Some­times, we need to look up from that mon­it­or and get ourselves some Vit­am­in D from the big sol­ar dis­penser. Here are some of our favour­ite out­doors places:

Walking along the waterfront

What could be bet­ter than a stroll along the water­front? Not much! On a sunny day, it seems all of Wel­ling­ton is walking/riding/running between Queen’s Wharf and Chaf­fers’ Mar­ina. OK, let’s exag­ger­ate slightly and declare that it’s like La Rambla, but without the tour­ists and the shops!

Waterfront rain

And on a miser­able day, if you can brave the ele­ments you’ll have the entire place to your­self…

Kreüzberg Summer Cafe/Grow From Here

Kreüzberg Summer CaféMak­ing good use of an old car deal­er site on the corner of Cuba And Webb Streets, Kreüzberg Sum­mer Cafe has recently been joined by urb­an plant shop Grow From Here and hid­den around the corner is fash­ion and jew­ellery gal­lery Duel. The out­door pic­nic table seat­ing and lush sur­round­ings make this a wel­come oas­is in the inner city.

Kreüzberg Sum­mer Café / Grow From Here: Corner Cuba & Webb St

Shorland Park, Island Bay

The Last Whopper ChopperThis is one for those with kids: far away at the end of a ride on trol­ley Bus Route 1. Shor­land Park is right beside the sea, where you could watch the boats bob­bing in the bay; puddle around on the beach; or jump off that con­crete wharf thing for a dip in the shal­lows. After­wards, grab some fish and chips from one of the nearby takeaways, and when hun­ger is sated let the kids ram­page around. Now that’s got to be good for every­one’s san­ity!

Shor­land Park: Reef St, Island Bay

Zealandia

tui at the flaxOK, so some of us may have got­ten snarky about their new(ish) name, but there’s no deny­ing the impact the former Karori Wild­life Sanc­tu­ary is hav­ing on Wel­ling­ton. You don’t have to vis­it to enjoy the Tuī now spread­ing east across town and into the Miramar Pen­in­su­lar; or the Kākā wheel­ing above the West; or the Kārearea hunt­ing the dawn chor­us of the hill sub­urbs – little of this would be hap­pen­ing without Zeal­and­i­a’s refuge and base for these birds. But no Wel­ling­to­ni­an should go without at least one vis­it – there’s so much more to see inside that pred­at­or-proof fence…

Zeal­and­ia: 31 Wai­apu Rd

Biking at Makara Peak

MTB Ride - Makara Peak - 2nd Dec 2007 (2)Cyc­ling around Wel­ling­ton’s nar­row roads can be a bit of a hair-rais­ing exper­i­ence (and let’s hope our new may­or can improve upon that for us) but off-road, there’s a huge array of tracks all around and through the green areas and reserves of Wel­ling­ton. The best of these is the Makara Moun­tain Bike Park, way out the far end of Karori: 24 km of spe­cially built single track ran­ging in required skill levels from begin­ner through to clin­ic­ally insane. Now, if only there was a pub­lic trans­port option that could take us, and our bikes, out to the Park!

Makara Peak Moun­tain Bike Park: South Karori Road