Pitch Your Burg:
Wellington Victorious

[Pitch Your Burg invites residents of cities worldwide to convince Gridskipper readers that their city deserves more coverage. Awhile back, Wellington, New Zealand, defeated Baku, Azerbaijan, for the privilege of a long post on Gridskipper. If you'd like to see your own city covered more/better/at all here, send in your own pitch -- with at least one image, as many links as you can, and targeting the Gridskipper audience specifically -- to tips@gridskipper.com.]

Firstly -- and despite the statue above that once graced Wellington International Airport -- Wellington is well over all that Lord of the Rings crap. Er, except for renaming one of the filming sites "Rivendell." And those tours, complete with hobbit ears. And no, you cannot buy Wellington (and the rest of New Zealand) for $2,330. Wellington has a real city's worth of real appeal, all waiting for you after the jump.

It seems appropriate to begin with maps, since Google Maps finally applied road mapping to Wellington just recently. However -- as is the case with a lot newly-Google-Mapped places -- directory info hasn't been mated with map data, which means no searching. Fortunately, you can at least do searches with ZoomIn, which also allows some elementary map fiddling.

Now that you're all orientated: Briefly, Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and sits on the southern tip of the North Island blah blah blah. It's a harbor city nestled at the feet of green hobbity hills, so it gets many points among those in search of the picturesque. You got the waterfront and new urban park (plus the zoo) for outdoorsy purposes. Plus: funicular! Oh yes, the Wellington Cable Car will tote you up the hill to the suburb of Kellburn and the Wellingotn Botanic Garden. And you can always take in a Hurricanes game.

What up with urban culture? The city has generated a local music vibe called the "Wellington sound," a roots/dub subgenre exemplified by bands like Fat Freddy's Drop, the now-defunct TrinityRoots, and the still-funct Black Seeds. A surprisingly vibrant street art scene produces a lot of fine work. The city center is a concentrated mix of commercial and residential blocks, with old and new buildings rubbing shoulders in a genteel arrangement. Much of the hotter nightlife and restaurant action can be found in the Courtney Place neighborhood or in the cafes along Cuba Street. Big malls and upscale mondo-shops reside along the Golden Mile, with more chains taking up space on Lambton Quay; several smaller boutique-friendly stretches are popping up on lanes like Willis and Tory streets, among others.

Several sites provide standard city-guide material to dining, nightlife, events, hotels, and so on, such as Cuisine magazine's restaurant reviews, Feeling Great, Wotzon, and Wellington's official tourism site. Blogwise, Wellington has a thriving and municipally devoted local cadre. Fine examples covering most every aspect of Wellingtonism include WellUrban (who composed the successful burg pitch for the city), Wellingtonista, Grabthar's Hammer, An Intending Father, MLR, NoizyBlog, Drinks After Work, Club Politique, and Ben.run.

So remember that when discussing things Kiwi, it's not all about Auckland. Don't let the occasional earthquake or armless driver or the diminishing crystal meth supply get you down. Love WGTN, and WGTN will love you back.

Rivendell [Greater Wellington Council]
Rover Ring Tour [Rover Tours]
eBay: New Zealand Not for Sale [WP]
Big News: Google Maps street maps for ALL of Australia and New Zealand! [Google Maps Mania]
Wellington, New Zealand [Google Maps]
ZoomIn [Official site]
Wellington [Wikipedia]
Wellington Waterfront [Official site]
Waitangi Park [Wellington Waterfront]
Wellington Zoo [Official site]
Wellington Cable Car [Official site]
Wellingotn Botanic Garden [Official site]
Hurricanes [Official site]
Fat Freddy's Drop [Official site]
TrinityRoots [Amplifier]
Black Seeds [Official site]
Wellington Street Art [Official site]
Wellington Graffiti and StreetArt [Flickr]
Cuisine [Official site]
Feeling Great [Official site]
Wotzon [Official site]
Wellington [New Zealand Tourism]
WellUrban [Official site]
Wellingtonista [Official site]
Grabthar's Hammer [Official site]
An Intending Father [Official site]
MLR [Official site]
NoizyBlog [Official site]
Drinks After Work [Official site]
Club Politique [Official site]
Ben.run [Official site]
Earthquake strikes off New Zealand [KPUA]
Law catches up with armless New Zealand driver [Yahoo!]
NZ cops seize record drugs shipment [ABS-CBN]
We Love WGTN Tees [OTClothing]

[Photo: Tobias Thierer]

Previously: Pitch Your Burg: Wellington