We had a rather heat­ed debate over the Welling­ton­ista email list over the inclu­sion of this cat­e­go­ry in the awards, with one per­son think­ing it was deroga­to­ry and insult­ing. That per­son got told quite stern­ly to “READ THE WIKI ALREADY!” so they could dis­cov­er that the hos­pi­tal­i­ty peo­ple we were pay­ing trib­ute to weren’t being objec­ti­fied mere­ly for their looks, but also for the qual­i­ty of ser­vice that they pro­vide and the way that they con­tribute to the over­all expe­ri­ence of a place. And that’s not objec­ti­fy­ing at all, hon­est…

Can I have a pint…and your phone num­ber, thanks:
Hot­ties (or rather: ‘tal­ent­ed good peo­ple’) are after the jump…

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…

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…

Here are the nom­i­nees for the Most Need­ed cat­e­go­ry for the 2nd Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards (2AWA)

Welling­ton most needs:

Welling­ton’s pret­ty close to per­fec­tion, but there are a few things that we need. More smart peo­ple to par­tic­i­pate in local elec­tions so we don’t end up with Ker­ry again. A liv­ing wage for the Welling­ton­istas. More celebri­ties, appar­ent­ly. And also these things:

(nom­i­nees after the jump)

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…

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

Web-Writ­ing-Welling­to­ni­ans:

We love Welling­ton. And we love the Inter­webs. So what could we love more than some­one writ­ing from Welling­ton on the Inter­web? Exact­ly. Our nom­i­nees are a diverse bunch to reflect the tremen­dous amount of tal­ent that goes on in our city, and to rep­re­sent all kinds of dif­fer­ent things..

(nom­i­nees after the jump)

Here are the nom­i­nees for the Best Local Cof­fee Beans cat­e­go­ry for the 2nd Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards (2AWA)

Hook it straight into my vein:

The Wom­en’s Peti­tion Against Cof­fee, in 1674, declared:

Only a Pimp to the Tav­ern, a rel­ish­ing soop prepar­a­tive to a fresh debauch: For when peo­ple have swill’d themelves with a morn­ing draught of more Ale than brew­ers horse can car­ry, hith­er they come for a pen­ny­worth of Set­tle-brain … and after an hours imper­ti­nent Chat, begin to con­sid­er a bot­tle of Claret would do excel­lent well before Din­ner; where­upon to the Bush they all march togeth­er, till every one of them is Drunk as a Drum, and then back again to the Cof­fee-House to drink them­selves sober.

We, on the oth­er hand, don’t say any­thing at all until we’ve had our dai­ly fix. It’s Welling­ton, it’s cof­fee that pumps through our hearts and our minds thick­er than blood.

(nom­i­nees after the jump)

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)

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

Good­bye pay-pack­et, hel­lo mer­chan­dise:

Some­times we like to pre­tend to be filthy hip­pies, and care about things like glob­al­i­sa­tion, and con­sumerism, debt and exces­sive con­sump­tion. But then we see all the shiny things for sale in these shops, and all those thoughts go right out the win­dow as we rush towards the pret­ties with our arms wide open.

(nom­i­nees after the jump)