On Thursday I took a step back in time to the early 1930s and entered the Roxy Cinema. Dan will, I’m sure, tell you more later about just what sort of cinema the Roxy is. For those who can’t wait it’s the first purpose-built 3D cinema in the country, with the best technology out there. […]
There’s always something to do in this town we love, but these are the pick of the crop, and are circled in red on our calendars. We’re counting the sleeps until next year’s events!
Stuff, glorious stuff, oh how we love to take you home with us. These are the places we go to window lick, tire kick and buy, buy, buy. Love your work, people.
Art experiences often don’t require wordy explanations, but whatever these experiences could be classed as, they definitely moved us.
For my first Wellington on a Plate meal deal, I decided to go to Finc, with the delightful company of a friend I’d just seen killed twice on Saturday night. People have differing opinions about Finc, but for myself, I’ve always found it great in the evenings and very average at lunchtimes. For pork belly, I would take the plunge.
I spent two weeks living on the 28th floor of a hotel in Tokyo when I was ten, and ever since then, I have been obsessed with hotels. As you probably know, here at the Wellingtonista, we’re also very fond of free food and drink, so when the Travelodge invited us to for Cocktails & Canapes, of course we responded enthusiastically.
The Travelodge is off Glimer Terrace, going up and down the Plimmer Steps. It used to be the Copthorne, but for the past year it’s been part of the (Australian) Toga Hospitality. The rooms have all been done up, and then their function areas, and finally Steps Restaurant, so they threw themselves a shindig to celebrate.
When we arrived, navigating a maze of escalators and lifts up from Lambton Quay, I was momentarily all atwitter with "Wine is NOT a cocktail, dammit!" but then I realised that we were drinking bubbly with strawberry liqueur in it, and that does indeed count, so I retract my tweet. The canapes, meanwhile, were delicious. Vegetable tempura was hot and amazingly crisp, lamb meatballs super flavoursome, the prawns looked good if you like that sort of thing, crostini were plentiful and the pork belly with apple sauce was a nice idea although it could have been a bit more crackled. And then after speeches, out came dessert canapes – fruit tarts, mini pavlovas and truly excellent brownies. It was a great range of food, and there was mountains of it, ferried around by lovely staff. Based on that, I would have no hesitation in recommending Steps Restaurant for a function if you are looking for a hotel environment.
Congratulations to Angus who won last week’s prize. This week, to celebrate Wellington on a Plate, thanks to the lovely Positively Wellington Tourism, we have a $100 voucher for Rata Cafe at Zealandia (the bird sanctuary in Karori) to give away.
If you’re the lucky winner, you might want to use it to have lunch in order to get your bearings before a night tour of the sanctuary (the cafe is only open until 5pm, mind) or when you take advantage of the special winter rate of admission to the information centre.
Of course, if you’re just in it for the food, we wouldn’t blame you! Rata has a particularly spectacular deck overlooking the sanctuary, and a menu (PDF) that offers up free range and organic goodness. As part of Wellington on a Plate, they’ve got a special deal for $25:
There are craft markets that happen occasionally like Craft 2.0 and the Knack, which we get suitably excited about at the time, but another market that happens every weekend takes place on Saturdays in the underground carpark at Frank Kitts.
Usually they have a mix of stalls, food and music, but tomorrow they have a particular focus:
"Wonders of Wool" Market
Showing off the region’s fibre artists, spinners, felters, knitters & weavers.
Including demonstrations on spinning, weaving, crocheting as well as some specifically for the kids.
Over 60 stalls, including:
The market runs from 10am-4pm, it’s under cover, and the organisers promise it’ll be warm, so if you’re up for some yarn, you should definitely go along and check it out, not least because my aunt will be selling off her huge stash of weaving wool (we’re all about the nepotism here, of course).
Voting in the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards is open from December 1-15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on December 17!
To vote, visit this page.
When we want the best thing to wet our whistles with, we will seek these drinks out.
Voting in the Fourth Annual Wellingtonista Awards is open from December 1-15. Then come find out the results at our Awards Night at Mighty Mighty on December 17!
To vote, visit this page.
There are things that happen in Wellington that make us break out the big thick permanent markers to circle those dates on the calendar, and these are the pick of those events.