An Easy Walk In Trelissick Park, Ngaio Gorge

My friend Eirenne and I have finally commenced our weekly (weather dependent) walking trips in Wellington. As this was our first official walk, we opted for an easy one. Hence, our first choice to explore the well recommended Trelissick Park in Ngaio. 

Trelissick Park is very accessible from the city by public transportation. However, buses can be quite unreliable sometimes. When we arrived at the bus stop in Courtenay Place just after 12 noon, the bus 43 was arriving in 15 minutes. Then all of a sudden, the bus disappeared on the screen and there were no other buses queued up after that, so we decided to "uber" it. It only took us roughly 15minutes to Trelissick Crescent, one of the six entrances to the park.

This walk was an easy one for me as the terrain was flat, although quite hilly in some areas. But really, nothing that made me short of breath or anything. I just had to be careful with the tree roots and some pine needles as they were quite slippery.

I particularly enjoyed the track that followed the Kaiwharawhara stream. In some areas, the stream ran through some big rocks and woods creating mini-waterfalls. The water was very clear, it was so tempting to step into it. I'm not actually sure if people are even allowed to get into the water, but dogs are.

Speaking of dogs, Trelissick park is a dog exercise area and therefore, we saw a number of beautiful dogs unleashed and enjoying the park as much as their human counterparts.

I am a fan of small bridges and in Trelissick Park I saw a couple of really cute ones.

There was an area in the park with some rock formation and when I looked closer I saw some images that looked like faces. This is one thing that I love in Wellington, there is art work everywhere even in the middle of the forest. You just have to know how to find them.

Towards the end of our loop we found the historic powder magazine building. History says that this is where they used to store ammunition in the late 1800s.

The walk is about 3km long and on average takes two hours according to Wellington City Council. In our case, it took twice as long because of course, we had to exercise our photographic skills and we also stopped for a quick snack.

Overall, the loop was good but there were some dead end areas like the way to the fish ladder so we had to go back up a steep-ish hill to continue our walk.

We took the Ngaio Gorge Road exit where we took the bus back to the city.

It was a very pleasant walk and I am very lucky to have found a friend who doesn't only share most of my passions, but also inspires me in a lot of ways.

This is only the beginning of our many walks. But saying that, we only have a few weeks left and the weather has been so inconsiderate lately. So, we'll see how many more can we tick off from our list.

tintin x