Windy Tops

Tag: wellington

  • Daywalk: Walking the Skyline Walkway

    2780261447_503cf08f0d_m-6990143
    The Rimutaka Range seen
    behind Wellington Harbour from
    the Skyline Walkway.

    I haven’t written about the Skyline Walkway before, which runs along the ridges between Karori and Mount Kaukau. This is a shame because on a good day it’s a very nice walk, and very accessible. On a bad day it can be very exposed to strong westerly winds, especially in a couple of saddles towards the northern end. I’ve walked it a few times now, most often starting from the Karori end and once from the Kaukau end. The most recent time was last Sunday when I decided on a whim that I felt like doing something.

    Date: 17th August, 2008
    Location: Skyline Track, Karori to Mt Kaukau.
    People: Me.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    The Wellington City Council advises that it’s a “5 hour strenuous walk”, which is certainly true if you’re planning a family trip or an occasional outing. If you’re the sort of person who does a lot of walking and is reasonably fit, however, you could reasonably expect to get from the Karori end to the Kaukau end inside a couple of hours at a reasonably fit pace and if you had nothing better to do (not necessarily including getting down from Kaukau). It’d be feasible to do it quite a bit faster if you’re a crazy mountain runner, which some people are.

    (more…)

  • I like Wellington

    2697298795_cd60f835a9-9205745
    Wellington on a fun day.

    A couple of years ago I was walking home from work and noticed a rubbish bin on The Terrace with at least three broken umbrellas crammed in it, which I found rather hilarious. Since then I’ve been trying to remember to pack my camera on days with lots of wind and just too little rain to keep most of the office dwellers inside. Even then, this was the first time I’ve seen anything similar again. It’s a shame there was only one.

    I should make a note that I still need to buy myself a good solid tramping umbrella.

  • Daywalk: Wellington to Plimmerton (via suburbia)

    I haven’t been out tramping for a while and this morning I ended up with a free day on my hands, so I decided to just walk North towards the Kapiti Coast for a while and see how far I’d get. This is actually the third time I’ve done this, and the second time in the Kapiti direction, but it’s the first time I’ve written anything about it.

    The general idea is to just walk through suburbia, keeping reasonably close to bus routes and/or railway lines so it’s easy to bail out and go home whenever it’s convenient. I quite like doing this on occasion because it involves minimal organisation and it’s not necessary to arrange any special gear. Just some contingency money for a bit of food and public transport home is all. It’s also just quite a nice change from walking through the back-country, I think. Suburbia changes quite a lot as you walk through it (at least it does on this route), and I find it interesting wandering along the streets and watching things going on as the day progresses.

    Date: 6th July, 2008
    Location: Wellington suburbs (Northland, Johnsonville, Tawa, Porirua, Plimmerton).
    People: Me.
    Intended route: Start at Northland and walk north along suburban streets in the general direction of Kapiti, keeping near public transport.

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    (more…)

  • 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.

  • Daywalk: Korokoro to Dry Creek, Belmont Regional Park

    This is going to be a quick trip report because it was a fairly quick trip. The fact that the park was getting completely thrashed by a southerly helped to ensure this, I think. We didn’t really want to stop.

    Date: 19th April, 2008
    Location: Belmont Regional Park, Cornish Street to Dry Creek (Haywards Turnoff).
    People: Sarah, Mari, Edwin, Nicole and me.
    Intended route: Start at Cornish Street, walk up to Belmont Trig via Baked Beans Bend, continue around Cannons Head and Boulder Hill via the Puke Ariki Track, then exit via Dry Creek at the Haywards turnoff from State Highway 2.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    I’d originally had 9 people interested in doing this walk, but as the weekend approached we eventually filtered down to 5, through a combination of flu, weekend work issues, and one person simply not showing up. It was a good trip, albeit a little windy.

    (more…)

  • Living in Northland

    2244974520_36b83f0268_m-6283983
    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.

    2244970468_e7c890f7fb_m-2047794
    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.

    (more…)

  • South Coast Eclipses

    2267668407_2c1fdd5d71_m-4064055
    George’s eclipse projection.

    2268463700_3dfab88311_m-6464224
    Matt’s eclipse projection
    (look at the shadow close up).

    Just to comment on something else that happened in the last couple of weeks during times when I haven’t been tramping, Stacey and I caught up with some astronomy friends on Wellington’s South Coast on Thursday just over a week ago. Specifically, we took a look at the 2/3 Solar Eclipse that was visible to some extent over most of New Zealand at the convenient time of 5.30pm’ish on Thursday evening.

    I went armed with a solar viewing screen that I’d picked up from an earlier eclipse, but several other people brought along several other methods for viewing it, including everything from filtered telescopes down to pin-hole projectors made from kitchen implements. I haven’t had a chance to do much astronomy stuff in the last couple of years, but it was great to catch up with a few friends again.

  • We’re moving flat

    Not much has happened in the last couple of weeks. Work’s started again, and our lease is up soon, so Stacey and I have been out flat hunting to try and find somewhere with a little more space and more afternoon sun. On that topic, we’ll be moving to Wilton (from Brooklyn) in a couple of weeks time, where we’ve found a really nice 3-bedroom house that actually has an affordable rent. (They’re very nice landlords.) It’s really only over the hill from Brooklyn (and along a bit), but it might mean some good opportunities to wander around bits of the other side of Wellington more frequently.

    Next weekend, a week before we move, I’m planning to be on a club trip lined up in the Kaimanawas, and that should give me something new to write about. It’s over Wellington Anniversary Weekend so we’ll have an extra day to run around and get lost.

  • Daywalk: Belmont Crossing – Porirua, Belmont Trig, Korokoro Stream, Petone

    2152975169_ab85c76827_m-5530613
    Bird life at the Korokoro Dam.

    I’ve walked from Petone to Porirua a couple of times now, and both times I’ve gotten lost on a farm on the Porirua side and ended up walking down some random farmer’s driveway. This time I thought I might do it in the other direction, so that maybe I could finally figure out where I should have been going.

    Date: 1st January, 2008
    Location: Belmont Regional Park, Cannons Creek Lake Reserve to Cornish Street.
    People: Just me.
    Intended route: Start at Cannons Creek, walk up past Cannons Head and Belmont Trig, then down one of the routes near the Korokoro Stream, and out at the Cornish Street exit in Petone.
    [Photos]

    This post is a trip report. You can find other trip reports about other places linked from the Trip Reports Page, or by browsing the Trip Reports Category.

    (more…)

  • New street shoes from Newtown

    Usually I wait until Christmas Eve before doing the Christmas shopping. I figure there’s little point in prolonging the stress when it can be conveniently and efficiently crunched into a few hours on the day before Christmas. This year, I’ve had to take that period of stress and shunt it forward a few days, because Stacey and I are about to head up to Taranaki for Christmas with her family. I finally figured out what to get for Stacey, and all it took was for her to drag me into a shop and show me. The best part is that it’s not too volumous, so I haven’t had to spend extra money on more wrapping paper.

    I also had a few other errands to run. The primary one of these came as a consequence of Wellington finally having had some decent rain a couple of days ago. After a few pathetic attempts at rain over the last couple of weeks, we actually had a persistent downpour for several hours during the middle of the day. This event coincided with my discovery that I seem to have walked through the soles of my work shoes again, and this was the reason for the errand.

    (more…)