Coastal cool: embracing the lifestyle

BRONWYN TORRIE

Wellington likes to celebrate its status as the coolest little capital, but there's more to the metropolis than the hubbub of the inner-city. In a three-part series, Bronwyn Torrie finds out why Wellingtonians are proud to live in the coolest little suburbs. Part One: The South Coast.

Wellington's South Coast has been dubbed the new "Nappy Valley" as young families flock to the area bringing elements of cool with them. It also helps that many celebrities call the area home. So how do the suburbs on the wild coastline rate?

MIRAMAR

Miramar is Mira-marvellous, according to many a Miramarian.

The once-shabby suburb, which was home to a gasworks and booming manufacturing industry, has been evolving into a classy creative hub since Sir Peter Jackson and his movies began pouring money into the area a decade ago.

The remnants of its industrial past are a stark contrast to the rich and famous and new young families who have injected life into the former ghost town.

The newbies have been quick to latch on to Miramar's cool factor. In fact, they are so proud of their patch on the peninsula that T-shirts emblazoned with "Proud to be a Miramarian" were circulated this year at the Worser Bay School fair.

Welshman Mike Riversdale, who has adopted the alias Miramar Mike, moved to the suburb nine years ago with his wife.

"It was a place that the worker ants of the world came and lived. It was cheap, it was cheerful. The film industry kicked things off ... it's got a lot of colour, it's not beige and boring any more. It's certainly becoming a very cool and trendy place to live."

The "gravitational pull" of the glammed-up Roxy Cinema has kept the momentum going, "dragging it up from `hey, we've got a pet shop' to `we've got some really cool restaurants and bars'," Mr Riversdale says.

Allan Probert is also proud of what has become the capital's cog of creativity. Weta minions have boosted the need for hip foodie places like Mexican restaurant La Boca Loca and The Larder.

By day Mr Probert is a vet but by night he becomes Enterprise Miramar Peninsula Trust chairman, championing everything good about Miramar.

And it's all good, according to him. Stunning beaches and mountain bike tracks, and much of Wellington's military and Maori history are there.

"You name it, we've just about got it," Mr Probert says. "People here are quite parochial, quite proud, and it reflects on the community. The morale of the place at the moment is at an all-time high."

Miramar

Did you know: The peninsula's Maori name, Te Motu Kairangi, means Precious Island. A huge earthquake in 1460 closed the channel called Te Awa-a-Taia, which separated the island from the mainland.

House values: Average house value $487,111.

Go: Summerfest – boutique, family-friendly food and beer festival at Worser Bay Boating Club on February 26.

See: The Weta Cave – just so you know, there are no rude bits under Gollum's loin cloth.

Taste: Alamir Bakery's legendary lebanese bread – time it for baking day.

LYALL BAY

Home to some pretty famous people by New Zealand standards, Lyall Bay is becoming the place to be if you're fond of roaring planes and howling winds.

And when a blockbuster flick is being created you may even spot a celeb like Orlando Bloom, who was seen strolling the promenade recently with model wife Miranda Kerr and their baby boy Flynn.

A couple of musicians in Fat Freddy's Drop call the bay home and the band recorded its first album, Based on a True Story, in a Queens Dr basement.

They moved around the corner to another house to record their follow-up album, Dr Boondigga and the Big B, released in 2009.

"Coming back to Lyall Bay really kept it real," publicist Sarah Hunter says.

"It's the opposite of how overseas bands were recording but I think it's very Wellington."

While we're dropping names, the suburb is also home to Havana Coffee Works co-owner Tim Rose and Logan Brown co-founder Al Brown.

But what really makes Lyall Bay cool is the breakwater at the eastern end which lures surfers even on the coldest winter day.

"On its day it's world class," says veteran surfer Lars von Minden, 39.

A bold statement from a man who's surfed his way around the world.

The architect began surfing Lyall Bay – which has an average of 27 good surfing days a year – when he was 13 years old.

"I grew up in Eastbourne and got my mum to drop me there when I was a grommet."

Now he drives from his Houghton Bay house when he's not working in Auckland and susses out whether to take out his long or short board from Maranui Cafe while sipping a flat white and fuelling up on quinoa salad.

Maranui is arguably the coolest cafe on the coast if you don't mind waiting a while to be seated during the weekend brunch rush.

It was resurrected from ashes after a 2009 fire and has been killing it ever since. Co-owner Matt Wilson says the cafe has been frantic and the downstairs Maranui Surf Life Saving Club has had a resurgence, with 150 nippers on its books this year.

Exposed to the northerly and southerly winds, Maranui is home to some other topnotch cafes and several big box stores.

