2AWA: Best Suburban Venue

It probably wouldn’t be an unfair call to say that the Wellingtonista focuses most of its attentions on the inner city, despite the fact that some of us live out in the wilds, like Hataitai, Karori and Petone. But that doesn’t mean we’re not aware that there are many awesome things going on outside of Te Aro, and so this category is all about paying tribute to them.

Good things happen in the suburbs too, honest – like this place:

Places after the jump…

2AWA: Best 2007 Wellington-based Event

There’s always something going on in Wellington, and we try our very best to keep you informed. Being only human, there are plenty of things that we miss, but there’s no way in Hell we would have missed any of the things below:
The event that made me get off my arse the most:

Events after the jump…

2AWA: Best Building

We have the serious hots for some of the architects architecture around town. Buildings that not only function as they were intended but also make the streets a more exciting and pleasant place to be make us happy people.

Put on the Barry White because if this building was a person, I would be making sweet sweet luuurve to it right now:

After the jump, we present the buildings…

2AWA: Best Public Art

Here are the nominees for the Best Public Art category for the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards (2AWA).

What is that?:

Art is what separates Man from Beast (apart from those monkeys with typewriters who came up with the screenplay for Melody Rules, of course). Therefore it’s only fitting that we recognise the public art around the city that makes Wellington the colourful, vibrant place that it is. Of course, it’s a subjective area, but these are the pieces that really make us do double-takes as we move around.

(nominees after the jump)

2AWA: Best drink nominations

Here are the nominees for the Best Drink category for the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards (2AWA).

When I am not having a martini, I like to drink a___

There are many many places offering many many cocktails in Wellington, but we want to know what the very best of them is. There’s a party in our collective mouth, and these drinks are invited…

(nominees after the jump)

Announcing the Second Annual Wellingtonista Awards: nominations

The Wellingtonista is ridiculously pleased to announce the Second Annual Wellingtonista Awards. We’ve cut down the previously insanely long title because of all the excitement and adventure that we need to fit in. And hooooooooooo boy, we’ve got some exciting things going on. Here’s what’s going to happen:

  1. Over the next week, we’ll announce the categories and the nominees in a series of posts, with a little bit of a blurb about why we chose them. We’ll also make sure to provide you with a handy map and directions so you can get out there and check out all the nominees.
  2. We’ll open up online voting on November 19, Voting is now open, so you get to have your say. We’ll ask you to include a name and email address so that a) you don’t cheat and b) if you come along to the awards night, you;ll be up for some fantastic prizes.
  3. We’ll close voting on December 4.
  4. On Thursday December 6, we’ll announce the winners at a huge big stonking party, in association with some other very very awesome people who we’ll tell you about as soon as everything is locked down (and let me just say, I’m kinda wetting my pants in glee about it all). We’d love you to come along to our awards and party with us, please. You won’t regret it. Except for in the morning. But after you’ve had another coffee you’ll be fine with it.

Also, this year, at the awards, we will be asking those of you who can to make a donation to the Downtown Community Ministry, and here’s why:

  • We love this city, right? And so therefore, it is important that we actually do good things for it, as well as talking about it all the time.
  • We eat and drink to excess, and it’s awesome that we celebrate that, but it might be nice if we think about the people who have difficulty eating, or who have problems with drinking.
  • Blanket Man was voted Favourite Wellingtonian at the Wellingtonista Awards last year. How about we give some attention to the not-so-visible homeless people?

So get out there and start checking out our nominations as we put them up, and then come back and vote when we open it up on November 19. Yay!

Nominations currently include:

Tell us what you really think

Two challenges for today.

1. We’ve started work on planning the Second Annual Wellingtonista Awards for Excellence in the field of Achievement, and so we’d like your feedback on how the awards for you last year, what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what we should change.

2. We’re lazy, so come up with a plan to answer this for a friend who’s planning a trip to Wellington:

i want to go somewhere and drink cocktails. and i want tasty cafes for lunches and at least one reasonably nice restaurant, and maybe a nice but cheap one too.

Halloween Howl II

It may come as somewhat of a surprise to you to discover that Wellington has a pro-wrestling circuit. However, now you know, you really must come along to Halloween Howl II on Saturday October 27. It starts at 7.30pm so you’ll be out in time to attend other Halloween shindigs, and damn, it’s men in tights. Writhing around on a mat together. How rad is that? We especially recommend that you cheer for Lazarus Volt, and that you come dressed up to go with the Halloween theme.

Wellingtonista Celeb Vista: Figwit shops!

You know that we love Zoomin technology. And that we love talented people from and/or in Wellington. And that we love gossip. And that we love Gawker Stalker. Well, now we’ve gone all Web2.0 on you and brought all those elements together to create the Wellingtonista Celeb Vista. Join it and add your celeb sightings and stories to the map. To boost our search results for everyone looking for Flight of the Conchords get things started, find out where Bret McKenzie does his grocery shopping…
Easy instructions on how to participate follow after the jump

Time to veg out

October 1 is World Vegetarian Day, so we’d like you to comment and tell us about your favourite vege-friendly places to eat in Wellington.

We’d also like to encourage you to check out the Wellington Vegetarian Food & Lifestyle Festival on Saturday Saturday September 29 at St Johns in the City, Cnr Willis and Dixon Streets.

Join us to celebrate World Vegetarian Day with an exciting range of stalls covering everything from vegetarian cookery demonstrations and tastings, lifestyle products, cruelty-free beauty products, to nutritional information. View documentaries played on a big screen being run throughout the day, and hear informative speakers talk about human health, the environmental effects of food production, new education initiatives in schools, animal health, and animal rights.

Or if that all sounds like too much hard work, here’s a really easy recipe for dhal.