Tag: tinakori hill

This coming weekend

I’ve been struggling to get out lately due to other commitments, and it’s likely to continue for a while longer. This weekend, though, I’m anticipating a short jaunt in the Tararuas with Tongue and Meats, in the vicinity of Mitre and Girdlestone if the weather plays nicely. Last time I visited Mid-King Biv was ages ago. The weather’s uncertain and I’m not sure if that will actually happen, but am looking forward to it regardless. Otherwise it might involve some navigation around Blue Range. I’ll write about it more properly afterwards.

As some consolation for less tramping I’ve been exploring around Ngaio and Crofton Downs, where I’ve been living since the beginning of this year. Whilst I’m working from a home office lately it’s become a very accessible starting point for quickly escaping suburbia during my lunch break. There are frequent and steep hills available and plenty of native bush and reserves nearby, whether it’s Trelissick Park or Te Ahumairangi Hill (aka the Tinakori Hill), or Otari-Wiltons Bush or the Skyline Walkway, which is up behind where I now live, and noisy gangs of Kaka making themselves known every morning and evening. There have been good opportunities to explore and discover much of what’s around here beyond what I was familiar with last time I lived nearby.

With the Skyline Walkway I’ve come across several [cough] unofficial but more direct routes up to the ridge, which must nevertheless be frequented by at least a few people given how well defined they are. It’s tempting to go up and trim back some of the gorse, of someone else doesn’t beat me to it. The accessibility’s paying off, too. Several weeks back on July 9th, I was able to hop up immediately when Wellington had one of its colder days for which the western hills received a rare dusting of snow, despite being very near the sea and only 300 metres above sea level.

Anyway, tramping this weekend!

26 August, 2015
Flapping birds

This evening I was walking home over the Tinakori Hill — part of the town belt between my workplace and home. It’s interesting to see how the various tracks change. Some tracks are officially recognised and always well maintained, but others come and go. Last year, my most direct route was almost straight up a gully on what was a fairly wide four wheel drive track, even though I never saw a vehicle. It’s never been a very accessible road because it’s so steep, but for a long time the only other route was comparably indirect.

About 6 months ago, the local city council built a new well graded track (it even has a handrail) that switches up the end of the spur at one end of the valley. It switches so much that it takes longer, but it’s less steep. The original route, which I still try to use because of its directness, gradually becomes overgrown as time goes on. It will probably be inaccessible within a year or two if it’s not properly cleared, but meanwhile I’m continuing to use it. Earlier tonight, I must have disturbed about 50 small birds as I walked up, which never happened in the past, and it occurred that the high grass and scrub growth is becoming a haven for them as the bush takes over once again.
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12 February, 2010
Torches, boots, hills and Wellington

For all of today, Wellington was doing a cute thing that it does several times a year. The clouds come in low over the harbour and drift over the city. Living in the hills, it’s possible to either be inside the clouds, or above them and looking down over a flat desert of smooth drifty white. In Northland, on the western side of the Tinakori Hill, our view of Otari Wilton’s Bush was relatively clear but for the walls of fog creeping around the end of the hill and making their way towards us, but always evaporating before they reached us. Many people living in the cloud would stay at home for the day, believing it to be dreary and depressing weather, but I find walking through this subtle kind of environment fascinating.

Stacey and I went for a walk down into the central city, 20-50 minutes away depending on urgency, and the view over the harbour was iconic of these kinds of days. Much of the mist would have evaporated by the time we saw it at 11.30am, but with the Orongorongas highlighted by their contrast in the background behind the city and the harbour as they lead towards the southern extent of the Tararuas, it’s a good sight all the same.

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13 June, 2009
Bird watching, bread baking and new routes

The Kapiti Island thing didn’t go ahead yesterday, due to excessive wind or something. The boat skipper wasn’t keen to go out, and that seems fair enough. They didn’t take any of our money and DOC is happy to defer the visiting permit to a later date. Consequently we’ve put it off until next Saturday.

