Edge espressoholics

The Star attributes Wellington’s creativity and can-do attitude to its extraordinary topography and world-ranking caffeine intake. “Wellington, the ‘windy city,’ definitely enjoys one of the most challenging locations on earth. ‘Here’s your brief,’ the city designers must have said to the builders. ‘Find the hilliest place in New Zealand, preferably right on a fault line; build all the houses on the sides of cliffs so that they threaten at any moment to tumble down into the harbour, and make the roads and footpaths as steep as you possibly can.’ The result is a 3D city without peer, a training ground for mountain goats and mountaineers … Every turn you take reveals breath-changing vistas, or funky street sculptures, or bars and cafés that would not be out of place in Paris or New York.” The writer imbibes quality coffee at Wellington institutions Caffe L’Affare and Emporio, visits the award-winning multimedia firm Click Suite, watches the animated film The Ring: Wagner’s Dungeons and Dragons at Circa Theatre, and takes a tour of Te Papa.