Wellington City to Sea walk
Nigel Boniface
Five members had an early start on Sunday, meeting at the railway station for the 7.45am train, we arrived in Wellington just before 10am.
The walk starts in the Bolton Street Cemetery with some early NZ history, including the Seddon memorial, which is waiting for strengthening work to start.
I did this walk about 10 years ago, then the route markers were few and far between, today there are bright yellow markers at almost every turn, with those, a paper route map and Denise with a route map on her phone were surely would not get lost!
There had been a lot of talk on the train about coffee stops, so I was quite surprised that everyone walked past the café at the Lady Norwood Rose Garden, however there was a much better view at the next, and last, café at the Cable Car.
Then it was on through some of the older suburbs, up into the green belt, and following our map, App and markers. The wheels almost fell off at one point when there was a diversion signposted, the App had us getting further from the marked route, but we dutifully followed the markers and finally re-joined the map and the app. On investigation it appears that Google maps has the correct route, but the App has not been updated.
The weather had been as forecast, sunny and mild with little wind, a cool breeze came up as we neared Island Bay, by then we were heading down hill and relaxing, until a short uphill just before the end slowed our progress for a while.
At Island Bay we had the choice of 4 busses, one electric (which may have broken down as there was no driver), two other busses were “Not in Service”, finally a third “Not in Service” arrived with a driver who took us to Courtney Place (not sure if he did update the sign), where we had dinner before getting the 6.55pm train, which again was late arriving in Masterton.
A long, but enjoyable, day with the good company of Denise, Mike, Phil and Liz.
