Sunday 3 May 2026

Leader: John Glover

After the cancellation of another trip, I felt that the weather for Sunday looked too good to waste, so quickly organised this walk instead.

We three met at Paraparaumu Station and took the train replacement bus to Wellington, then the Number 1 bus to Island Bay. At 10:15am we alighted from the bus and began the walk at what for many is the end of the Southern Walkway - also the end of the North Island part of Te Araroa Trail. The day was perfect, with almost no wind.

We made our way via Houghton Bay to the Mt Albert Lookout for our first views. We continued northwards, pausing often whenever a view presented itself.

After skirting around the zoo and crossing Melrose Park we were soon at Sir Truby King Park. We paused here and spent a few minutes looking around the area and rehydrating. As we approached Newtown at 12:15pm we agreed on a pre-lunch coffee break. So we went off-track to enjoy a short pause at the Mediterranean Food Trattoria. Following that it was back to the task. We found a suitable place to eat our lunches in the sun, close to the walkway on the slopes of Mount Victoria.

On the mount's summit we just had to have the "compulsory" group photo before beginning the descent. By now we were quite used to spotting the pink track markers, so we made good progress towards Oriental Bay.

We reached the official "start" of the walkway 4½ hours after our start at Island Bay. We were happy to wait in the adjacent bus stop for transport to the station. After nearly 30 minutes a Number 14 bus arrived - a nice, easy way to end the day!

My thanks to Lynsay and Craig for joining me on this, my favourite Wellington walk.

Those on the trip were:

Craig Watkin, John Glover, Lynsay Flowers

Currently there is no photo album for this trip.