Wellington - Surroundings

Along the Kapiti Coast, from Paekakariki by way of Raumati to Waikanae, there are a series of beautiful bathing beaches. There are also three good museums.

Eastern Bay Drive runs along the east side of the harbor, passes through Petone and comes to Eastbourne, which also has beautiful bathing beaches. From here there is a pleasant walk on a waymarked trail through woodlands down to beautiful Butterfly Creek, where there is an attractive pool for bathers.

Another trail (16km there and back) runs from Eastbourne to Pencarrow Head, on the east side of the entrance to the harbor, where New Zealand's first lighthouse was built (1859). From here there is a fine view of Port Nicholson.

The Engine Shed in Paekakariki has a fine collection of working steam engines.

This long narrow island (17.6 sq.km) lies off the west coast at Waikanae, 70km north of Wellington. It is now a nature reserve but can be visited only with the permission of the Department of Conservation. There is no overnight accommodation on the island. The east side, facing the mainland, has gentle wooded slopes, but the west coast has cliffs or falls sharply to the Tasman Sea.

All botanists will enjoy a visit to the Otari Museum of Native Plants, which is not a museum but rather a beautiful garden, with specimens of all the plants that grow in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. The museum is reached by way of Wilton Road (signposted to Karori), west of the city center.

Paekakariki, along the Kapiti Coast, is home to Paekakariki Rail and Heritage Museum. Exhibits on the railroad heritage of the area are housed in the Paekakariki Station.

The Settlers Museum in the suburb of Petone (on the Esplanade) has an collection of material on the European settlement of the area, as well as extensive archives that are of particular interest to genealogists.

The Settlers Market in Jackson Street and the Station Village Market at the corner of Hutt Road and Railway Avenue attract large numbers of visitors on Thursdays and Sundays.

Near the Tramway Museum is the Southward Car Museum, with a large collection of veteran and vintage cars, including a Cadillac that belonged to Marlene Dietrich, another that belonged to Al Capone and the first two cars - made by Mercedes-Benz - to run on New Zealand's then dusty tracks in 1898. The museum is some 50km north of the city center, 3km south of Waikanae.

The Tramway Museum in Elizabeth Park, Paekakariki (45km north of the city center on Highway 1), is a popular attraction at weekends. Here tramcars that once ran along Lambton Quay carry passengers on nostalgic trips to the Memorial Gates at McKay's Crossing. The gates commemorate the 2nd U.S. Marine Division that was stationed here during the second world war.

30km northeast of Wellington, in the valley of the Hutt River, is the satellite town of Upper Hutt (pop. 38,000). The population includes many commuters who travel into Wellington to work, but the town also has a number of factories and other institutions, such as the New Zealand Central Institute of Technology.

In Wainuiomata Valley rocks exposed here show clearly the various upthrusts caused by earthquakes. The most recent spectacular upthrust of the seabed resulted from the 1855 earthquake. The uppermost raised beach was thrust upwards some 6500 years ago.