We woke to the prospect of another beautiful day, a day for hiking we thought! We finished our breakfast and drove out to the the Skyline Walkway trailhead, a scant 8.5 km (about 5 miles) from the B&B. We started through the forest and soon broke out into full sunshine. There are some ups and downs on the trail, but a lot of it is on the ridge tops above the suburbs of Wellington. At one point the trail approaches the edge of a Karori subdivision near the Montgomery Ave. playground and the local water tower. We were awestruck as we turned the corner of a switchback to this view:

The water tower is beautifully decorated!

We walked around the structure to admire the artwork.

The breath from the blue figure blew onto the sleeping green beauty.

I realized that this depicts the primal couple, Ranginui (Rangi-Sky Father) and Papatuanuku (Papa-Earth Mother) of Maori creation mythology! And there was no graffiti marring it!

Other paintings depict the Pohutukawa tree and the Kawakawa bush.

We continued on the trail in the full sunshine, enjoying the long views over the suburbs and glimpses of Wellington harbour far below us. As we hiked we noticed that rabbits started appearing everywhere! Most were the typical brown cottontail bunny color and size, then we noticed some huge brown rabbits and and even a few black and a small blond rabbit! There were signs posted warning of poison for rats and possums (introduced in 1837 to establish a fur trade, then again in 1857. They are now a serious invasive pest threatening the natural environment!) but we guess that they have given up on controlling the rabbit populations, here anyway!

How many rabbits are in this picture? Over a dozen! Some are hidden under the bushes, but you can see a few pairs of rabbit ears in the open!

After 3 miles we found shade in a grove of Monterey pines (an imported specie to reforest the hills with marketable timber in plantations) and laid out our picnic lunch.

There were tons of rabbits here as well, but they disappeared into their rabbit holes when we arrived.

After lunch we discovered this old fireplace and wondered at the structure it must have been a part of.

Looking out over the hills towards the ocean, past the windmills, the view that the house must have had!

A six mile hike was pretty good for us, and we headed home for a relaxing evening.

As just about every name here, it’s pronounced differently than I thought! Petone, pronounced pe-tone-eh. It’s a town at the northern shore of Wellington Harbour, where the Hutt river flows into the harbour. Now it is considered a suburb of the town of Lower Hutt, not to be confused with Upper Hutt, which is upstream on the Hutt river. We went there on a mission, to purchase a flag, particularly the United Tribes flag of New Zealand. The first flag, chosen by a slim majority of 25 Maori chieftains in 1834, to represent the ‘new’ nation of New Zealand. It was necessary to enable the Maori to legally trade with Australia under British law.

The first recognized flag of the nation of New Zealand.

Anyway, we found our way to the flag shop and after our purchase we had a great conversation with the woman who helped us. She gave us recommendations for short walks in the Petone area and we set out to explore. A short bus ride took us to the edge of Petone where the river valley ascended into the hills. We found the Percy Scenic Reserve as she described it and found picnic tables to have lunch. The Reserve is the culmination of the lifetime works of the 3 Percy brothers whose grandfather purchased the land from a Maori chieftain around 1840 and set up a flour mill on the creek flowing from the hills. When the mill ceased operation the 3 brothers, unmarried with no families, continued living on the land and created gardens of native and exotic vegetation. Eventually the last brother opened the gardens to the public and in 1939 it was passed to the local government, who administer the reserve now. After our lunch we set out to explore the trails.

As we passed the pond, created to run the waterwheel to turn the millstone for the flour mill, this family of ducks followed us!

The ducks abandoned us as we offered no treats and we headed further on the trail towards the waterfall.

We followed the gurgling creek uphill.

The waterfall was more impressive than we expected from the tiny creek we followed!

The trail was well laid out, with wooden walkways along the narrow creek bed.

We headed up a connecting trail to a higher point, but didn’t get any great long distant views so we returned down the same beautiful trail. We finally found the replica waterwheel from the Percy mill.Our return to catch the bus involved traveling on a walkway next to a highway for a short distance, but we emerged at the train/bus hub and discovered we could take a train back into Wellington town centre.

Our first public transport train in NZ, and it was air-conditioned! A relief on a hot day after hiking!

The train terminus is at Wellington Central Station. It was completed and opened in 1937 so it incorporates the architecture of the era, grand “neo-Georgian” style.

The roof in the grand foyer.

