Saturday 24 October 2020

Leader: Dave Cox

Seven Parawais began the day in Wellington by catching the train to Wellington station, and from there we immediately started walking towards Oriental Bay, where the Southern Walkway begins.

The walkway is 10.6 km but we had another 3.2 km to walk to the start. After only five minutes we had a crisis on our hands. One of our party was in desperate need of caffeine, so we made an emergency stop at a café, where the drug was soon administered.

The remainder of the party, in a fine show of support for the sufferer, decided to also take on additional nourishment while they waited. One can never have too much nourishment on a walk like the Southern Walkway.

At Oriental Bay we soon found the start of the walkway and the walk began in earnest. The track zig-zags up the side of Mount Victoria, between houses and in and out of groves of trees. The pros and cons of zigs versus zags was hotly debated by some as we toiled uphill, some preferring the zigs and some the zags. It being a fabulous day, we made good use of the viewing points along the way, many with seats, from where we could take in the views of the city and harbour and take photos (and surreptitiously get our breath back). We made a small diversion to include the summit of Mount Victoria, and Marian and Patrick even found the energy to walk to the adjacent hill housing the trig station and radio tower.

A short time later we made a brief lunch stop, then continued on until Truby King Park, filled with spring blooms and objects of interest. Most of the way was now flat or downhill, but we did make the short ascent above the Mt Albert water reservoir to take in the fantastic views of the distant snow-capped Kaikoura Ranges.

There are two ways down to Island Bay from Mt Albert; our choice was via Houghton Bay. Once at Island Bay we caught the No 1 bus to the railway station, where we re-hydrated with a much-needed cold drink before our train departed.

Those on the trip were:

Susan Robertson, Marian Cox, Patrick Liss, Darrel Sutherland, Dave Cox, Pam Glover, John Glover