Sea 2 City

Wellington has an awesome networks of public trails that weave through and surround the city. This New Zealand Labour Day weekend found Adam and I accompanied by three other American ex-pats wandering from city park to park on the Wellington City to Sea Walkway. Advertised as a rigorous 12 kilometer tour between Island Bay and Parliament. Seeing as Adam and I live within two blocks of the re-nowned Beehive, we decided to reverse the walk and turn the City to Sea hike into a Sea to City adventure. Pictures tell the story best:

The troops set out on the trail - which happened to start in a playground.

Pirate/Spider Man Jarom entertains the park with his pirate lingo. The best part was how the kids who were playing with him never broke character as this 6 foot + guy plowed straight into their fantasy game.

Our first ascent rewarded us with this gorgeous viewpoint...except that since were were walking towards the city, the views were actually entertaining our backsides more than our optical nerves.

Go ahead. Try and tell me this isn't a Hobbit Trail.

This hobbit's conquering the trail.

Tapu Te Ranga Marae placed the powhenua on the hill. Te Rauparaha was a leading Ngati Toa chief who migrated with his people to the Wellington region, along with a number of Taranaki tribes - including Ngati Tama, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Tupaia (hapu of Ngati Ruanui), Ngati Haumia (hapu of Taranaki) and Te Atiawa - in the early eighteenth century. First Lieutenant, Te Rangihaeata was Te Rauparaha's nephew. Te Rauparaha faces Kapiti Island to the east and Te Rangihaeata faces Tapu Te Ranga Island to the south. Did you find the non-Maori chief?

We were rewarded at the end of our journey with some adult play time at Central Park. Katie and I decided to see if there is any truth to legends of the power of the Pyramids.

Coolest playground toy since we've seen since we visited the Wheeler's in France with their ground level trampoline. Meet the Flying Fox!







The fox tried to do me in by being too tall...but with a little determination (and my tippy toes) I was not to be outfoxed! Wheeee!

Full disclosure: We didn't actually finish the last leg of the Sea to City walk. We decided that since we all spend quite a bit of our time walking the streets inside the City, we went ahead and skipped the inner-city bit. But for fear of sounding crazy about calling the Parliament the Beehive...we submit the above as evidence.