Let’s Go For a Walk. FROM LAMBTON QUAY TO GOD’S ACRE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 81, 29 December 1934, Page 10

Let’s Go For a Walk. FROM LAMBTON QUAY TO GOD’S ACRE

A Wellington Close-up

There is an interesting walk -which will at no stage take one more than half a mile from Lambton Quay, while presenting many enjoyable features. Making a start from the Art Gallery in Whitmore Street (and a half-hour spent in the gallery would be a charming preparation for the walk), go through the grounds of Government Buildings to Lambton Quay. Stand for a moment at the tram stop and look across at the impressive grouping of the Parliament House, its green slopes in front and the effective background of Tinakori Hill, with Bow.en House and the War Memorial to the left.

Going along Bowen Street, those Who remember the grim corrugated iron fence of the old Government House will appreciate the low wall and sloi>ing- lawns which replaced it. The Turnbull Library is in its Jacobean building on tihe left. To the right the Dominion Museum is pleasantly placed behind a broad green lawn. From the top of Bowen Street we 4urn into Mowbray Street, a bent little street of retiring houses. This tiny street is as • .withdrawn as an old cathedral precinct, and is a genuine fragment of early Wellington. A steep climb up Bolton Street takes us to the cemetery gate, where we turn in and take a winding path between headstones which record the names of old English families and little hidden parishes which are mentioned in Domesday Boole. Beneath sleep the founders of Wellington, far away from the homes thus rather pathetically remembered. In a green hollow in this quiet God’s acre stands the chapel, recently derelict, now happily restored as to the exterior, though bare and undecorated within. At the upper end of the cemetery, is a seat on the city, side of the Seddon monument, and from here there is a remarkable view of the city and harbour. One realises with perhaps a little surprise that trees are abundant except in the business area and about ,the waterfront. We may round off the walk by crossing Anderson Park and taking in the Botanical Gardens, which require no description; or, if time is limited, return to Lambton Quay by picturesque- Sydney Street and Parliament House grounds.—J.H-B. Wadestown to Karori For those who are fond of Wellington’s windy heights, there is the walk along the ridge from Wadestown to Karori. Wo did it one line day when the air was sharp with the Smell of gorse and new spring grass. From the terminus we followed the Wadestown Road till it joined the quieter stretches of Backbridge and Wilton Bush Road, where the broom is the yellowest in Wellington and slopes back from the road-edge In thick-plumed masses. Opposite a lonely brown house on a high hill wc passed into the ordered neatness of the Alpine Gardens and climbed the winding path which leads through the thin, young bush to the. steep hills beyond. We skirted the “potato patch” and clambered up anil up till we reached the broad clay track which runs along the ridge to Karori. The South Island was a clear blue line with a haze of white cloud above it and when we turned Wellington lay sunny and bright below us. It Is a long walk and we were tired when we reached the road which leads to the Council Chambers, but it was well worth while.—B.Al. The environs of Wellington offer rich possibilities for pleasant halfday rambles. Readers are invited to contribute descriptions of favourite walks. These will be pub lished, accompanied whenever practicable bp “Dominlo'n” photographs. Contributions, which will be paid for at space rates, must not exceed 400 words.