Whilst in Wellington, I had the lucky fortune to actually live on the side of Mt. Victoria. As a country that values its high seismic activity as an asset, it is not surprising that even the capital city makes way for a number of hills, the most prominent and well-known being Mt Victoria, to the East Side of the City.
It stands at 196m in height, and it is a must-see for anyone interested in getting a great view of the city centre, the beautiful harbour and adjacent rolling hills, the lesser-known haitaiti and roseneath regions of the city, and indeed, the very scarily positioned aiport!
I made a number of trips to the summit, both in the daytime and at night, and there is a nice manmade viewpoint with telescopes, a cannon and a giant sundial sculpture. On a clear day you can see to the south island, and if the sun is shining the twinkling blue waters of the harbour next to the shadowed bumps of the hills make a picture postcard view. Children and big kids alike will love watching the airplanes making their dangerous ascent and descent between two ridges of hills one way and two sides of water the other way!
As Wellington is a small and well designed city, you can pinpoint buildings and tourist attractions from the top of Mt Victoria, such as the stadium, te papa, the terrace and courtney place.
At night, the view is replaced by a beautiful landscape of twinkling lights in the hills in the distance, and the buzz of the city centre below. Again you can pick out the aiport, main streets and harbour, but in my opinion the best thing to do at night is stargaze and admire the beauty of this capital city.
When i was there, there were placards showing newplans for development of the viewpoint, so maybe by now there will be even more facilities available. Access is by road if you have your own car or you can get a bus to the summit, but you can also walk, either directly up one of the streets perpendicular to kent terrace, or take the longer but more picturesque walk from oriental bay- a section of the larger 11km southern walkway from oriental parade to island bay.
In my opinion every visitor to wellington should get to the summit one way or another, as it offers unparallelled views of the whole city, which has so much to offer- a harbour, hills, buzzing city centre and beautiful hidden bays. Its also a free activity, so a great cheap day out for everyone. So make the trip!
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A good review of Mt Vic. I have climbed it on a number of occasions, and (on a fine day) it offers marvellous views. Thanks for including it on Caio, it brought back memories for me as an ex-Wgtn.
annaroos1 02.09.2006 13:47
I was in NZ in MArch this year and we did try to get to WEllington but we didn't have enough time unfortunately. Iwould have loved to see it though.
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