Wellington Trip, Part 4 - Southern Walkway (1)

There are a lot of free walks around Wellington, and i-Site has handy little maps for many of them. As I was already pretty broke before I even came to Wellington, I was looking for something free to do. I read about the Southern Walkway and decided that it would be a good way to spend a day, whilst incorporating some other things I wanted to go to, such as the Mount Victoria lookout.

The Southern Walkway is an 11km walk through the Town Belt between Oriental Bay and Island Bay. It is supposed to take about 4-5hrs, which I thought was a bit generous, until I realised how many hills I would have to climb....

I decided to take the bus out to Island Bay and then walk back into Wellington, rather than the more traditional starting point at Oriental Bay. I guess I felt better about walking towards home base than away from it.

Here is the first part of the map:

It is a bit hard to see, but basically the first part of the walk goes along the coastal walk from Island Bay to Houghton Bay and then winds up the hill into the Town Belt. I took way too many photos on this walk, so I'm mostly going to document the walk in photos...

The start (or end) of the walk is Shorland Park - this Band Rotunda was built as a memorial to the 106 soldiers from the area who served in WW1. The following photos show my walk from Island Bay to Houghton Bay:

Then I veered away from the coast up the hill to start the climb up to Mount Albert.

At the top of Mt Albert is this telecommunications tower and some reservoir tanks. Not the prettiest of sights, but if you ignore them then there were some other great views. The walk took me along the ridge then downhill again towards Wellington Zoo.

I was planning on stopping off at the zoo for a break and for lunch, but the walkway actually just takes you around the baboon enclosure at the back, and then away across a playing field to Truby King Park. I didn't really feel like leaving the path to walk down another hill (which I would inevitably have to walk up again..)

Truby King Park is named after Sir Truby King, the founder of the Plunket Society back in 1907. The Nurse Geek in me stirred again, as my first practice placement in NZ was at Plunket, so I got very excited to see the Karitane hospital and factory he built here. Sir Truby King and his wife are also buried here.

The building above is the Plunket factory.

Then I headed through some woodland and zigzagged down to some streets (that's the funny bit at the very top of the map above).

Well, I've now walked the first part of the map. Now onto the second map and a second blog post....

Wellington Trip, Part 3 - Karori Wildlife Sanctuary

After my busy day inside at Te Papa, I really needed to get out in the fresh air. I'd read about Karori a while ago and was intrigued by this predator-free sanctuary so close to Wellington City Centre.

Karori is a 225 hectare valley of regenerating lowland forest and wetlands (there is an old reservoir here) protected by an 8.6km long predator proof fence. It is home to many native birds and creatures that are rarely seen on mainland New Zealand, but have been reintroduced over the last 10 years of Karori's existence. The native wildlife that has been introduced includes:

• North Island Weka


• Little Spotted Kiwi


• Brown Teal


• Scaup


• North Island Robin


• Tomtit


• Whitehead


• Bellbird


• North Island Saddleback


• North Island Kaka


• Kereru (NZ Pigeon)


• Hihi (Stitchbird)


• Tuatara


• Maud Island Frog


• Giant Weta

There are plenty of other birds that have been attracted to the area too, such as tui.

You have the option of wandering around the tracks on your own during the day, or joining a day or night tour. I decided to splash out and go on the night tour, in the hope of seeing some real live wild kiwi. I've seen kiwi before, but only in captivity.

I arrived for the tour at dusk along with half a dozen others and was promptly issued with a torch. I forgot to pack my binoculars for this trip, which was a bit of a blow, and all I had with me was my compact camera. I managed to get a few decent photos before it got too dark, but all the ones I took of birds were just too blurry to keep.

First we had to go through the bag checking procedures to make sure we weren't smuggling in any mice or possums (!) and then we were able to cross through the gates into the sanctuary. Our guide was a very chatty, knowledgeable guy whose name I can't remember, and he first showed us how the predator fence works.

It goes under the ground at an angle to stop burrowing animals, is high enough to prevent anything jumping over it and has a special slippery metal guard at the top to stop creatures from climbing over it. Apparently the only problem with it is that the weave is not quite small enough to stop baby mice getting through. Hence, mice are still a problem at Karori, but they will be replacing the fence at some point. There were lots of traps in the sanctuary as well, to catch anything that does somehow make it in.

We were taken around the reservoir and into the forest. We passed by the kaka feeders, and I was able to see loads of these parrots up close as they came to feed from the specially designed feeders. I'd never seen kaka before, so it was great to see them so close. At the reservoir I also spotted brown teal, scaup, shags and a kingfisher. There were also lots of tui and kereru around as we walked through the bush and the flax, but I do see plenty of them around Dunedin anyway, particularly in the Botanical Gardens.

