One of the first things that hap­pened when I moved to Pōneke in 2015 was the Big Egg Hunt. From March to April 2015 100 giant eggs were hid­den around Welling­ton, Auck­land and Christchurch, with the eggs being auc­tioned off to fundraise for Star­ship at the end of the quest.

I think this one was in the foy­er of the Welling­ton Cen­tral Library? Long may it reign.

I love a lit­tle quest, and I loved a lit­tle quest back then.

Though the giant eggs do not remain, I took part in anoth­er egg quest this year — Welling­ton Choco­late Fac­to­ry’s East­er Egg Hunt, which is a mad­cap dash around the Cuba Quar­ter to sev­er­al hid­den loca­tions (on now until the 17th of April, but not on Good Fri­day).

In 2025, I’m doing ten things to cel­e­brate liv­ing in Pōneke for ten years. There’ll be sto­ries. Pics. Non­sense. Check out the series here.

#3 — Some­times you just got­ta hunt down some eggs.

The 2015 egg hunt was won­der­ful as it dragged me kick­ing and scream­ing out of my com­fort zone, and brought me to a bunch of places in the city I’d nev­er been before.

I vague­ly remem­ber one day where me and my best friend since kinder­garten walked up the hill from uni to ‘cap­ture’ the egg in Space Place — to be thwart­ed by the fact that Space Place was­n’t open that day. We swore to come back — and I’ve not been there since. These days, we don’t talk. I’m sure she’s well, but some­times you just can’t keep a con­ver­sa­tion going via dis­tance.

The Space Place egg from 2015.

2025’s egg hunt starts from Iko Iko on Cuba Street, where I buy some stick­ers and pick up an egg hunt card. I feel moral­ly weird about not buy­ing any­thing from the retail loca­tions I’ll end up in, which, as I’ll soon dis­cov­er, is a ter­ri­ble omen for my bank bal­ance.

Cuba Street — what a place. Two days ago a come­di­an I know was fold­ing a fit­ted sheet there and drew quite a crowd. Today it’s free ice cream day at Ben & Jer­ry’s and a line stretch­es all the way down the pave­ment.

Dur­ing my last egg hunt I def­i­nite­ly had­n’t per­formed live the­atre on Cuba Street with a bro­ken leg, but these days I have. I hope to bring that show back, actu­al­ly — street the­atre is a joy you sim­ply can’t under­stand ’til you’ve done it.

DETECTED! 2021. Pho­tog­ra­phy by Chris Hobbs.

In the inter­ests of not spoil­ing the Welling­ton Egg Hunt, I’ll obscure the details of where I actu­al­ly end­ed up going for you. The hunt takes you around the Cuba Quar­ter and slight­ly fur­ther afield. I did it in just over an hour, but I was on an escoot­er for a chunk of it, and it’ll take longer if you linger in cer­tain retail­ers.

An egg, from 2015, in Bego­nia House.

Eggs are on the mind as I walk. I think of this one, from 2015, which was at Bego­nia House — a place which has become sur­pris­ing­ly con­tro­ver­sial of late.

There were giant eggs in Cap­i­tal E, the Welling­ton Cen­tral Library, and many, many retail­ers that have since shut all across the city. It’s kin­da fun­ny. Out of the 20+ pho­tos I took, only a few of those places still exist.

It’s not like I’m expect­ing a city to not change after ten years, but it’s still some­thing to think about.

But back in 2025, I’m still egg hunt­ing. I stop for a sweet treat and to get Clue #2, and head off on a scoot­er to a place I pre­sumed would be easy to find, but instead I have to dip into two retail­ers until I find the final loca­tion, which is high up above the cen­tral street and a place I had no idea even exist­ed.

Though, I sup­pose that’s the point of the egg hunt.

This egg was at the top of the cable car in 2015! Only went to the cable car muse­um for the first time last year.

Clue #3 is an easy solve, though in a place that’s not so easy for me to park my scoot­er in. I wan­der around the retail­er for a bit, mar­veling — it’s anoth­er place I’ve nev­er been into, and it’s huge. You’d nev­er know from the street.

Cue #4 makes my heart sink, as I fear I’m going to have to spend mon­ey at a cer­tain local retail­er who’s got deigns on the may­oral­ty (you don’t have to spend mon­ey at these places, but it’s the thing of the thing) but for­tu­nate­ly I mis­read the clue and instead find myself at a love­ly lit­tle iced treats place I’ve nev­er heard of before, down a cer­tain side street.

They give me Clue #5 and I’m off, imme­di­ate­ly cer­tain of where this quest will end. It’s anoth­er place I’ve nev­er been, despite hav­ing sam­pled their wares, and I’m greet­ed behind the desk by some­one I know, which is nice!

The end­ing prize for the Egg Hunt is well-worth my time spent doing it, and I leave the retail­er, feel­ing remark­ably pleased with myself, and with my mum’s Moth­er’s Day gift sussed sev­er­al weeks out.

Lit­tle quests like this real­ly open the city up for a per­son like me. I’m very one with my rou­tines, and it takes a lot for me to try new things.

Hav­ing a rea­son to go places opens the world up more, and I’m real­ly pleased I got to explore this city via the onus of doing a quest. Being down on the street and active­ly walk­ing around, rather than bee-lin­ing from A to B like I so often do brought me out of my head and I began notic­ing things. Cer­tain graf­fi­ti art on the walls. Lit­tle restau­rants I’ve only heard of by name. Pedes­tri­ans and fash­ion and art.

This year’s Egg Hunt cards.

Our city has its foibles, and I feel them every day, but we’re so priv­i­leged to live here. There’s so few places that have the vibran­cy of Cuba Street, the per­son­al­i­ty, and the peo­ple. I feel very warmed in my heart today.

Ten years ago I found my way via an egg quest, and ten years lat­er I’ve done it again. What an East­ery delight.

The Welling­ton Egg Hunt is on until 17 April. Learn more here.