The hidden gems surrounding Wellington

This arti­cle is spon­sored by Ezi Car Rental, your best option for car rental Welling­ton

One of Welling­ton’s charms is its com­pact­ness, with so many attrac­tions with­in walk­ing dis­tance. But there are many intrigu­ing and attrac­tive less­er-known places on the out­skirts of the city and its sub­urbs, so if you have access to a car they’re worth a few hours dri­ve to explore them.

If I were to men­tion his­toric dams, dense native for­est, wet­lands and rau­cous tuī, you’d prob­a­bly think of Zealan­dia. But the Wainuioma­ta Water Col­lec­tion Area also has all of those attrac­tions, with­out the steep entry fee. Park your car at the Whitch­er Grove gates and wan­der upstream towards the dam, where you’ll find plen­ty of inter­pre­tive sig­nage about the his­to­ry and ecol­o­gy of this seclud­ed val­ley. On the south­ern bank of the stream you’ll find a net­work of bush walks, again with some sig­nage to help you tell your rimu from your reware­wa, and a gen­tle stroll back down­stream through wet­lands and euca­lyp­tus. In sum­mer you can even get guid­ed walks deep into the still-active water col­lec­tion area, which is nor­mal­ly closed to the pub­lic.

Welling­ton’s well known for its spec­tac­u­lar coast­line, and scenic dri­ves around the har­bour and south coast are hard­ly a secret. How­ev­er, some stretch­es are eas­i­ly over­looked, such as the two bays on the north­east Mira­mar penin­su­la: Kau Bay and Mahanga Bay. Com­pared to the bet­ter known Scorch­ing Bay to the south, which can become over­crowd­ed in sum­mer, this rugged shore­line offers a sense of escape, backed by moody pine for­est and look­ing out across the out­er har­bour to the east­ern ranges. Locals have their favourite spots for fish­ing and shell­fish gath­er­ing, and the small head­land between the two bays offers oppor­tu­ni­ties for pic­nick­ing or scram­bling among rock­pools. There’s a push to turn the hill­side into Massey Region­al Park, and while most of it is cur­rent­ly off lim­its, some notable his­toric sites are acces­si­ble, includ­ing Massey Memo­r­i­al and the rem­nants of Fort Bal­lance. The road is nar­row, so look out for cyclists and pedes­tri­ans, but there are sev­er­al park­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Newlands is a large­ly non­de­script post­war sub­urb that does­n’t attract a lot of vis­i­tors, and few peo­ple oth­er than locals would ven­ture out to its east­ern extrem­i­ty at Wai­hi­nahi­na Park. Those that do, how­ev­er, will be reward­ed with breath­tak­ing views of the har­bour, from the heads through Matiu/Somes Island to Petone, plus the Horoki­wi quar­ry (which has its own bru­tal mag­nif­i­cence). The main attrac­tion for some will be that this is a place for dogs to run free, and on a fine day you’ll see plen­ty of enthu­si­as­tic pup­pers run­ning across the vast lawns, along with small humans and their respec­tive own­ers. There’s also some sur­pris­ing­ly lush bush around the north­ern edge, and plen­ty of park­ing at the end of Lad­brooke Dri­ve.

At the head of the Pau­ata­hanui arm of the Porirua har­bour lies the small set­tle­ment of Pau­ata­hanui, which has some sur­pris­es in store. It’s known for its bou­tique cin­e­ma and wildlife reserve, the lat­ter fea­tur­ing sev­er­al easy walk­ing tracks through estu­ar­ine wet­lands, with hides dot­ted among the reeds to help you spy upon the shy birdlife. It also has a long his­to­ry of colo­nial­ism and resis­tance: the pic­turesque St Albans church occu­pies what was once Te Rangi­haea­ta’s pā, and it was once a hub for stage­coach traf­fic and a minor gold rush. The whole dri­ve along the inlet is often scenic, tak­ing in salt­marsh, rick­ety boat­sheds, farm­land, seashell banks (and some dire sub­di­vi­sions that we’d rather not dwell on). The north­ern side of the inlet is rather less hec­tic than the south­ern side, which often clogs up with com­muter traf­fic.

One of the most unpre­pos­sess­ing val­leys in Welling­ton hides an unex­pect­ed oasis: between an indus­tri­al area and the Porirua land­fill on Bro­ken Hill Rd you’ll find the Spicer Botan­i­cal Park. This is a gate­way to Ran­gi­tuhi (the te Reo name means “Sky Glow”, which is vast­ly more eupho­nious and evoca­tive than its Pāke­hā appel­la­tion “Colo­nial Knob”), with numer­ous trails lead­ing through glo­ri­ous koheko­he for­est and small dams up to the windswept tops. But it’s the park itself that is most sur­pris­ing. It’s an arbore­tum, plant­ed to rep­re­sent tree species from var­i­ous regions of the world, and laced with tracks through these arti­fi­cial forests, named Europaea walk­way, Amer­i­cana walk­way and so forth. It’s an odd­ly peace­ful place, in con­trast to the dense native bush and the near­by pines of Spicer For­est. There’s also ample park­ing at the gates, plus pic­nic facil­i­ties and a dog exer­cise area.

At the upper end of Upper Hutt, the riv­er takes a sharp bend away from State High­way 2, and if you turn left just after­wards onto Akatarawa Rd you’ll soon come to Har­court Park, an expan­sive, bosky, fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed open space. As well as lawns, mature trees and the usu­al play­grounds, you’ll find tod­dlers’ play pools, a cycle track where kids can learn the road rules and prac­tice road cycling, and even a fris­bee golf course (appar­ent­ly, that’s a thing). It’s a handy start­ing point for river­side walk­ways and cycle paths: upstream, the Hutt Riv­er begins to resem­ble an alpine stream, with deep pools under dark beech for­est; down­stream leads to Te Haukare­tu Park with its duck ponds and impres­sive rapids; or the more adven­tur­ous could cross the sus­pen­sion bridge and head north into the Akatarawa for­est. Tolkein fiends will already know that Isen­gard scenes were set here, while those with more down-to-earth inter­ests might want to study the com­plex geol­o­gy of riv­er ter­races and fault­lines. Park­ing’s avail­able at both the main entrance and on Nor­bert St.