A Dangerous Business

Date: 5th January 2024

Start: Camp Elsdon, Porirua (km 1671.1)

End: Wellington City (km 1702.6)

Distance Travelled: 31.5 km

Total Distance Completed: 1542.6 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: EAEA by Blanca Paloma

Roads West of Wellington: maliciously steep

Camp Elsdon provided some shelter from the wind so sleep was easy to come by, but once again I’m having to get up and get ready before the sun. It never gets any easier. Quite a bit of climbing stood between us and Wellington although the tracks promised to be of good quality.

Leaving camp, that “good quality” was code for stairs. Over 700 of them leading through a very still forest up to a lookout over Porirua. Our jackets, which had been quickly removed after only 100 of those steps, were just as quickly donned again now that we now got the full brunt of the nor’westerly bearing down on us.

The climb up to Colonial Knob was gradual from there, following a 4WD track over the bare hills that left us feeling pretty exposed. We had our first bit of sideways walking as we dragged our tired bodies up the hill.

The clouds were not as friendly when we reached the summit so no good views there sadly. Up top is what I presume to be a transmission tower and an old wooden shack whose purpose I could not determine (just looked it up, it’s a radio tower used to help verify radar stations in Wellington and northern South Island, no information on the shack sadly). Descending down the hill’s rocky slopes was easy but I still took it slowly; it wouldn’t do to break something this close to the end of the island. We then crossed into a pine forest that gently zig zagged down the hill. It goes without saying that I am really appreciating the more forgiving trails around Wellington after the Tararuas.

A short snack break later and we’re back on the roads. Yay. It was sealed and rose and fell gently as we passed over it, the highlight being a couple of fluffy creatures with big necks.

I found it particularly strange as the road felt like one that I would find in more rural country, but here we had various Wellington suburbs a stone’s throw away. The thought of that made me yearn even more for the city. I could reach a bus stop in mere minutes and be in the CBD within the hour. Honestly the only thing that stopped me was the urge to finish the North Island on my feet. No more public transport, no more hitching. This would of course require more snack breaks, especially today. I was very tired, my pack which should feel fairly light was giving me a lot of grief. Matt and Melly went ahead up the skyline track to Mt Kaukau, of a similar altitude to Colonial Knob but with a much shallower climb. The wind picked up again as I climbed but less severe than in the morning.

I caught up with a shattered looking Melly quickly. The effects of her 50 km walk yesterday seemed to have caught up with her, but I can understand her motivations for going that far. We’re all at the stage where we just want to get to the South Island, and if that means sprinting to the end after the Tararuas, so be it. Apart from a couple semi-steep tidbits close to the top, the walk was very pleasant, a nice and very popular pathway up the mountain, its summit containing another big ol’ tower, plenty of occupied picnic tables, and a gorgeous view over the Wellington skyline.

It’s an odd place to build a city. To be fair it’s a great harbour so that’s probably the main reason for settling here. Well, I now have to explore some of the more hilly sections. Descending off Kaukau, I arrived in Ngaio, passing underneath the Johnsonville railway line and onto the Southern Walkway, following it into a peaceful valley.

As I had descended into the valley, I was now forced to do the opposite to get out of it. I was fine on the pathway, but the streets I followed afterwards were properly disgusting, rivalling Baldwin Street in Dunedin for steepness. I engaged my hunchback mode and shuffled my way up the hill. The locals must put a lot of trust in their cars’ parking brakes.

All that climb did was exacerbate the tiredness I was feeling, and now I had to clamber over a cliff track, peering down into the industrial centre of Wellington city.

I caught up with Matt at the bottom as we walked to the pretty Botanical Gardens. The route through the gardens… is confusing at best. Eventually I just figured I’d make my way up to the cable car in the direction of my choosing. Clearly I I’d picked the right path as I started hearing a peculiar bird song in the trees above me. Visual inspection then showed a large flock of kaka jumping through the trees, either playing or scavenging. The fact that they are here is a huge success story, mostly thanks to the efforts organisations like Zealandia have put into their predator-free hillsides. If kaka are now flying beyond the fence and repopulating other areas of Wellington with a certain level of ease, that’s incredibly encouraging.

Using the same strategy as the descent, I arrived in a cemetery that took me over SH1 and into the city proper. Before I began today I had in my head that I’d slack pack the rest of the way to Island Bay. That definitely wasn’t happening today, I motion that I need to rest.

But not before dumplings. Yeah, Matt got hiker hunger again and sent the three of us to a dumping restaurant for a super late lunch. Oh boy was it the right call to me, simply delicious. From there I took the bus to the hostel and collapsed onto my bed, having a quiet evening before the abject chaos that I’ve got planned for tomorrow’s “rest” day. In the meantime, I can be satisfied knowing that I made it to Wellington, a city that can’t be beat on a good day. Just not today, weather was pretty miserable.