It even has its own radio station, Lyall Bay Radio on 107.5FM, and the little-known Time Cinema.

Lyall Bay

Did you know? Maranui Surf Life Saving Club was established next to Lyall Bay Surf Life Saving Club after a whopping great argument in 1910 between two members. One got the pip and started Maranui in 1911, just a few hundred metres away from the other club.

Average house value: $490,000

Go: Watch windsurfers whirl above the waves at the Wellington Windsurfing Freewave on January 28.

See: Planes landing precariously in high winds at Wellington Airport.

Taste: Dishes mastered by yourself at Elements Cafe cooking classes.

SEATOUN

Once a mecca for rich retirees, Seatoun is being overtaken by families whose teenagers mooch around the local dairy chatting up each other.

Jumping off the wharf is popular among the younger folk, while mums and bubs build sandcastles on the beach where lifeboats from the floundering Wahine landed in 1968. The disaster, which killed 51 people, is marked by a memorial park which includes the ship's anchor and chain.

Mum-of-three Liz Stringer has lived in the suburb with her family for 18 years, minus stints in Hong Kong, Sydney and Auckland.

"It's a quiet pace of life ..." she says – but for kids, there's plenty of action. "Our children liked to jump off the wharf and this morning they went kayaking over to Scorching Bay to Scorch-O-Rama [Cafe], it's about 25 minutes each way."

Mrs Stringer opened chic fashion boutique Harry's three years ago on Dundas St next to the book shop and across the road from the dairy, which has a constant stream of icecream-licking customers during summer.

"The gorgeous thing is the young teenagers, let's say 12 to 14. They all meet outside the dairy and chat and eye each other up, it's so cute."

Kids biking and scooting along the streets adds to the "old-fashioned feel", she says.

But it's only a quick hop, skip and jump to the nudist beach at Breaker Bay, where there is also a surf break.

Step back in time at the Seatoun Club, for hearty nosh and pints at 70s prices. The Bowling Club and RSA merged under the one roof and proudly display photos of their past. It's that old-world, small-village feel that keeps Seatoun cool.

Seatoun

Did you know? Seatoun could only be reached by boat before the Seatoun tunnel was opened in 1907.

Average house value: $837,944.

Go: Friday night jazz at Zak's Cafe every fortnight.

See: Plentiful paua and crayfish on the rocks around the bay.

Taste: Build your own breakfast at Seatoun Cafe and Bar.

ISLAND BAY

Snorkelling, kayaking, swimming. Island Bay is definitely the coolest suburb for ocean exploring.

"It is another world right on our doorstep. All you have to do is be a little bit brave and put your head in the water to have a look," Island Bay Marine Education Centre discovery programme co-ordinator Julian Hodge says.

"We have very cool creatures."

The calm waters in the sheltered bay, where fishing boats bob, are home to more than 180 fish species and New Zealand's only species of seahorse.

Strap on a snorkel and flippers and go hunting for octopus, crayfish, crabs, anemones, neon seaweed and starfish swimming in their natural environment.

But leave your fishing rod at home – all creatures within the 854-hectare Taputeranga Marine Reserve are for looking at, not eating.

Created in August 2008, the reserve stretches about 5km along the coast between Houghton Bay and the old Owhiro Bay quarry and 2.3km out to sea.

"People don't realise that in Wellington we've got all this really cool stuff that you don't have to go to Fiji to look at," says Mr Hodge, who takes snorkelling tours.

The "unknown jewel" of Island Bay has to be the spectacular view from Taputeranga Island, which is just a short kayak paddle from the mainland.

From the small hill, look back at the valley for a fresh perspective towards Newtown.

About 6km from Wellington city, the bay has become a little Italy.

Carlo Muollo's family has been fishing in Island Bay since 1902 and though the number of fishing boats is dwindling and the number of cafes is growing, it will always be a fishing village.

"There will always be two or three boats in the bay but more pleasure boats than anything now," the retired fisherman and two-time president of the local bowling club says.

The tight-knit community of yesteryear is still clinging on, though more new families are moving into the area.

"It's just home," says Mr Muollo. "It hasn't changed too much."

And that's why it's cool.

On Monday we cruise the city fringe and find some of Wellington's oldest suburbs, which have transformed into cool, lively neighbourhoods.

Island Bay Did you know? The red rocks at Owhiro Bay are the byproduct of undersea volcanic material.

Average house value: $529,778

Go: Marine Education Centre is open every Sunday between 10am and 3pm.

See: On a rainy day escape to Empire Cinema and Cafe.

Taste: Floyd's double down  bacon sandwiched between two corn fritters slathered in sweet chilli sauce.

- © Fairfax NZ News