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.