soup and a scone at Arlo

Best of the Week: May 18-25

Our weekly wrap-up of what’s good,  this time featuring featuring Emma, Joanna and Tom Emma’s bests Best theatre: Farce Onion at BATS – a deeply warming joyous nonsense improvised time Best vibes: Stillwater – I only had a drink there with some mates so I can’t speak to the efficacy of their coffee or food […]

Best of the week: May 11-18 2024

A new weekly feature! Here’s what was good! Hopefully future editions will include bests from other Wellingtonista members too. And don’t forget, if you want to contribute to the site, please email us! Best delivered food of the week The grilled lemongrass chicken salad from Rock Yard (pictured here with slow cooked pork in roti […]

paper bottles of Mothers Ruined Gin on a beach

A ginterview with the mothers of Mothers Ruined

Full disclosure: I have worked with the Mothers on Boom Gin – a collaboration with my ethical clothing company, which is funding a scholarship to the weekend for fat babes that I run. Even if I hadn’t done that though, I would still think they are very cool and interesting people who make delicious products […]

Joel, a Pākeha man, stands outside the beehive and smiles

Meet Joel MacManus, the journalist that Wellington actually deserves

It’s been a very weird week in Wellington where we’re thinking actually Chris Bishop has done good for once with the District Plan? Very strange position to be in. Obviously, city councilors who want a city for the living and future have pushed for this for a very long time, but I don’t think it […]

a screenshot of the Wellingtonista from 2005

A lengthy mea culpa, 20 years of history and a reboot?

If you don’t like lengthy deep navel gazing, take this tl:dr and be on your way until the next post: the Wellingtonista website has been very neglected for a number of years, and I intend to do better – perhaps you might like to contribute something too.  I was 24 when James asked me to […]

Sex Workers of Aotearoa; A Day in the Life of exhibition

Back for the fourth year in a row – Sex Workers of Aotearoa; A Day in the Life of – is an annual art exhibition in which all art has been created by current or past sex workers. The artwork is for sale, showcasing various mediums; photography, ink, paint, mixed media, cross-stitch, sculpture, poetry and more.   […]

Things are getting surreal at Te Papa

We might be stuck in New Zealand for a while, but that doesn’t mean the world can’t come to us (especially if they’re rich, apparently). That’s the cool thing about the new exhibition Surrealist Art: Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen He Toi Pohewa: He Toi Marupō o Muhiama o Boijmans Van Beuningen. You’ll get a […]

Giselle by the Royal New Zealand Ballet

Giselle is a ballet I know very little about, aside from one episode of Angel and reading the synopsis on Wikipedia: The ghost-filled ballet tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl who falls for the flirtations of the deceitful and disguised nobleman Albrecht. When the ruse is revealed, the fragile Giselle dies […]

A couple of new(ish) bars

Hey, remember when we used to be on top of all the openings and closings in town and filled with reviews? Yeah me neither. The ‘ista is old and property-and-business owning now, and we have Twitter instead of our group mailing list. But we can still try! So to that end, here’s a couple of […]

Family-owned Naumi Hotels open Naumi Studio Hotel on Cuba Street

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 […]