Capital Questions with Ben Woodward

Ori­gin­ally hail­ing from Perth, Ben and his wife Helen made the move to Wel­ling­ton in Janu­ary last year. He instantly fell for the city and star­ted @WhyWellington on Twit­ter and Ins­tagram as a way of show­cas­ing what makes Wel­ling­ton unique and spe­cial, encour­aging Wel­ling­to­ni­ans to use the #Why­Wel­ling­ton hasht­ag to share what we love about the capital.

Just months into the pro­ject, @WhyWellington now reaches over 9,000 people every day and con­tin­ues to grow quickly. Ben took time out from his busy sched­ule to grab a drink with Fish­Head at Ori­ent­al Bay.

If it’s been a hard week at work and I’m in need of a drink I’ll be at… Cuckoo Cock­tail Empori­um hav­ing an Old Fig, which is a fig-infused Old Fash­ioned. Oth­er­wise I’ll be at Bur­ger Liquor hav­ing a $10 bour­bon and beer combo with the pork belly burger.

If I need a slap-up feed and a cup of Wellington’s finest cof­fee I’ll be at… Boon Broth­ers’ Crum­pet hav­ing the Gentleman’s Pair­ing, which is an espresso and a grappa for $9. It’s a good little heart-starter in the morn­ing! Then I’ll move along to Five Bor­oughs for the South Pacific eggs and bot­tom­less coffee.

On week­ends you will find me… walk­ing, walk­ing, walk­ing. I love a good walk! My favour­ite is the City to Sea, mainly because no mat­ter where you are on that route, if you change your mind along the way there’s a sub­urb you can drop into and get a beer.

My favour­ite Wel­ling­ton land­mark is… the Mt Vic swing, but it’s been taken down! Let’s change that. Tweet #Bring­TheSwing­Back and #Why­Wel­ling­ton to start a movement.

The Wel­ling­to­ni­an that I would take to a pub quiz is… Taika Wai­titi. He’d be my Kiwiana pop cul­ture wingman!

I star­ted @WhyWellington because… before I moved here so many people kept ask­ing me, why Wel­ling­ton? About the thou­sandth time I was asked the ques­tion, I decided to start a Twit­ter account to help answer it.

@WhyWellington can also be used for… pro­mot­ing events, find­ing lost pets, ask­ing ques­tions about the city. It’s not just about post­ing images, but also about bring­ing the com­munity together.

The future of @WhyWellington looks like… telling more stor­ies. It’s about how to move past just post­ing awe­some pic­tures, to being able to bet­ter tell the stor­ies of our city. It might be about a little kid’s sports team or some­body who has been writ­ing a book for 20 years and has just had it pub­lished. I want there to be more depth behind it all.

I do what I do because… I freak­ing dig this town! I love it and it’s the place that feels like home. I’ve now been here just over a year and for both myself, and my wife, our last 12 months has been the hap­pi­est of our lives, and that’s because of Wel­ling­ton. I love the walkab­il­ity, the sun­sets, the eat­ing and drink­ing places, and the people. I want to give some­thing back to the city and help oth­ers enjoy Wel­ling­ton as much as I do.