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.