Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau on her lifestyle changes, a new home, new fashion and a new fitness regime.
Video / Mark Mitchell
Tory Whanau has ditched the stilettos she wore at Parliament for sneakers as she settles into Wellington’s mayoralty, has become one of those “sickening gym cult type people”, and will soon move into her new townhouse that she bought off the plans.
The Green-endorsed mayor’s personal issues have been adistraction during her first year in the city’s top job.
Whanau has not been willing to speculate on gossip circulating in Wellington or be drawn on details about the night in question.
“There are rumours out there of what happened that did not happen. There’s a lot of speculation but all I can say is I was out, I was intoxicated, and I shortly after admitted to a drinking problem.”
But her personal life is not all doom and gloom. The new year is bringing a change of scene for the mayor, who is preparing to move into her new townhouse in Mt Cook.
The build is scheduled to be finished in February. Whanau bought off the plans, sold her home in the northern suburb of Ngaio, and has been renting in between.
“Suburb life isn’t quite for me, it’s very family orientated, it’s wonderful, but I like to be in walking distance to everything in the city ... I’m still a young, single, professional so the city centre is much more suited to me,” she said.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau is close to her dog Teddy.
With a new focus on health, Whanau has become “one of those sickening kind of gym cult type people”.
She attends Body Fit Training (BFT), which she describes as the cool version of F45.
A friend forced her to tag along to a class one day and Whanau loved it.
“There’s a lot of young professionals, a lot of hip hop music during your workouts, and given that I want to be healthier, I want to be more active, I want to be fit again, which has taken a backseat with the first year of this mayoralty, this was exactly what I needed.”
She turned 40 last year, which she said had taken some time to adjust to.
“I feel proud of what I have accomplished for a 40-year-old. I’m growing up, I’m getting older, and that’s okay.”
However, Whanau hoped she could still refer to herself as being young.
Whanau is close to her 2-year-old dog Staffordshire bull terrier Teddy, who was almost hounded out of town after his visits to the office were found to be in breach of the council’s tenancy agreement.
At one point Whanau thought she would have to send Teddy to Levin to live with her sister because she had such a busy schedule and couldn’t be home to look after him.
The mayor is having a staycation this summer after feeling a bit burnt out and grizzly from the year. She plans to catch up on sleep, go to the gym, and take Teddy for hikes.
“I won’t be socialising a lot. I’ll be seeing family but I just kind of want to recharge, recentre, be healthy.”
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
