A Walk to the Top of Mount Victoria

Trust me, I came to Wellington prepared for hilly walks and hikes.  J kindly bought me hiking boots last Christmas and although I really love them, I think it's quite early for me to be wearing them. I am saving them for longer and more challenging hikes. And so when we went up Mt Victoria, I was wearing my flip-flops. I know I have the stupid tendency to dress up inappropriately at times, choosing fashion over comfort so forgive me if you come across photos of me like the one below. But don't worry, I have bought a new pair of trainers since and I have been wearing them regularly especially if I know that we will be walking uphill or long distance.

Going back to Mt Victoria, we are fortunate enough to live in this suburb because it is a walking distance to a lot of beautiful places in Wellington including the most talked about Mt Victoria lookout. Although we could have driven or taken the bus (20) to the summit, we chose to go on foot so we could take some photos and explore the area a bit more. Luckily, the weather was very good at that time so we really enjoyed the walk. Some parts of the hill were a little bit steep and slightly rocky, but majority of the trails were good. And don't worry about getting lost as there are road signs everywhere .

 Apparently there are several other ways to get to the peak of Mt Victoria- one of which has better scenic views. I'm not quite sure which way this is but I am guessing it is the route from Oriental Bay. We took the Majoribanks Road route up to Hawker street and then  to Moeller Street. From the top of Moeller Street, we turned right to the Lookout Walkway and from there, we found our way to the Lookout. This route may not have given us scenic views, but we walked through the forest amongst beautiful trees.

Before we reached the summit, we came across the Byrd Memorial and a bronze cannon. 

And then finally, the stunning panoramic view of Wellington from the summit:

Yes we saw the amazing 360 view of Wellington but we didn't get to see one other important thing in Mt Victoria - the location of The Lord of the Rings. We were not aware of this at that time, but when I found out about it, I told J and we went back last Sunday to look for it. Not that I am a fan of the trilogy (yet- as I have not seen the films), but I think it is always nice to see movie locations.

Anyhow, so we went back but unfortunately, some blogger and google maps failed us -and yes I am putting the blame on them. We followed a map provided by a blogger but got lost instead. We were not  that  desperate to find the location this time as we live just around the corner and we could just go back  some other time,  but we thought it would be better if we didn't.

So we walked and walked until we found this trail that we hoped could lead us to the famous spot where "the Hobbits hid from the Black Rider" and where "they listened for the Nazgul". Whatever that means. After a few minutes of debating whether or not the tree we saw was actually the Hobbit's hideaway, J decided to climb up a tree while I carried on walking until I saw this weird creature coming towards us. No, it was not one of the Hobbits nor Gollum. It was someone or something with long hair. His hair was all over his face and he was walking like a caveman. I grabbed J's attention and as soon as he saw the creature, he jumped off the tree and we started running. I mean it could have been nothing really. He probably was just one of the hikers who happened to have a long hair (bless him), but believe me it was so scary. I thought he looked like a zombie but J thinks he was more  like an Orc. Whoever or whatever he was, he scared the hell out of us. 

I searched for "unusual person at Mt Vic" on google, but I didn't find anything related to what we saw so perhaps no one has ever had that experience. Or maybe people just don't exaggerate things as much as I do. Or perhaps we ignored the sign: 

So we decided that maybe we should just do the Lord of the Rings tour to avoid getting lost and finding weird creatures. :)


tintin x


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