I spent some of this morning baking bread, for which I’m still trying to get my recipe exact. I’ve increased the amount of yeast I put in over earlier occasions, because wholemeal flour doesn’t seem to like to rise as much as regular flour. I’m also trying to make some bread rolls just by rolling up some well-kneaded bread slop that I mixed together and putting it directly on a baking tray, rather than a nicely shaped bread baking pan. At this point it’s not clear how they’ll come out, but I guess we’ll find out later today. Right now the yeasted slop is enjoying the sunshine. Some time I hope to get a good enough technique to make some nice bread to take tramping. The problem so far is that it usually doesn’t last long enough for it to still be around when I’m packing.
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28 September, 2008
Even more track consultations for Wellington

If you’re like me and spend much of your spare time wandering around local tracks in the Wellington region, you might be interested to know that the Wellington City Council is currently consulting on its Draft Recreation Activities Policy, which governs how the WCC balances the needs of walkers, cyclists, horse riders, 4WD enthusiasts, and crazy mountain runners throughout Wellington’s track network. Consultation is open until Monday 22nd September, and an Online Submission Form is being provided.

The consultation covers tracks throughout most of Wellington’s Town Belt such as the Tinakori Hill, parts of the Southern Walkway, parts of the Skyline Walkway, Wrights Hill, Te Kopahou Reserve, and a few others. Actually after a brief scan, at least part of the proposals look to be opening up certain areas to mountain bikes which frequently get used by people on mountain bikes already.

If you’re interested in the tracks around the area, it might be worth your while to have a browse of the draft policy and make a submission, either in support of the proposals or not. Additional related WCC policies that are up for consultation during the same time period are the Draft Walking Policy and the Draft Cycling Policy, which respectively aim to frame the policies around encouraging walking and cycling in Wellington and making them safe.

5 September, 2008
Weather-beaten Tinakori Hill

I walked home over the Tinakori Hill again this evening. I haven’t been going home that way as often in the last couple of weeks, maybe only three or four times. This is probably a little to do with the onset of winter, and also that it’s become more apparent to me over time that it’s almost certainly more direct to go around Tinakori Hill rather than over it (about 35 minutes’ walk instead of 45 minutes), and that’s been tempting given I haven’t been feeling as energetic lately. There have been a couple of small deluges of heavy rain over the last week or so, and I’m often quite impressed walking around the place a good 8 hours later, still being able to hear the water running through the various channels near the surface as it seeps out of the ground.

This afternoon the hill was looking rather weather-beaten. It wasn’t anywhere near as destroyed as I’ve seen it in the past, but there were certainly a couple of tracks with fallen trees partly blocking them and perhaps it’s a sign of things to come over the next few years. It’s just a reminder that trees fall over, I guess.

We’re off to Cattle Ridge in the Tararuas to do some navigation-like things this weekend, on another club trip, and it looks as if it might rain. I’m not sure exactly where in the vicinity of Cattle Ridge because I haven’t been concerned enough to find out, but I’m sure Sam (who’s organising it) has some ideas and I’ll find out tomorrow evening if not later on. I guess if the shape of the land doesn’t let us easily walk around in circles, he probably has a backup plan for us to walk around in triangles or hexagons or icosagons, or even something non-symmetrical if we’re so daring. It’ll be fun.

8 May, 2008
Living in Northland

Views from half way up
the Tinakori Hill.

We’ve now lived in Northland for almost a month, and it’s great. Stacey likes it because she can get to the university without having to go downhill and uphill. I like it because I get to walk over the Tinakori Hill twice a day. The lease deal is a lot nicer than the one we had in Brooklyn, and for once we’re not in someone’s run-down investment property.

Wildlife around the Tinakori Hill.

Anyway, I think we’re mostly settled in to life in Northland now which is good. I’ve decided that I’m quite enjoying living here. It’s about the same distance from everywhere important as Brooklyn was, and the walk to work and back is more interesting. There’s less traffic, less people, less concrete, more trees and bush to walk through, more wildlife, and a lot more vertical variation. I went out to survey the Tinakori Hill a couple of days after we moved in, and there are a lot of places to potentially get lost between the network of tracks, on both sides of the hill.

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19 February, 2008