Let’s Go For a Walk.

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 89, 9 January 1935, Page 8

Let’s Go For a Walk.

A RAMBLE THROUGH SOUTH KARORI Pleasant Picnicking Spots Within easy reach of the city—four tramway sections from Lambton Quay to be precise—there is a pleasant walk which is not used to any great extent by city dwellers. It is along the undulating South Karori Road. Take the tram to Karori Park, then turn to the left after alighting and proceed down the valley. The road follows the stream and ends after about a mile and a half of easy walking past some old-fashioned farm homesteads. Well down the road, to the right, you pass a steep hill-side adorned with the beautiful pungas or tree-ferns which have been preserved from the general destruction of the glorious bush which once flourished luxuriantly in this locality. A short space beyond this spot, to the left, there is a clump of bush hidden from view of the road where a stream meanders over the stones to join forces with the South Karori stream. Further down the road the valley opens out to wide grassy lands, with a few patches of bush still standing, around which cattle and sheep graze. Some 25 to 28 years ago, rabbits were plentiful here, and beyond, the country down the stream and the gullies were infested with them. It was a moderate afternoon’s sport to shoot 30 or 40 within a radius of half-a-mile of the old farm-house. It was the last on the road and has now gone. There are ■some pleasant nooks hereabouts for picnicking in the shade of the bush. You can return by the way you came —back by the road to the tram, or if prepared to dissipate a little energy, ascend one of the ridges, to the right, which will bring you out above the Karori Reservoir, thence along the tops of the hills to Highbury. The climb to the ridge is steep but worth while, as there is'the magnificent panorama of sea and hills to the south, with glimpses of the South Island and the Kaikouras; and the city and harbour below, while to the left, toward Karori, the rolling hills stretch away as far as the eye can see.—TV.A.V.K.