WalkNZ » Wellington

Cape Palliser (cont’d)

WalkNZ — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:53:45 +0000

Getting back to our trip to Cape Palliser last weekend, as I promised. There are two things the area is known for – the seal colony along the shore, and the lighthouse. So naturally we went to see both.

New Zealand fur seals are always a treat to see. They’re a pretty laid back bunch, assuming you don’t try to get right in their faces. On this particular day they were splitting their time between sunning themselves on the rocks (and scratching the occasional itch)…

And frolicking in the water, but not catching any fish as far as I could see.

The lighthouse is at the very end of the road. Well, the car park for the lighthouse is at the end of the road. The lighthouse itself is at the top of a ridiculously long wooden staircase.

It has been there for over 100 years, but it is now fully automated so the days of the lighthouse keeper are over. It’s probably just as well, since it was ridiculously windy up there.

While none of this activity technically counts as hiking or tramping, those stairs are as good as any hike as far as I’m concerned. Plus the pictures turned out so nice that I just had to post them! And since we did stay at a campground that night – it’s officially part of a camping trip. So there!

Cape Palliser

WalkNZ — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:50:56 +0000

Sure, it sounds a bit melodramatic – but if you’re a Lord of the Rings junkie (like me) you know what I’m talking about. The rather desolate scenery used to create the Paths of the Dead are actually located in a reserve called the Putangirua Pinnacles.

We decided to use Wellington Anniversary weekend to head southeast and explore the Cape Palliser area, which includes the Pinnacles reserve. The entrance to the reserve is also a campground, so we stayed there for the night. Unfortunately, it’s a fairly exposed campground, so the wind was gusting like mad! Our tent pegging skills were put to the test. OK, to be honest they were G’s tent pegging skills. I helped though. And the tent did managed to stay on the ground at all times!

We spent our afternoon walking in the reserve. There is a loop track along a bush track, up to a lookout over the Pinnacles, and then back to the campground via the stream bed. That was a bit short for us, so we carried on after the turn off to the lookout, and joined up with a 4 wheel drive track in Aorangi Forest Park (or Haurangi Forest Park – it seems to have two spellings.) This track, I believe, is mainly used by hunters. However, the track turns into a foot-only track before you get to the first hut.

We turned around where the track narrowed, and headed back to the lookout. It’s a wood platform with a view of the largest section of eroded hoodoos. (There are other little sections visible as you head up the valley.)

For those who have seen these in the LOTR, it’s a bit surprising to see that they are so surrounded by green hillsides. The Pinnacles themselves cover quite a small area. It’s a landscape you might expect to find in a desert, rather than a forest. I guess the extent of the erosion is a testament to the kinds of winds that whip through the valley! No wonder the campground was so gusty.Despite the wind, we managed to light our stove and make dinner in the shelter of a flax plant. If you’re thinking of camping out there, bring lots of water with you. The only water source appears to be the trickle of a stream. Since we were car camping anyway, we just filled up some extra containers at home.

The rest of our trip in Cape Palliser coming soon to this very blog…

Article courtesy of Michele Waitzman

Wellington Walks

WalkNZ — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:13:58 +0000

Footbridge in the Catchpool Valley

I’m back with the promised second post about hikes within an hour’s drive from Wellington. Sadly, we didn’t manage to squeeze a walk in this weekend because Wellington is kicking up one of its famous gales. Apparently the gusts got up to 140 km/h! Surprisingly, these big blows seem to do very little damage around town, although I suspect the next time we get up into the hills there will be a few extra branches on the ground.

The Catchpool Valley is in the Rimutaka Forest Park, and it’s a favourite place for families, older hikers and beginners because the main track, called the Orongorongo Track, is quite flat and very simple to follow. However, there are more challenging routes to take if you head up into the mountains on either side of that main route. Last weekend we walked up to Mt McKerrow and back down another trail. It’s about five hours as a round trip, and really gives the legs a good workout especially on the way down. The round trip along Cattle Ridge on the other side is about as long, but not as steep going up or down.

The Catchpool Valley

On Wellington Harbour, opposite the city, is the town of Eastbourne. By heading into the hills behind the town you can spend a few pleasant hours hiking along tracks of various lengths, many of which connect with each other. They also connect with the Catchpool Valley eventually.

View across the Harbour to Wellington

If you cruise up the Hutt Valley, there are additional places to walk. Kaitoke Regional Park is just past the town of Upper Hutt. It’s a bit of a push to make it there within an hour of leaving Wellington, but I figured it was close enough to include and we do go there for day walks now and then. Kaitoke is at one end of the popular Southern Crossing of the Tararua Range. But for day walks, we normally walk up a ridge, then either back via another ridge, or a river valley.

An ex-tree in Kaitoke Regional Park

Also up the Hutt Valley is the Rimutaka Rail Trail. This route is doable both on foot and bicycle, and is easy enough for the absolute beginner. It’s virtually impossible to get lost, and because it is graded for cycling, there are no tricky steps. In fact, I’m not sure I can really call it a hike, it’s more of a walk in the park. However, it does make for a pleasant day out. It’s about 5 hours to do the whole crossing over to the Wairarapa side, but this makes for an awkward car shuttle so most walkers do a return trip to the summit (about 3 hours each way.)

An old train tunnel on the Rimutaka Rail Trail

If you’re keen to do some walks in and around Wellington, I can recommend the guide book Day Walks of Greater Wellington by Reed Publishing. It covers all of the areas I’ve mentioned plus a few others, and while you’ll still need a proper map it will give you a decent idea of what to expect and driving directions to reach the trailheads.