Then the group of us headed into the forest in the hopes of finding some kiwi. We had to be very quiet and listen out for the calls and for rustling through the undergrowth. There were several moments when we stopped to listen as we could hear the kiwi calling nearby, but couldn't see them anywhere.

After trekking through half a dozen different kiwi territories we were almost at the end of the tour and still hadn't seen any kiwi. I had pretty much given up hope, the guide said the tours only saw kiwis about 1 in 4 nights. Then suddenly we heard a great crash through the trees! It was a kiwi, skidding down the hill towards us. We all stopped still, and watched it trampling around in the undergrowth. Then we spotted a second kiwi nearby. The group of us stood there with our red torches shining into the undergrowth for about 15 minutes watching the two kiwis. Probably looked a bit ridiculous!

The kiwi living at Karori Sanctuary are Little Spotted Kiwi, of which there are no other populations on mainland NZ. The biggest group of them live on Kapiti Island, I believe, a little way up the coast from Wellington.

On the way back we also spotted some tuatara, which we had not been able to find earlier. These tuatara are the only wild population on the mainland of NZ, so it was incredible to see them too.

I highly recommend visiting Karori Sanctuary. I'd love to go back in the day time and just wander around the place. In fact, if I ever live in Wellington, I'd definitely think about becoming a member so i could go there more often. It was a great night, well worth the money I paid. Seeing kiwi, kaka, tuatara and everything else was simply magical.

Wellington Trip, Part 2 - Te Papa

One of the main things I wanted to do in Wellington was visit Te Papa, The National Museum of New Zealand.

The museum's full name Te Papa Tongarewa roughly means the place of treasures of this land in Te Reo Maori. It opened in 1998, and is both a museum and an art gallery.

I turned up at 10am, ready for a few hours of browsing around the museum. Unfortunately about 100 school kids in hideous blue and green uniforms had turned up too. After taking a quick look at my newly purchased map (Te Papa is mostly free, but if you want a map you have to pay $3 for it) I decided to head up to the top of the building and work my way down, in the vain hope of at least avoiding the screaming kids for some of the time.

There are 6 levels in Te Papa, and Level 6 housed the Sculpture Space and a short-term exhibition about precious metals.

Precious Metals had a bit about the gold rush in NZ and some pieces that were made with the gold. Some of it was pretty disturbing really, like this gold brooch made with a huia bill (a now extinct NZ bird):

There was also some modern NZ jewellery showcased, which did not involve bits of rare and extinct animals. I enjoyed that part of the exhibit a lot more.

Outside in the Sculpture space were two exhibits.... now I don't know much about sculptures, so maybe they were groundbreakingly stunning but to be honest I didn't really see it....

A group of schoolkids caught up to me at the chicken sculptures though, and they seemed to have fun trying to push them over!

Next was Level 5 which is the home of Toi Te Papa - Art of the Nation.

This art gallery showed how art in NZ has changed and been influenced throughout the ages - there were some really great pieces of Maori art, European settler art and modern NZ art. I really liked Goldie's The Widow which looked so realistic I could have sworn it was a photo not a painting from 1903.

In the modern art section I liked the simplistic yet colourful birds painted by Don Binney. I think my favourite piece of artwork overall was Emily Karaka's collage Ka awatea. The worst thing I saw was a piece of modern art which mas basically a blank canvas with the canvas part ripped out leaving only the frame. I really do not understand modern art like this, I much prefer something that looks like some effort was put into creating it. You can check these out at http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ but the pictures on there don't really do the real things justice.

Level 4 had several mainstay exhibits. The expat in me appreciated the Passports exhibition, which looked at immigration to New Zealand over the last couple of centuries through personal stories of immigrants.

There was also a temporary exhibit dedicated to my people The Scots!! In particular the Scottish influence in NZ, with some particular focus on the Dunedin and Southland areas to where a lot of Scots immigrated.

The big exhibits on the 4th Level were Tangata o le Moana: the story of Pacific people in NZ and Mana Whenua which looked at Pacific and Maori culture respectively. Some of the Pacific stuff was interesting but much of it I'd seen in similar exhibits at other museums. The most spectacular piece was without a doubt Te Papa's contemporary marae, Rongomaraeroa.

This is a specially designed marae (communal meeting place) for Te Papa, carved by leading Maori carvers. I think it is absolutely stunning, but you do have to see it in real life to appreciate it. I bought a poster in the shop so I could look at it forever.

Level 3 had only one exhibition, but it was my favourite, called Blood Earth Fire - Whangai Whenua Ahi Ka.

Blood Earth Fire looks at the changing landscape of NZ from before the Maori arrived to the cultivation by European settlers and beyond. The list of extinct creatures and plants was quite sobering to see. I particularly liked the NZ forest full of birds now extinct or endangered, along with birdsong to help set the atmosphere of a forest long since destroyed.

