Vot­ing in the Fourth Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards is open from Decem­ber 1–15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on Decem­ber 17!

To vote, vis­it this page.

Welling­ton is made up of lots of pri­vate spaces, but it’s the pub­lic spaces that real­ly bring the city to life. These are the places that you’ll find us loi­ter­ing in.

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Cuba Mall: Many of our read­ers nom­i­nat­ed Cuba Mall, or Cuba Street as a whole, and we’ll include the Left Bank and its adja­cent dark alleys to make up a diverse pedes­tri­an expe­ri­ence at the heart of Te Aro. If you believe that pub­lic spaces are for watch­ing and meet­ing peo­ple rather than get­ting away from them, then Cuba Mall is the place to be. The archi­tec­ture, shops and cafes are all part of the charm, but more than any­thing else, Cuba is a space made of peo­ple.

The Water­front: More of a net­work of spaces than a sin­gle space, the water­front is still a work in progress. The fact that some of the newest com­po­nents, such as Kumu­to­to and Wai­t­an­gi Park, were sin­gled out for spe­cial men­tion by our read­ers, bodes well for the future. With a com­bi­na­tion of green space, blue space, mar­kets, events, bars and art, the water­front is becom­ing an ever more inte­gral part of the city.

The Basin Reserve: It’s not often thought of as a “pub­lic space”, but the Basin Reserve is open to the pub­lic when there’s no match on, and the com­bi­na­tion of space and his­to­ry makes it tru­ly spe­cial. No one real­ly knows what will hap­pen with the roads around it, or how much that would affect the Basin itself, but the reac­tion to the pro­posed fly­over proves how impor­tant this place is to many Welling­to­ni­ans.

Days Bay: It’s a long way from the city, but the fer­ry ser­vice makes it one of the most acces­si­ble beach­es in the Welling­ton region. The wharf, the cafes, the sun, the bush and the Kather­ine Mans­field con­nec­tion all make it an indis­pens­able part of any Welling­ton sum­mer.

Ori­en­tal Bay: Hav­ing such a beau­ti­ful beach so close to the city means that any time Welling­ton gets a lit­tle sun­shine, Ori­en­tal Parade is clogged with traf­fic. Who can blame the mass­es, though? There’s cafes to drink in, gela­to to lick, croc­o­dile bikes to ride, and walls to climb. You can swim out to the raft or foun­tain (if you’re brave!), get some sun, or sit on top of the rotun­da and wish it con­tained a prop­er restau­rant instead of the Fish­er­man’s Table. At night, the rich peo­ple leave their lights on and you can stare into their apart­ments pre­tend­ing you live there. It’s grand.