that there is a liquor ban in all of cen­tral Welling­ton, which means you can’t drink on the street or along the water­front. Unless you’re very very dis­creet (not rec­om­mend­ed).

Beer

Welling­ton is over­flow­ing with craft brew­ers right now. Keep an eye out for Funk Estate, Par­rot Dog, Garage Project (mak­ers of the Web­stock IPA and oth­ers, which you’ll find served up in craft beer bars like Hashigoza­ke, Gold­ings Free Dive, the Malt­house and Tuatara’s Third Eye.

Burgers

Burg­ers are So Hot Right Now, unlike that phrase. Grill Meats Beer or Burg­er Liquor have both got what you need and stay in one place. Oth­er­wise, try and track down Nanny’s Food Truck for a jerk take. Please note: we will END you if you refer to burg­ers as “dude food”.

Food trucks

Food trucks are every­where in Welling­ton now, par­tic­u­lar­ly along the water­front, at Moore Wilson’s, and scat­tered around Courte­nay Place. Some even say there are too many! Your best bets, though, are at the mar­kets men­tioned in the sec­tion above, where you’ll find many of the most pop­u­lar food trucks amongst a huge range of oth­er stalls.

Vegetarians, Vegans, Gluten-Free and Others who are Dietarily Challenged

Almost every restau­rant & cafe in Welling­ton will offer you a veg­e­tar­i­an option, but find­ing veg­an is hard­er to do. Some sug­ges­tions:

• Deluxe Cafe (10 Kent Ter­race): This tiny cafe has a big range of food, offer­ing veg­e­tar­i­an, veg­an and gluten-free sal­ads, sand­wich­es, piz­za, filos and baked good­ness. Every­thing is clear­ly labeled too, so you’ll know what you’re get­ting into.
• Mid­night Espres­so (178 Cuba Street): Open until 3amish, this cafe is the per­fect des­ti­na­tion not just for veg­ans but also for any­one want­i­ng cof­fee, cake, hot food or the per­fect place to watch peo­ple in one of Wellington’s most inter­est­ing streets.
• Aun­ty Mena’s Veg­e­tar­i­an Cafe (167 Cuba Street): It may look run­down, but you don’t go to Aun­ty Mena’s for the decor, luck­i­ly, you go for a wide range of Asiany food with fake meats.

Your turn now. What else should out-of-town­ers check out?

This post was spon­sored by Wilder­ness Motorhomes