The City Beautiful

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

The City Beautiful

Re-discovering Wellington

(By

H.P.)

Few indeed arc the residents of Wellington who really know the charming scenery of their own city. In this article the writer, who has grown up with the Capital City, takes us round the higlrways and byways of Wellington on a personally conducted tdur. The view's appearing throughout this number in many cases illustrate the places referred to in this “travelogue.”

God girt her about with the surges And the winds of the masterless deep, Whose tumult uprouses and urges Quick billows to sparkle and leap. He filled from the life of .their (motion, Her nostrils with breath of the sea, And gave her afar on the ocean, A 'citadcl free. —AV. P. Reeves. Wellington—the Empire City—has not always been considered beautiful in a poetic sense. From the first generation of her pakeha existence the undiscriminating settlers set out to rob her of much of the native beauty with which she was endowed by Nature. It

was considered the correct thing to cut, hack, and burn the bush, no matter how it stood, or what the quality of the land underneath, until the surrounding circlet of mountain ranges were almost completely denuded of their clothing, and left stark and bare to every gale that blew. Save for the firewood it brought, it was of little ultimate gain to anyone, for the mountain lands round the harbour are poor in quality, and they have been rendered poorer by the wholesale denudation of the bush, and the many thousand slips which scar the hillsides as the result of such 111-advised action. Slowly this has been realised; slowly it is being rectified. But it will take centuries of time to rectify the mischief done in a decade by axe and flame. Still man is determined that it shall be rectified, and here and there some organised effort is being made to reclothe the hills, and so soften their asperities. These schemes may be witnessed in the efforts of the Wellington City Council, to add to the charm of the city by planting the Tinakorl hills, the Town Belt at Kelburn, and between Brooklyn and Newtown, Central Park, and Mount Victoria, where already lines of dots, growing larger every .year, mark the re-birth of the forest that will one day clothe these rugged mountain slopes. Another large scheme has been put in hand in the Akatarawa Valley, where the Water Board has an immense area of denuded land to operate upon, and which will help to beautify that already attractive gorge between the Upper Hutt and Waikanae.

Taking a Look Around. Although Wellington was given this handicap to begin with, it has its own particular and very special charm, in the comfortable manner in which it sprawls along the southern shores of one of the finest harbours in the world. What a wonderful provision Nature made when she gave New Zealand’s central district such a harbour! It was actually providential! Captain James Cook, the great navigator, never missed much in his tours in these waters, but probably his greatest miss was in his non-discovery of Port Nicholson. True, he viewed it from the entrance, but he never suspected that the wild scurry of angry waters north of Barrett’s Reef led to one of the finest and most extensive commercial harbours in the Empire. That is Wellington’s most cherished possession. It makes her at once beautiful, and important, for look where you will round the waterfront, there Is always that satisfying interest born of the presence of a large sheet of enclosed water in relation to high mountains. It is the contrast always sought by artists when seeking Nature

• in her grander moods. One may tire ; of the hills green and brown, but one ; never tires of a sea view, with its , changing aspects, forms and tints--its ■ ever-present suggestion of the pathway of adventure, the long wet road to all the world. So Wellington is blessed in : its great harbour and its magnificent ocean panoramas. These were not so apparent twenty-five years ago, but with the growth of the city upward, and the coming of the motor-car, new and surprising scenes of ravishing beauty have been added to our store. What do they know of Wellington’s beauty who only Te Aro flat know? To drink your fill of the vast canvases that spread round one from any of the heights above the red-roofed city, it is only necessary to have the impetus to climb thither, either per foot, tramway, or motor-ear. Thousands have made the effort and have become so enamoured with the splendour of the panorama, that they have stayed there . —made their homes upon the heights. They live with beauty all their days! No visitor to Wellington should pass

comment on the city until he has toured round the hills and the bays. Without pretending to be anything in the* nature of an official guide book, one or two views of especial charm should not be overlooked. The buses which make the observation trips from the city daily, invariably traverse Alexandra Road along the ridge of Mount Victoria. From that vantage ground one is able to get, perhaps, the most comprehensive view of Wellington, for not only is the whole of the inner city

spread at one’s feet, so to speak, but to the south-eastward lie the closely-built upon lands of Hataitai, Kilbirnie. South Kilbirnie, and in tlie distance, the glorious sweep of Lyall Bay, and the new city of Miramar, across the blue waters of Evans Bay. On every hand there is that perfect balance of land and water so refreshing to the artistic eye. But that is only one view of Wellington. Another equally beautiful is that obtainable from the wireless station on the Tinakori hills. From this great height—some 700 feet—one may view the city from a north-wester-ly point. Wellington North and the pool of Lambton harbour lie directly below, whilst in the middle distance lies the congested area of Te Aro fiat, crowned now with the new Technical College and the soaring Carillon tower (on Mount Cook), and beyond that again stretches the populous slopes of : Newtown, whilst away in the distance i shimmer the green waters of Cook I Strait. Then, if it be winter time, one < may also secure a fascinating view of i the snow-capped Tararua Range, thirty 1

miles away, at the head of the Hutt Valley. A New View. Only the other day I was surprised into another extraordinary view of the harbour which kept me entranced for half an hour. It was a view from the heights of the Koro Koro hills to the westward of Petone. From that elevation one seemed to look right down upon Somes Island, and to gain an idea of its configuration never suspected. It was like one of those little piles of clay one sees in models of harbours. Away in the distance was another bit of clay in a pool—Ward Island—whilst below, Petone looked quite a pretentions city, with its ordered streets, and wellpainted houses. From this point, too, it was interesting to be able to trace the devious course of the Hutt River as it winds its way through the rich Hutt lands to the sea below, the Shandon golf course. To the eastward Lowry Bay gleamed like a jewel, behand a belt of mirrored water, and Day’s Bay, so richly, clothed in native bush, registered its bosky charm even at that distance.

