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| The windmill at Foxton |
From Feilding
we made our way back to SH1 and drove south through the Horowhenua and Kapiti
Coast Districts. Our first stop was at
Foxton. Named after Sir William Fox, the
second Premier of New Zealand, Foxton was important in the past for its flax industry. Nowadays Foxton's presence is advertised by
the unusual sight of a windmill. Called
De Molen, and built in 2003, this is a full-sized working replica of a Dutch
mill. We were able to look inside—the
mechanical workings are apparently little changed from those used in 17th
century Holland. After buying some
stone-ground flour, we wandered around the town, which has interpretive signs
describing the various buildings.
Foxton had something we had never
seen before: a Flax Stripper Museum. We
learned that Foxton, having the only harbour on this stretch of coast, was a
boom town for flax. The museum housed
the country's only remaining, working, flax stripper and scutching machinery. (I also learned that scutching means to prepare
flax by beating the fibres). Flax was
first exported from Foxton in 1869, and over the next four years 22,000 tonnes
of fibre was sent to Australia, America and Britain—where it was made into
rope, matting and wool packs. By 1898,
ten steamers were plying their trade out of Foxton, and there were 50 flax
mills in the area. During the early
twentieth century the flax industry declined and the harbour gradually silted
up, leaving Foxton to become a quiet, pleasant little town.
The Kapiti Coast stretches from Ōtaki
to Paekākāriki. SH 1 took us between the
Tararua Ranges and the coast, where Kapiti Island dominates the seascape. The beach settlements don't encourage freedom
camping so we pulled up at the Ngāti Toa Domain, beside the Cruising Club at
Mana. This was close enough to
Wellington for us to use the car when we visited the city, without taking Tangaroa into the traffic.
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| At Battle Hill |
We enjoyed two walks near Mana. The first was the summit loop of the Battle
Hill Farm Forest Park, just around the Porirua Harbour. The battle that took place here was in 1864,
during New Zealand's land wars, when colonial troops fought Ngāti Toa over
European settlement in the area. The
settlers were fearful for their lives and Māori, who had been evicted from
their homes, had been pursued from the pā at Pauatahanui. The chief, Te Rangihaeata, built a temporary pā
on Battle Hill but eventually, after several days of fighting, the Ngāti Toa
fled north. There had been losses on
both sides.
We walked up through bush to open
hills, the grass trimmed by sheep. At
the battle site there was a carved boulder commemorating the fight. It was a peaceful spot with lovely views—hard
to realise that this was the place where some lost their lives and others lost
their birthright.
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| Colonial knob |
Our second walk took us to the
Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve. What an
awful name! Māori called the peak
Rangituhi, a mellifluous name meaning sky glow, which sounds much better to my
ears. The hills and peaks here existed
30-40 million years ago as part of a landmass that was lifted by earthquakes
and then eroded. The 3-5 hour walk began
off Broken Hill Road in Porirua, and led past lakes that once supplied water to
the town's hospital. The track led
upwards through native forest. Rimu was
logged from here but kohekohe, tawa and rewarewa remain and higher up there was
mahoe, mapou and stinkwood. It was quite
a climb to the summit of Rangituhi but the views were worth it. To seaward were the islands of Kapiti and
Mana, below us Porirua Harbour, and in the distance we could just see the peaks
of the Kaikoura Range in the South Island.
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| There's always something interesting to see in Wellington |
The South Island was where we were
heading—but first we wanted to spend some more time in Wellington. Friends who are members of the Evans Bay
Yacht Club told us that freedom camping was allowed in the car park—so we moved
Tangaroa there. Wellington is New Zealand's capital city but
is surprisingly compact and easy to get around.
It has an amazing museum, Te Papa; a funky area around Cuba Street with
quirky shops; a pretty harbour; cafes and second-hand bookshops; seaside drives
and views from its heights. There was
plenty to see and do.
