Monday, April 9, 2012

Belmont Regional Park

Had a stunning day off with a walk up in the Belmont Regional Park from the top of Takapu Road over to Dry Creek (bottom of Haywoods) Breath-taking (maybe a bit because of the climb!) views of Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua area. The Kaikoura mountain range could be seen clearly in the south and over to the west, Stephens Island. Belmont Regional Park has interesting history. Early Maori found 2 major routes to link Wellington and Porirua harbours. In the 1850s a dray road- the Old Coach Road was developed along one of these major routes and coaches from the Hutt used this route to Pauatahanui until the mid 1880s when it was replaced by the Haywoods Hill Road.
During World War 2 there were 62 concrete ammunition magazines built to store army munitions (mostly for the Pacific campaign). These were spread out to look like a chicken farm from the air! These days they are used mainly by sheep and cattle for shelter- it can get pretty wild and windy up here.



Wellington Heads
 Boulder Hill aptly named after the remnants of greywacke here- only area in all of  Belmont Regional Park with these boulders. A good climb up to be rewarded by the sweeping views.
You cant beat Wellington on a good day!

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