We, for one, welcome our new Webstock overlords

Webstock! Yay!There’s less than a month to go now until the greatest con­fer­ence ever, and since the Wel­ling­tonista is always keen to show off the best parts of our city, we made a Begin­ner­’s Guide to Wel­ling­ton for those who are com­ing in for it from out of town. Even if you live here, there might be some­thing of interest on the list for you, so do have a read, and when you see us at all those places, do feel free to say hi and buy us drinks.

In the summer in the city

1. Have you registered for Web­stock yet? Only 33 more sleeps left to go and we are very very excited!

2. Have you checked out the pro­gramme for Sum­mer City yet? 

Wel­ling­ton City Coun­cil’s three-month fest­iv­al of out­door activ­it­ies. Events include music fest­ivals, extreme sports, cul­tur­al cel­eb­ra­tions and chil­dren’s enter­tain­ment. This year, Sum­mer City’s music per­form­ances focus on Wel­ling­ton bands.

There’s a giant dis­play of info about it at the corner of Man­ners & Cuba Malls, or you can read their event info PDF (because Sum­mer City is not access­ible for every­one?)

3. Brenda has emphas­ised again why she was nom­in­ated for Best Con­tri­bu­tion to the inter­net, with this reveal­ing photo of the por­trait of former may­or Mark Blum­sky, stand­ing out­side Mer­maids Strip Club. Nice one!

A word for our sponsors

So tonight we’re going to party like it’s 2008 at The Annu­al Wel­ling­tonista Awards (come along from 6pm, present­a­tions kick off around 7.30), but before we have too many of the Wel­ling­tonista Cock­tails that Mighty Mighty have designed for us, we want to take a minute or two to give much respect to the delight­ful lovely people who’re help­ing us to make such a great event with their dona­tions of swag and spot prizes. In alpha­bet­ic­al order, mad props go out to:

Adi­das New Zea­l­and: You know who else is from Wel­ling­ton? The Hur­ricanes. And we know that because Adi­das have giv­en us a brand new 2009 Wel­ling­ton Hur­ricanes Super 14 jer­sey with the new embossed print to give away to one lucky tick­et hold­er.

Aimée McLeod: Aimee is a loc­al pot­ter who has made our fab­ulous trophy tiles that the win­ners will be receiv­ing tonight. Her works are for sale in a whole bunch of places, she’s been exceed­ing gen­er­ous and sup­port­ive with her time and mater­i­als, and just quietly, she’s also a pretty choice mum too.

The Back Bench­er: The Back Bench­er Pub is some­what of a fam­ous des­tin­a­tion eat­ery across the road from the Bee­hive with its polit­ic­al-inspired pup­petry, menu and broad­cast show and the ser­vice isn’t half bad either. We’re happy to be giv­ing away three vouch­ers so you too can dine there, but we must warn you – talk to your com­pan­ion quietly if you’re a pub­lic ser­vant, because the enemy is sure to be all around you.

We’re animated with excitement!

Only one more week to go! Thanks to the lovely Miss Fur for cap­tur­ing our excited­ness so awe­somely:

TAWA awards

Are the polls on Stuff.co.nz insultingly stupid?

Hey, wanna buy some pot?

Pot!The Woolshed Pot­ters, who are based at the Gear Homestead in Pori­rua are hav­ing their annu­al Cash’n Carry Sale over the next two week­ends. You should get along and get your hands on some beau­ti­ful hand­craf­ted indi­vidu­al pieces, because they’re great for Xmas presents, and also for your­self.

You might be a little scep­tic­al, think­ing that pot­tery is for hip­pies from the 1970s, but we’ve all seen knit­ting and crochet come back into vogue, so you should jump onto this band­wag­on quickly. Espe­cially if it means you buy pots by Aimée McLeod, which you should, because she is super fant­ast­ic awe­some.

Pot­tery sales are from the Red Barn at the Gear Homestead, Okowai Road, just off Whit­ford Brown Drive in Pori­rua.

Open two week­ends in a row:

  • Sat­urday 6th & Sunday 7th Decem­ber
  • Sat­urday 13th & Sunday 14th Decem­ber
  • 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

Also, while you’re out there, you might want to take the time to explore the Gear Homestead, and pre­tend to blow up some sheep, because that’s where Peter Jack­son filmed much of Bad Taste.

I can taste the celebration already and it’s making me cellar-vate

Just quietly between you and me and every­one we know, there’s some­thing tasty for tast­ing at Cel­lar-Vate on Moles­worth Street this after­noon.

Today is all about hol­i­day drink­ing! We’ve got some fest­ive bubbles and a refresh­ing rose. How could you miss the oppor­tun­ity to sample a quick glass of Cham­pagne on the way home?

See you there 4.30 – 6pm at Cel­lar-Vate.
 

The TAWAs: For Sponsors

So, as you may be aware, we’re going to have one heck of a big party on Decem­ber 18 when we announce the win­ners of our awards. We’re going to have spot prizes for people who’ve voted, and we’re also hop­ing to have swag bags. And this is where you come in. We’d like prizes to give away. We’d like stuff to fill the swag bags with. We espe­cially like things if they’re related to Wel­ling­ton, but if they’re awe­some, it does­n’t really mat­ter where it comes from. 

Want to reach our audi­ence of smart dis­pos­able-income-hav­ing con­sumers? Want to get pro­moted on our site at our most traf­ficky time of year? Want the etern­al love of the Wel­ling­tonista? 

Get in touch with me – johubris@gmail.com.

A reminder: get your nominees in for the Annual Wellingtonista Awards

Soon we’re going to start pub­lish­ing lists of our nom­in­ees for the AWAs (this year, it’s the TAWAs because it’s the Third Annu­al). Always after we do this, we have people go “oh but you should have nom­in­ated blah blah and this and that”, so let us remind you again: if you want some­thing to be nom­in­ated, you need to tell us. Do it now, or forever hold your peace or piece – at least until you get to vote, of course.

US Politics in Wellington

Right now there’s a group of expat Amer­ic­ans drink­ing nervously in JJ Murphy’s, and we’re join­ing them in hop­ing that there will be more of a party in Chica­go than Ari­zona tonight.

Knock on wood – North­ern Rata wood at that!