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| Botanical Gardens |
We took New Zealand's only funicular
railway from Lambton Quay up to the beautiful Botanical Gardens and visited the
Carter Observatory. The observatory was
established in 1937 and became a tourist attraction in 1977. The Observatory's Space Place told us stories
about New Zealand's night sky and Māori astronomy. In the planetarium we went on a film journey
into mind-boggling deep space, where we learned about the stars, constellations
and galaxies. Then we investigated the
giant, polished-brass, Thomas Cook Telescope itself. It looked like something out of a museum but
gives star-gazers amazing views of the night sky.
On the other-worldly theme we drove
out to Miramar to visit Weta Workshops and take the Weta Cave tour. The workshops came to fame as the makers of
set, costumes and props for the Lord of
the Rings movies. The tour took us
on a behind the scenes for a glimpse of the workshops and a documentary
explained how the items were made. In
the shop, fans could buy Elvish-inspired jewellery and swords, as well as
steam-punk weapons and various posters, figurines and collectables from the
movies Weta has worked on. It was the
sort of place I could have spent hours in.
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| At Weta Workshops |
In Karori, ten minutes drive from central
Wellington, we came to Zealandia—the world's first fully-fenced, urban
eco-sanctuary. Within its 225 hectares,
18 species of wildlife have been introduced—six of which hadn't been seen on
the New Zealand mainland for over a century.
Now visitors can spot hihi, saddleback, bellbird, kākāriki and kākā(as
well as many other varieties of bird) on walks amidst the regenerating
bush. We bought tickets and picked up a
map, deciding to walk the 'red' route—a two hour return trip. This took us alongside the lake to an area of tuatara nurseries, where we
spotted several of the reptiles sitting motionless by their holes. Tuatara are the eldest of all living
reptiles, older than dinosaurs.
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| At Zealandia |
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| Kaka |
Further up the track we came to the
kākā feeders, where several of the raucous but endearing parrots were
congregated. We stayed for ages taking
photos as the kākā amused us with their antics.
Across the upper dam we came to a side track with hihi feeders and were
in luck—we saw these too. From here we
followed the track as it looped around and back down to the wetland area, where
takahē were striding about. There were
other, longer, walks at Zealandia but we felt that we had seen quite a lot over
the morning. We had to get back to Tangaroa and think about our ferry
crossing to the South Island.
Information about places mentioned in this post - correct at the time of writing
Walks
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Battle Hill Farm Forest
Park
www.gw.govt.nz/battlehill
Summit loop: 1.5 hr, easy
walking
Access: 610, Paekākāriki
Hill Rd, Pauatahanui
Hours: 8.00 am-dusk
- ·
Colonial Knob Scenic
Reserve
www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/wellington-kapiti/places/colonial-knob-scenic-reserve/things-to-do/colonial-knob-walk
3-5 hr return (to summit
of 468 metre-high hill) easy: walking track
Access: from Broken Hill
Rd or Raiha St, Porirua
Places to visit
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Foxton De Molen Windmill
96a, Main St, Foxton
www.foxton.org.nz/attr-demolen.html
Hours: 10.00 am-4.00 pm
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Foxton Flax Stripping Museum
Harbour St, Foxton
Hours: 1.00 pm-3.00 pm
daily
Entry Price: adult $3,
child $1
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Space Place at Carter
Observatory
40, Salamanca Rd, Kelburn
www.museumswellington.org.nz/space-place
Hours: Tuesday and Friday
4.00 pm-11.00 pm, Saturday 10.00 am-11.00 pm, Sunday 10.00 am-5.30 pm
Entry price: adult
$12.50, senior and student $10, child $8
- ·
Zealandia Ecosanctuary
53 Waiapu Rd, Karori,
Wellington
www.visitzealandia.com
Hours: 9.00 am-5.00 pm
daily
Entry price: adult
$19.50, student and senior $16.50, child $10
- · Weta Workshops
1, Weka St, Miramar,
Wellington
Hours: Weta Cave open
9.00am-5.30pm, free, various workshop tours can be booked here: wetaworkshop.com/visit-us/the-weta-cave
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