Welly Walks

In the past week in Wellington, we've done a number of walks around the city and the surrounding area. It's amazing how quickly you can get away from urban life and into seemingly unspoiled nature. The names and places of our hikes won't mean a great deal to anyone except a Wellingtonian, but I wanted to make a list simply to memorialize where we've been and what we've seen.

I don't know how to enlarge this, but it is the Wellington contingent of a group of friends who regularly go on organized "tramps" together around NZ. We took the Southern Walkway through the city, up from Oriental Bay to Mt. Victoria lookout and down around to the Wellington Zoo, which had a surprisingly nice cafe, where our little group stopped for lunch.

The next day, we drove around the city to Otari, and visited the Otari-Wilton Bush, a nature center with walks through forests with ancient rimu trees, beginning and ending with a canopy walk through the treetops. No photos of this, but the above picture is of Makara Beach where, instead of undertaking the highly challenging tramp that begins there, we sensibly decided to have a bucket of fries and Hokey Pokey ice creams at a seaside cafe, and watched the surfers.

The above view is looking over Palmer Head, on a walk that begins near Seatoun at the Pass of Branda and skirts the coastline. This is the site of the infamous Wahine disaster, when a ferry sank in rough seas in 1968 and 51 people died, which you can well understand when you see the sea churned up by southerlies:





This walk takes you past the Atataturk Memorial, where there is a touching tribute paid by the Turkish leader to the many young men of New Zealand who lost their lives at Gallipoli in WWI. We understand there is a corresponding memorial in Turkey.

Across the harbor from Wellington, and about 8 miles to the south of Wainuiomata is Rimataka Forest State Park, where there are a number of walks through beech forest (above). Although the walk is pleasant, I was disappointed by the absence of any clearing that would have permitted scenic overlooks, after all the climbing the 5-Mile Loop entailed. Beyond that, you can drive to the coast near Baring Head and walk (driving not permitted) along the shore towards Turakirae Head, which was supposed to feature a seal colony, but nary a creature could be seen after trudging for an hour, so we gave up.

Also in the general direction of the Lower Hutt Valley is Belmont Regional Park, where an easy stroll alongside a stream leads to Korokoro Dam, built in 1903 to supply water to Petone, the smaller city across the harbor from Wellington. (A longer and more difficult climb takes you up to Belmont Trig).

This stream flows down to nearby Petone, a largely industrial area across the harbor from Wellington. Petone features the Settlers Museum, tracing the history of New Zealand through its earliest settlement by Polynesians and later discovery by the Europeans.

The coastline to the northwest of Wellington has a series of beach towns. We started by visiting Porirua, with a walk alongside the somewhat decrepit but picturesque boat sheds of Titahi Bay.

Their contents are guarded by some rather formidable looking dogs.

The weather did not, however, stop the local Surf and Life Saving Club from heading for the high seas by rowboat.

We then strode along Raumati Beach (above), looking rather bleak and forlorn on a cloudy and windswept day. Of course, even in these remote remote areas, the public conveniences are a tribute to the NZ government and its support of social welfare measures (see David's post, "Public Toilets: A Convenient Truth"):

The "ladies" entrance was even grander:

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(The above photo is part of a memorial tribute to Admiral Byrd at Mt. Victoria, one of the crowning glories of the hills of Wellington).

(Posted by Joan on Dec. 27)