The grand entrance, where we exited, to catch the #2 bus back to the car park!

The title could also be “159 Steps” or “What Happens When You Catch the Wrong Bus”! We were heading to Seatoun, just to see the town, a suburb of Wellington on the east side of the Miramar peninsula that sticks out into Wellington Harbour. We ended up in Miramar, in the center of the peninsula. We decided to head to a green area on the map, hoping for some views over the water. We ended up climbing 159 steps to a walkway overlooking Evans Bay where we could see the backside of Wellington!

Looking out over Evans Bay towards the suburb of Oriental Bay. Wellington town centre is over the hill.

Abandoning our quest to see Seatoun we walked down from the heights on residential roads to catch a bus to Moa Point at the south end of the peninsula, hoping for a view out over Cook Strait and a quiet place on the water to have our picnic lunch. The bus stopped above Moa Point and we had a trail to follow down the hill. As we emerged from the overgrown woods we discovered we were overlooking the end of the Wellington Airport runway and the Wellington Wastewater Treatment plant!

The airport takes up the isthmus that connects Miramar peninsula to the mainland. Evans Bay is on the right (circled in red) and Lyall Bay is on the left (circled in green).

We continued down to sea level and walked on the road around to Moa Point and were not disappointed! We had a great view over Lyall Bay out to Cook Strait, with the mountains of the south island in the distance, one even snowcapped!There is a little park at the point, but rather unkempt and weedy.

This stone bench however, made a great table for our picnic lunch!

As we ate our lunch, holding everything down because it was pretty windy, we watched several planes land, and a few take off, and a ferry passing the entrance to Lyall Bay on their way across Cook Strait. We also spotted a pod of dolphins porpoising through the water of the bay! After lunch we had to walk about 2 km on the road between the airport and a golf course to our return bus stop. We decided to pop into the airport to check it out.

Overhanging the holiday decor and Christmas tree displays was this enormous golden eagle and rider. A reference to Lord of the Rings, filmed in places in NZ. Although I don’t remember any giant eagles in the books!

We also took advantage of the free chocolate samples at a kiosk in the airport! We managed to get the correct bus back to the car park, and got home safely! Not a bad adventure for a day that started out with an accidental bus ride!

We took the bus to the end of one line today, around Wellington Harbour to the east side. We have our bus cards, so we’re using them! Eastbourne is a small town, a popular tourist location that’s served by the bus system, and a ferry from Wellington. We disembarked the bus at the small town center and found a bakery/cafe for our coffees!

These beautiful mosaics of New Zealand birds are embedded in the sidewalks around the town center! This is the fantail, a fearless small songbird we’ve seen frequently.

We walked around town and found our way to the ‘Marine Parade’, a wonderful waterfront walkway where dunes are being restored.

These Pohutuwaka trees lined the street leading to the beach and waterfront Marine Parade.

We continued further south until the road ended and the Remutaka Forest Park began, where we checked out the electric assist bikes that can be rented (we’ll be back to try them out we hope!).

Along the walkway there are views out to Cook Strait, and the harbour entrance.

We found the memorial to the Wahine Disaster, the passenger and car ferry that ran into the reefs opposite this area in April of 1968 in a terrible storm with the loss of 51 lives.

We had a picnic lunch along the parkway and caught a bus back to the town center.

We saw this handsome fella in town, getting ready for the holidays!

We walked north from the town center to Days Bay Wharf to catch the ‘East by West’ ferry back to Wellington. We saw this interesting house built right up to a cliff face. The brick towers appear to be solar tubes.

We couldn’t tell if it’s all new construction, or modified from some older structure.

Once on the ferry we could relax, and let Skipper Dan do the driving. It was beautiful and sunny out, so we weren’t worried!

Cash bar on board!

Welcome to Wellington Harbour!

Once back in Wellington it was easy to catch a bus back to the car on the outskirts of town, drive back to the B&B, relax and grill a wonderful fish dinner!

Today was a rest and relaxation day, so we cleaned the house and did laundry. Eventually we needed to get outside so we took a walk down to the beach in the afternoon.

There’s art even on the mundane utility boxes along the road!

We got down to the beach and walked along the stream that empties into Ohariu Bay that Makara Beach is on.

The meandering stream gets going through the narrow outlet where the current meets the waves coming in on the beach!

On the beach this bright seaweed was just at the wave line. It was firmly attached to the rock, but the rock was tossed by the waves!