I have family dotted from Auckland to Wellington, pivoting at Hawkes Bay, so for a girls’ meet-up I flew one-way to the capital city and met my sister, who had driven from the farm to visit her daughter (my niece), and return via car over a few days. Lol – did you need to know all that?! Sorry.
Anyway, we chose to stay at the Cake Tin (excuse me – Westpac Stadium)/Beehive end of Wellington, at the Holiday Inn on Featherson Street. I’d heard much about this hotel and remember reading the press releases when it opened, brand new, in 2007. It was the ‘flagship’ Holiday Inn for New Zealand. The new breed to change the old connotations of inn/motel and step into the 4-star end of the market.
If only they could drop the word ‘inn’. The name belies its style. It scooped awards for the Wellington architects, has won tourism awards in NZ and a prize for best new Holiday Inn in Asia Pacific in 2008.
Pip met me at Wellington airport (sans welcoming banner. I’m just saying…) and we followed the signs to the train station, which is a block from the hotel. Parking on the street out in front was available so we unloaded, popped money in the meter and checked in.
The lobby has a bar and restaurant – named Plate (and they do two for one cocktails on a Friday night between 5 and 7pm!). This is where you come for your buffet breakfast and lunch, and a la carte dinner. Lunch is also about to become a la carte – which I’m pleased to hear.
It’s hard to eat a buffet well, I reckon. You always tend to put too many little tastes on the one plate and by the time you’re back at your table the meat juices have mixed with the fish juice and the salad is buried under that sudden spoonful of stroganoff you saw just as you were heading back to your table. Ideally, I say get three plates (who cares what anyone else thinks) and load them with three individual courses, but I digress…
We were upgraded to a harbour view suite with twin queen-sized beds and a pillow menu. (I ordered a feather one.) Each room also has a kitchenette so we were able to chill our wine and make a cuppa. The décor is natural colours and crisp white linens accented with deep brown or a splash of red. I like minimal so this is very me.
I also really liked their wall art. Wellington photographer Andrew McDougall was commissioned to provide 30 funky images for the 250 rooms. He’s taken ordinary, every day items, put them on a light table and zoomed in with such bizarre close-up that they’re just a blaze of bright colour and texture and you have to figure out what they could possibly be. Here’s one for starters.
The gymette (for that is what it is!) has only a couple of sweating machines in it, but it’s made up for by the 17m lap pool, a sauna and whirlpool with views from the window – and vice versa. (I heard a whisper that office staff across the road sometimes ring reception to tell them to “check out the couple in the whirlpool”…)
Green ticks:
• Recycling bins are located by the lifts on each floor for your newspapers and bottles.
• Corridors have sensors to only turn the lights on when there is movement.
• All rooms have energy-efficient light bulbs.
• And it goes without saying that you can reuse your towels and bed linen.
• For Earth Hour they lit the foyer with candles and played acoustic guitar.
Holiday Inn Wellington
75 Featherston Street
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