A nice loop walk

One of the little secrets in Wellington is there is a very nice walking path on the east side of the motorway. While you do get the noise from the motorway (less of an issue with an iPod), for a lot of it you get to walk through some parks and bush.

I normally start at the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Park and walk south along the path, crossing under and over all the Thorndon roads that cross the motorway. You then pass down behind Parliament and cross into the Bolton Street Memorial Park. Eventually the path ends at Aurora Terrace, which is where I normally turn around and head back.

Today I carried on up the Terrace a bit and then went into the Clifton Terrace Car Park. I had noticed what appeared to be a path around the Terrace tunnel that I wanted to explore.  From the car park a path follows along next to the motorway and then just before the tunnel there is a steep climbing path up to a little park on top of the tunnel. Quite a nice view from there.

Then you can move onto the west side of the motorway by a little bush track that takes you up to the Vic Netball Courts. Wasn’t quite sure the best way to get back from here so went exploring through Kelburn Park and a walkway down to Talavera Terrace. From there a walkway down to San Sebastian Road, connecting to Clifton terrace. From there you go along Tokyo Lane (a walkway) to Bolton Street, and then enter the Bolton Street Memorial Park again, going to the Seddon Memorial. From there cut pass Anderson Park to Tinakori Road, and along Tinakori Road back to where I started.

In total a 9 km walk, and some really nice scenery along the way. A few hills, but nothing tough. I might try doing it in reverse next time.