The Bunkers

Dani, Tess and I had heard of a cool hike up to the wine turbine fields on the other side of a large hill/mountain hear us and we decided one night that we wanted to do it! So we set off with a very basic set of directions that really only told us where the hike began but not anything else and set off. Turns out it’s a track used by runners, walkers and mountain bikers. But there definitely isn’t room for more than a single file line of people in most places. So naturally we came into many situation where we had to perch in trees or down the sloping hill to let bikers and runners pass. At one point I was leading and almost got smushed by a biker going really fast. We all manage to survive though, and it was a beautiful maze of tunnels through densely vegetated hills. We heard a bunch of Tui birds calling their BIZZARE calls and it was great.

 Those three white houses with red roofs in the middle there, lit up by the sun, well the one in front is my house and the window on the right of the house is my ROOM!

We didn’t really have any idea of how long the hike was, we’d been told 45min by one person and an 1 hr 45 min by someone else, so we weren’t really sure what we were in for. We also came to MANY forks in the road, so we made some impromptu decisions and kept climbing upwards. Now and they the trail would lead us out of the woods and give us spectacular views of Wellington harbor and Kelburn, where our houses and campus are. I could see my house the whole way up! Then at one point we came to a fork in the trail where one side led further on in the same trail-like fashion, but to the left was a make-shift staircase. We decided to take the stairs, and when we emerged at the top we were in a neighborhood. We got really confused but eventually found another trail continuing on to the wind turbines. Once we got up on the trail and started walking again, the closest turbine came into view and we realized…. It wasn’t close at all. There was MUCH MORE HIKING TO BE DONE. And it was starting to get dark, so we decided to give up and head back and sit somewhere to watch the sunset.

So close and yet... SO FAR.

We ended up discovering one of my favorite places in Wellington so far. We came across a bunch of abandoned bunkers, which we later discovered had been gun battlements placed all around wellington harbor as a defense system. They were, of course, never used, because who would attack New Zealand? ITS TOO PRETTY! But now the skeletons of the cement bunkers remain, covered in graffiti art and filled with broken bottles and trash, but they have a really fun and exciting feel to them. ALSO, the view from the bunkers is unreal. On a clear day you can see all of wellington harbor and all the way to the South Island. We watched the sunset, had a little mini feast of Pesto Bread, Wine and Tim Tams (a chocolate cookie treat) and I played ukulele. It was so fun.

Then, it was dark, and we realized we needed to get home, and all we had was the tiny ‘torch’ on my cell phone to guide us. So we VERY SLOWLY, in a huddled group, stood in the light of my cell phone torch and made our way back through the maze of trees. It would’ve been scarier if there were things that might have attacked us here, but everything in New Zealand is nice… just like the people! It was great because we also got to see hundreds of glowworms on the side of the trail. It was beautiful, magical and made it really clear why so many movies are filmed her. Everything is beautiful, even this close to the city. When we finally made it home, we went to Dani’s house and made a late dinner. While we were cooking, a cat wandered into Dani’s open door and we made a friend. Overall it was a fantastic day.