Southern Hills of Island Bay


Have just come back from a lovely early evening walk of the southern hills of Island Bay. The walk was organised by the local MP as part of the Island Bay Festival. We all met at 6pm at the surf club by the beach and were guided round the very steep southern hills.

London is mostly flat so I'm slowly getting used to the serious hills of Wellington. However it was an absolutely stunning evening for a walk. We took our (borrowed) dog and really got the most of the amazing views and green bush. Wellington is blessed with lots of bush walks epsecially around the coast so I know its something we will be doing in the future.

I'm enjoying learning more and more about the Maori culture in NZ. Of particular interest to me this evening was the pole (pou pou like a totum pole) marking the site of the Pa (hill fort) overlooking Island Bay Island. Am looking forward to Saturday as we will all be attending an early harvest festival at the Island Bay Marae, hopefully we will get there in time for the traditional Maori greeting ceremony (Powhiri)

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