Arcticle courtesy of Michele Waitzman

Wellington Walks

WalkNZ — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:19:51 +0000

Eastern Walkway

One of the really nice things about living in Wellington is how close we are to a lot of good hiking areas. Going for a day hike can be a great way to touch base with nature when you can’t spare the whole weekend for an overnighter.

I thought I’d dedicate a post to day hikes that take less than an hour to reach by car from our home. Some take as little as five minutes by car (or a 25 minute walk), some take close to an hour. But an hour is about my maximum time for driving to a day hike. Otherwise, you waste half the day in the car.

First there are the Green Belt walkways in Wellington itself. While these are not quite as “wild” as some of the other parks they’re still a good option if you want to get outdoors for a couple of hours and still be able to scrub up and meet your friends for dinner.

There are several walkways through the Green Belt. I’ve done the Southern Walkway from Mt Victoria to Island Bay, the City to Sea Walkway from the Botanic Garden to Island Bay, part of the Eastern Walkway, from the South Coast along the Miramar Peninsula. And I’ve done part of the Northern Walkway – but not the whole thing – around Mt. Kaukau. Here are some pics:

Southern Walkway (view of Wellington CBD)
City to Sea Walkway

Also close to Wellington is Colonial Knob in Porirua, a three hour loop walk with great views but not much bush.

Belmont Regional Park in the Hutt Valley is another handy spot just 20 minutes’ drive from home. There’s a bush walk up to Belmont Trig (2.5 hours return) or a loop walk called the Belmont Dress Circle (4 hours) which passes through a lot of farmland and past some old battlements.

Makara Beach offers another decent loop (3 hours) with views of the South Island. I’ve had good luck with marine wildlife in this area. It’s a great place to collect paua shells on the rocky beach, and I’ve also seen orca just offshore and a little blue penguin one day on the beach.

Makara Beach

Orca off Makara Beach

Whew, well that’s a taste of what’s in my backyard. Perhaps I’ll save the rest for a part 2 covering the Catchpool Valley, Eastbourne and Kaitoke Regional Park. Yes, we’re still only looking at options less than an hour’s drive from my house.

Acticle courtesy of Michele Waitzman

Walk in Wellington’s East Harbour Regional Park

WalkNZ — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:44:50 +0000

First of all, my apologies for not posting anything for so long. I’m afraid it hasn’t been a very tramping-heavy summer for me. Too much non-blogworthy stuff to do!

Today, though, we decided we were long overdue for a decent walk. On my insistence, we checked out a track we’ve never walked before. This track went from Lowry Bay to Days Bay via the Main Ridge Track in Wellington region’s East Harbour Regional Park.The first challenge was to find one of the trailheads so that we could get started! The one we aimed for first didn’t actually exist, or at least we couldn’t see it. Instead we went to an alternate trailhead which turned out to be the wrong one.

So we begin our hike by walking up one side of a big hill and down the other, just to get to what should have been our starting point. Ah well, we needed the exercise, right?

We walked up to the ridge again, and found an opening in the bush which allowed for a nice view south, towards the entrance to Wellington harbour. As you can see in the photo, we are quite close to civilization here, and at times you could hear traffic from the track – but considering we drove less than 30 minutes from our house to get there, it did feel pretty remote most of the time we were up there. The bush is dense and until you get a view like this, you could be deep in the forest!Rather than do something pretty close to a loop in the park, we descended towards Days Bay, which is a few kilometres south of our starting point. After stopping to use a washroom and buy a couple of Popsicles (well, Fruju really, but you can’t get Popsicle brand here) we headed back along the harbour to Lowry Bay.

All in all we walk for about four hours, which was quite enough once we hit the sunshine along the beach. It’s amazing how quickly the sun can sap your energy!

A nice walk for the most part – although the “track maintenance” we waded through on our way down was a bit of a mess. Considering the convenient location, we’re likely to hit the East Harbour again!

Article courtesy of Michele Waitzman

Wellington’s Kaitoke Regional Park

WalkNZ — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:00:05 +0000

Yesterday we finally got a bit of summer weather here in Wellington, and we decided to go check out a part of Kaitoke Regional Park we’d never explored.

After a look around the camping and picnic area for possible future reference (and I was surprised how many people were using the campground considering it’s not summer vacation time yet) we headed to the area best known for being the Rivendell set for Lord of the Rings.

There is no longer anything there to suggest elves, art nouveau architecture or anything else. Just a small, grassy flat with forest in the background. Nonetheless, we saw at least 2 movie tour vans in the carpark.

We decided to walk part of the Ridge Track, a track that leads from the Rivendell site to the reservoir “lakes” a few kilometres south.

The track is mostly wooded. It was the kind of forest I really enjoy – lush and green and full of fresh air! It was easy walking, although a bit mucky in places. The place was absolutely packed with ferns, from little kidney ferns to full blown tree ferns and everything in between. This one was just finishing the last unfurling of new growth.

Most of the track was in the bush, but we did get one view from the top of the ridge, where a memorial bench was set up to take in the surroundings.

Later we passed a tree that had fallen over, but never made it to the ground because the surrounding trees were holding it up. I wonder how long it will take before it finally finished the short journey to the ground.

We had an easy day of it, only walking for a few hours. But it was a pleasant way to spend one of the first warm, non-windy Saturdays of the season. Hopefully there are more to come!

Article courtesy of Michele Waitzman