Down to Level 2, and almost at the end of my Te Papa day. First there was the Awesome Forces room, looking at volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves etc. For anyone who wants to know, this is also where the dinosaur fossils are housed and some other bits and pieces I guess they couldn't figure out where to put them. There was also a cool video showing the Maori creation myth, Papatuanuku.

Next door was Mountains to Sea which will be housing the Colossal Squid exhibit which I was unfortunately 2 weeks to early to see. The rest of this small area looks at the major ecosystems of NZ through animals and plants.

The other big part of Level 2 was Our Space, which I honestly did not get the point of at all. It is a big interactive space with a giant map of NZ on the floor and some massive screens on the wall where you can put up photos electronically. I was being technically challenged as I couldn't get it to work properly. I did enjoy watching two 13 year old girls getting chucked out of Our Space for putting up a massive photo of themselves fake kissing each other. There were two simulator rides as well, the High Ride (which was just an excuse to get jolted around in a theme park ride style whilst watching random video of NZ life) and the much more educational and entertaining Deep Ride. This one took you down to an underwater volcano in the Pacific in a little submarine simulator.

Finally down to Level 1, which is basically the entrance, the shop and cafe and info desk. Outside however is Bush City.

This was a lovely forest environment with a swing bridge and waterfall, a (fake) glowworm cave with stalactites and a sand pit equipped with fossils to dig for.

This made a nice change to the last few hours I'd spent inside. When I got to Bush City there was practically nobody else around, so it really did feel like a peaceful sanctuary away from the bustle of the city and the museum.

So that was Te Papa. It certainly had some fascinating and well designed areas. I really liked it, but in some ways I felt like it was a bit too shiny and commercial, dumbed down for the masses. Sometimes I miss musty old museums....

Wellington Trip, Part 1 - City Sights

I arrived in Wellington on Monday night, to a full on rain storm - I honestly thought the aeroplane was going to slip straight off the runway! The wind and rain carried on all night, so I only ventured out briefly from the hostel to look for food, but eventually settled for the bar next door where I had a free drinks voucher (mmm... free vodka...

The next day, after a sleepless night at the noisiest hostel in Wellington, I decided to spend some time wandering around Wellington. Just up the road was Civic Square, where a modern Library and Town Hall are situated.

I'm not sure what the point of the weird floating globe is. It looks a lot more stunning at night, like an eery glowing full moon, but in the day time it's not really that special. The above photo is looking up to the City-to-Sea bridge, which is where I found this plaque:

After that I walked up through town to Lambton Quay to take a look at the Beehive and the Parliament Buildings. It was strange walking through streets of skyscrapers, after the relative 'small town' feel of Dunedin. Among the modern buildings there was the odd old piece of architectural heritage, such as this building:

This is Turnbull House. I've no idea what is actually in it. Just across the road was the Beehive, where the Government members have their offices etc.

I decided to go and do one of the hourly tours around the Beehive and Parliament buildings. No, I wasn't that bored, I just felt that it would round off the recent experiences I had had with the election job etc, and there is a small part of me that is quite interested in politics even though I don't pursue it often.

Unfortunately I got a bit lost when trying to find my way to the entrance and ended up walking into the grounds the back way, where I saw this which made me laugh:

Okay, so I know it's government changeover time and they have to get rid of the old stuff to make way for the new, but I didn't think it would be quite so obvious.....

After eventually finding a security guard to give me directions to the entrance, I arrived just in time for the tour. I wasn't allowed to take photos during the tour, so I've none to show, but it was quite interesting. Got to stand in the Debating Chamber where Parliament meets, and learnt about some of the history of the buildings, such as the fires that destroyed them.

Nearby there were a few other things I wanted to check out, including the original pieces of the Treaty of Waitangi at Archives NZ. They were in displays in a darkened vault, and most were barely legible. A more interesting display at Archives NZ was one about World War One, An Impressive Silence. This is commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the end of WW1. There was a nice display about the nursing effort, which the nurse geek in me loved.

I also checked out St Paul's Cathedral and Old St Paul's. One is a 1930s Santa Fe and Byzantine mixed design and is pretty much the ugliest cathedral I've ever seen:

This pink monstrosity has replaced Old St Paul's as Wellington's Cathedral. I much preferred the wooden Gothic style of the older church, which at one point in the 1960s was at risk of being demolished.

The staff there were very friendly and told me about the history and architecture of the church. It is made from several types of NZ wood, but in a style that would normally be in stone (if it was in the UK). Why the hell anyone would prefer the new cathedral over this one is beyond me....

After my busy day of sightseeing I decided to do something a bit more relaxing during the evening. I went to the Downstage Theatre to see a play called 'Little Dog Laughed'. It had just 4 actors in it, and was an amazing play, although I wasn't quite prepared for all the male nudity!

All in all, a great first day in Wellington. Next up, Te Papa Museum!