There’s been a hotel on Cuba Street for as long as I can remem­ber.  In sixth form my very dar­ing sex-hav­ing friend booked her­self and her boy­friend a room at Trek­kers Hotel for after our ball at Cuba Cuba (but she ended up get­ting too drunk to leave the room).  In the mid naugh­ties, we nom­in­ated the hotel own­er for a TAWA award as super vil­lain of the year and he did not care for that at all. About ten years ago, we went to a Fish­head party there and mod­els said “gosh you’re brave” because we got in our togs and went for a swim, but I’ve been able to swim since I was 7 so I don’t know what’s so brave about that? But any­way. There’s a new own­er now, and a new hotel in the form of the Naumi Stu­dio Wel­ling­ton. And holy crap it looks gor­geous (Pho­tos are sup­plied because I am a shit pho­to­graph­er).

Naumi lobby

Well, when we say new, we mean the old CQ Hotel has had a massive renov­a­tion. And if you’ve spent any time at all in the hotel as it used to be, the new ver­sion will knock your socks off.

The multi-mil­lion dol­lar renov­a­tion took place over the past 18 months, with a sig­ni­fic­ant halt on devel­op­ments through Cov­id-19 lock­down.

There are 115 rooms includ­ing spa­cious juni­or and exec­ut­ive suites, each room expertly designed with com­fort in mind and fur­nished with a smart screen, Net­flix, and by-the-bed device char­ging ports.The exectutive suite of the Naumi

A grand entrance on Dun­lop Street leads you straight to the bar, aptly named Lola Rouge and she is a beauty. Pull up a stool at Lola Rouge, and learn from the bar­keep about hotel cus­todi­an, Lady Naumi. Her story is the found­a­tion of the hotel and its design. Uncov­er her secrets and immerse into the curi­ous and quirky tales of Lady Naumi and what became of her sail­or lov­er.

CEO of Naumi Hotels NZ and Aus­tralia is Mr Gaur­ang Jhun­jh­nuwala who took own­er­ship of the prop­erty in late 2018.

“Devel­op­ing the build­ing espe­cially through Cov­id lock­down restric­tions has been a chal­len­ging labour of love, but to see it all come to life and the doors opened is joy­ful for our fam­ily and we hope you love it as much as we do”

“As most loc­als know, the prop­erty is steeped in his­tory, with stor­ies to be shared and told, as well as some that should prob­ably stay firmly locked in the walls” adds Gaur­ang.

A very green gorgeous lounge

I haven’t stayed there yet, though I am booked in a for a review later this month, but I have stayed at the Naumi at Auck­land Air­port and loved it and all its quirky Insta-per­fect design. I’m sad that the enorm­ous baths haven’t made their way down to Wel­ling­ton, but I under­stand that space is a little bit tight­er in a her­it­age build­ing on Cuba Street.  If the rel­lies are plan­ning on stay­ing at yours these hol­i­days, maybe leave them to it and book your­self a Naumi room instead?