2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards - your turn to vote up Wellington

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As you shurely musht know I am a proud (if infrequent) member at the finest of Wellington blogs, The Wellingtonista ("random stuff about New Zealand's capital city since 2005").

Not only is this site the place to have all your Wellington questions answered, catch-up on the latest happenings and generally find out who's doing what to who it is also the site that organises the only Annual Wellington Awards that gives YOU the power to say what rocks about this city of ours.

In a nutshell, the 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards is:
  • 20 categories
  • Voting open Monday, November 19th
  • Voting closes Tuesday, December 4th
  • Awards Gala held on Thursday, 6th December

The voting categories are going up now; so far you have details of the nominees for the following (subscribe to The Wellingtonista to ensure you don't miss the rest - I will also let you know on this blog posting):
  1. Best drink nominations

    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...

  2. Best Late-Night Venue nominations

    When even Winston Peters has gone to bed, the best bar to go to is:

    Sure, town is banging and humming around midnight. But what if the bar you're in starts closing and you're not ready to go home yet? Where do you head to then?

  3. Best Shop nominations

    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.

  4. Best Public Art nominations

    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.

  5. Best Coffee Beans nominations

    Hook it straight into my vein:

    ... It's Wellington, it's coffee, it's what pumps through our hearts and our minds thicker than blood.

This is the full and frank 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards intro:
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, and you'll 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 winnders 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?

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