I love Hutt City because...

I grew up in a nice house in Maungaraki, went to Hutt Valley High (and didn’t get bullied!) and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

Having said that, I lived in Wellington – in Island Bay – for three years, but that just reminded me how fast-paced and impersonal the capital can be.

“People are so much friendlier here,” says Goodtime Music Academy founder and director Jonny Wilson. “Right now I’m on a fitness drive, and when I run or walk along the river, at least half a dozen will say hello as I go by. Would that happen in Oriental Bay? I don’t think so.

“People in the Hutt can have a backyard, a place to spread out. I don’t want to be able to reach out my window and touch my neighbour’s house. I can definitely see myself raising a family here.”