Courtenay Place After Dark, Where Wellington Lets Loose

Wellington’s nightlife lives on Courtenay Place, and there’s plenty of room for both sin and sophistication.

Courtenay Place cuts through Wellington like a well-worn battle scar with 450 metres of action-packed nightclubs, ambitious cocktail bars and restaurants, and lively Wellington theatres. It’s both unrestrained and impossibly polite, reshaping the idea of a party drag towards Welly’s calm and collected charm.

While it may be rowdy, loud and brash at the best of times, this stronghold for Wellington nightlife is, in its own odd little way, beautifully contrasted with the capital’s overall pleasant atmosphere. Everyone needs to cut loose once in a while, even a city as tranquil and progressive as this.

Days in Wellington are best spent exploring the city’s fashionable dining scene, dialling in some Wellington beach time, jogging the waterfront, hiking the hills, and visiting the famous Museum of New Zealand Te Papa. But the sun’s escape usually means a mass exodus to Courtenay Place, a shouty calling card for locals and visitors, scribbled in neon and stained with spicy margaritas. 

The crowd skews young, but age is rarely a factor when you’ve got so much diversity packed onto the one strip, with half the crowd hopping between nightclubs and bars and the other half letting their hair down at restaurants both upscale and casual. Here’s how to have the ultimate night out in Wellington’s Courtenay Place.

The bars of Courtenay Place are far from the paint-by-numbers boltholes you’ll find on many touristy strips around the world. Wellington takes great pride in its most misbehaved strip, so you’ll find bars that both reflect the controlled chaos and push away from it with a hushed nonchalance.

Start hushed. You’ll want to file into The Library when it opens at 5pm, before the crowd starts kicking in. The quiet, bookish bar is all shelves lined with aged classics (that you can pick up and read) and sketches of old-world ambiance: think table lamps and vintage framed prints, cosy nooks, and private rooms. A simple, well-built negroni or a sweet old fashioned suits the ambiance to a tee, starting the night at a slower pace before you speed through Courtenay Place’s fuller throttle.

Keep the stylish and low-key theme going with Wellington’s most celebrated speakeasy, Hawthorn Lounge. This studious masterclass in mixology takes its cues from the classics and makes each feel like a special occasion. At any given moment you’ll hear groups of mates arguing over boardgame rules in one corner, drowning out the quiet couple discussing art in the other. It’s that kind of place where pinpointing any one type of crowd is pointless and even Wellington’s biggest nightlife cynics are found chatting intently with debonair barkeeps. 

These aren’t the types of bars Courtenay Place hangs its notoriety on, however. You want cheap, cheerful, and slightly questionable if you want a night out in the noisy part of town. You’ll meet some interesting characters at The Welsh Dragon Bar, a subversive stand-in for Wales remarkably set inside a public toilet that’s been painted, gutted and given glory with sloshes of traditional ale and a litany of Welsh reference. What are Welsh references, you ask? They’re basically just piles upon piles of Tom Jones memorabilia. And yes, you'll likely hear the full-throated baritone bouncing around the former bathroom.

End the night with a boogie at El Horno. The good time party bar tastes like a 3am kebab and functions like your most questionable life choices, but the kitschy vibe is worth the ride. The club is open until 4am and it says a lot that you’ll still find the dancefloor still stomping well until closing time. This is the Courtenay Place locals know and secretly still love. 

Locals secret: If skipping the dancefloor makes more sense for you, pop into Poquito where there’s barely enough room to bust out the moves. It’s hard to tell whether this is a bar or someone’s living room, but the solid rum collection, and bartenders who probably know your name before you even introduce yourself, make this the vibiest scene, possibly on the entire North Island. And, like most places around here, it’s open until 4am. 

The 54-room Mercure Wellington Central City Hotels & Apartments is just an easy nine minute walk from the unrelenting fun of Courtenay Place. You’ll want somewhere nice and spacious to relax after a big night out on the nightlife strip, so having a set of one- and two- bedroom apartments to pick from is valuable. 

Your modern, self-contained, and well-planned apartment hotel is the best place to plan for a big night out with a few friends. The hotel is just 20 minutes from Wellington Airport so you can get set up as soon as you land, just in case you arrive later in the evening and want to get amongst the action of Courtenay Place as soon as possible.

When you're ready, just take the short walk onto Manners Street and watch the politeness melt away as soon as you reach a row of eight 3-metre high steel and glass LED light boxes. The public art project was commissioned for Courtenay Place in 2008 and signifies the start of a big night out in Wellington. 

Snap your photos fast once the piping hot pile of 12-hour lamb shoulder is placed in front of you. It’ll fall apart upon the slightest poke, flecked into pieces flavoured beautifully by house-made salsa verde and lamb jus. This is the foremost symbol of Hummingbird Eatery & Bar’s generous plating, where a polished, civilised meal is completely at odds with Courtenay Place’s racing pulse. 

Monsoon Poon stands just off Courtenay Place, halfway down Blair Street with its red lantern ambiance and wide scope hawking South-East Asian classics. It doesn’t sit still either; the well-travelled menu flirts through Thailand, Malaysia, India, China, and Indonesia and pulls it all together with the energy of a hawker reshaped with the elegance of modern design. The yellow chicken curry is powerful, but you’ll find no better honey soy salmon in the country. 

The heart of Aotearoa beats fastest when it fully expresses its own strong sense of identity. Asian flavours may dominate Wellington’s palate, but Pacific cuisine is comfort at Lulu. And if there’s anywhere where comfort is needed the most, it’s Courtenay Place. 

Every island from Hawaii to New Zealand to the Cook Islands gets its fair showing on the menu, meaning you’re eating bowls of cured ika mata, twice cooked cassava with pickled ginger, and the most beautiful butternut yellow curry. There’s also a $10 menu in case you’re betting your entire budget on drinks.

Locals secret: The most magical of Wellington theatres is also found on Courtenay Place. That is, the classically Edwardian St James Theatre, with its decorative interiors and roomy theatre boxes. If a more sophisticated night on Courtenay Place is on the cards, follow dinner by checking out the latest musical, concert, or theatre production.