I’m not going to lie, the most famous song about the place literally starts with a description of its terrible weather,<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and in late July it might be underselling it.\u00a0 But Wellington is the cultural heart of one of the most beautiful countries on earth.\u00a0 It has a strong literary culture, with classic<\/a> book<\/a> shops,<\/a> National and City Libraries, and Katherine Mansfield’s home in the cities inner suburbs.\u00a0\u00a0 For those going out, there is a vibrant beer and coffee culture, <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and like the rest of the country, the ice cream is second to none.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 New Zealand prides itself on being welcoming to all, and if Wellington isn’t as diverse as Auckland, it tries harder.<\/p>\n All of these points have clearly convinced you that Wellington is a worthy host, so what can you, dear reader, do to help? \u00a0 Well the easiest thing is just not be an idiot and vote against it.\u00a0 If you want to be more supportive however, you can go to the Worldcon site<\/a>, pay for an advance supporting membership to Worldcon 78, and vote for Wellington. <\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi, I’ve covered all my ballots, so time for a personal plea.\u00a0 I’m based in Brisbane, but I did most of my growing up in Wellington, New Zealand.\u00a0 At this years Worldcon, site selection voting will occur for Worldcon 78 in 2020, and Wellington is the only venue on the ballot.\u00a0 However, it is theoretically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19],"tags":[30,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Probably](\"http:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/031215-04-Nasgoul-at-the-Embassy-768x1024.jpg\")
For the SFF fan, it is of course the home to Weta studios<\/a>,<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 Lord of the Rings locations are scattered around the country, and Peter Jackson’s early films were filmed in the outer suburbs of Wellington.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 New Zealand has appeared in numerous science fiction tales, whether as a prison settlement in Star Trek, a refuge at the end of the worlds in the Chrysalids, or as a home to vampires and werewolves (not swear-wolves).\u00a0 The national museum has even preserved key pieces of NZ’s SFF heritage<\/a>.\u00a0 Between New Zealand and Australia, I’m sure it will attract a broad range of local SFF talent and diverse voices.<\/p>\n