Still harping, on sea views, I cannot pass on without a reference to the “Look-out”' on the Queen’s Drive, Immediately to the eastward of Houghton Bay. From that vantage point is obtainable, in clear weather, distractingly lovely views of the distant Kaikouras. The winter view from this point, when the distant mountains are seemingly clad in snow to the water’s edge, is one of extraordinary beauty. In summer there is usually haze to prevent the best effects being observed, but there are evenings when the sun sets at the back of Nelson, when the Kaikouras look very near and startlingly lofty. There is also the three-lake ( view from the Mornington ridge, and , the heights of Melrose. j From Paekakariki Hill. Perhaps one of the finest coastal views in the world is that obtainable from i the top of the Paekakariki Hill—a i favoured afternoon’s run for city mot- I orists. Just where the road —it is the t main road to Auckland—reaches its 1 highest point, it also reaches the edge j

of the cliff (800 feel above the sea) at a point where it projects a little from the line of the coast, thus affording a viewpoint that is absolutely breathcatching in favourable weather. Northward stretches out the beach- —a very fine beach—away up the coast until it vanishes in the haze of distance between Waikanae and Otaki. Immediately below snuggles the little town of Paekakariki (a notable summer bathing resort), and out to sea rises in its majesty the island of Kapiti, a sanctuary for New Zealand’s own birds and beasties, and place of never-ending delight to the naturalist and bird-lover. Southward the precipitous coastline sweeps towards Plimmerton and Titahi, with Mana Island to break the ocean waters off the entrance to Porirua liar hour (an old-time whaling station) A Garden That is a Poem. But Wellington has more intimate charms than those of distant mount and stream —a thousand of them. These are available in most instances within a few minutes of the centre of the city When in doubt as to where to spend an hour with a visitor, there is nothing so

thoroughly satisfying as to board the cable car for Kelburn- and drop down into the Botanical Gardens. These gardens are unique in their way. for they incorpo»ate several forms of garden. Down below on the flat one may walk between lawns of green velvet, starred with flower bed aflame with the blooms of various annuals at this time of the year; there is the ordered rosary; a pageant of peonies; the first of the Christmas lilies, all framed with the choicest of borders, ever in artistic relation to that which is bordered, while here and there trees of superb height give majestic shade to the peaceful scene. Penetrate a little further. a little higher, and formal beauty gives way to something entirely different —areas of New Zealand as it was before the white man came. Ferngrown gullies, from which spring enormous black-stemmed punga pungas. with their fuzzy croziers, and superb sweep-of frond, are intermingled with great clumps of flax and reed, manuka and ti-tree, while overhead, extending into the blue, are the remnants of a once mighty forest of native trees, and some that have been planted years ago to keep them company.

Wilton’s Bush. If one would seek the ’ charm of native bush scenery in its still more primitive form, it is necessary to journey over the hill, by way of AVadestown to Wilton’s Bush, which, thanks to the foresight of our city fathers, has been preserved in all its pristine glory for

the edification of the people of to-day, whose urban avocations but seldom permit of their leaving for the back country to take in the rich delights of the primeveal forests of this country. Here one may get a taste of it with the advantage of well-graded oaths to help one in the inspection and adoration of those monarchs of the bush, the rimu, the rewarewa, the totara. and kahikatea, the graceful lancewood, the medicinal koroniiko, and the hundred and one varieties of native trees and shrubs that make up the paradise of Wilton’s Hush. Here, too, in this sheltered vale may one see the fern-life of the country in all its luscious beauty; while a certain area is devoted to the purposes of a special plant museum, in which flourish the rarer plants from all parts and all altitudes of Xew Zealand. This is the first plant museum of its kind in this country, and great credit for its initiation is due to the late Mr. Gresley Lukin and to Dr. L. Cockayne, C.M.G.. F.TI.S.. for the services he has rendered the city in that connection. Another place of cultivated beauty Is the M ellington Zoo. where there is not only a well selected collection of animals, birds, fishes, and everything that runs, and climbs and crawls, most admirably set out in an area of undulating country, but the grounds themselves are extremely attractive and serve as a veritable paradise for its inhabitants.

Swimmers Well Catered For. AA’ellington is well supplied with bathing beaches. Lyall Bay has a stretch of sandy beach that could accommodate half a million people, but the lull. stretch of this beach is not always available. There are danger patches, which are discovered and made known to bathers by the • caretakers of the beach and when bathing there it is just as well to ascertain where danger

lies—and so avoid them. -At weekends and holidays the life-saving teams are usually about and ready to answer any emergency call.- Nearer the city are the Te Aro baths at Clyde Quay, Oriental Bay (now used extensively by residents as a bathing resort), Evans Bay, the most popular bathing-place for the people of that district and AVellinglon South, and further on, AA’orser Bay, one of the safest and most get-at-able beaches near AVellington. At the other end of the harbour the Petone beachsacred to the memory of the first settlers—serves as a safe bathing place for the whole of the Hutt Valley. Petone has a Beautifying Society which has done a great deal toward improv-

ing the esplanade, and, working with the Borough Council, an immense improvement has been effected in that waterfront during the past year or so. It is now a very live resort during week-ends and holidays, for yachting, boating, and swimming. Further on are numerous bays—Lowry, York, Mahina.and Day’s Bay, and further south still is the attractive suburb of Eastbourne. with a splendid two-mile beach and at the back of the hills one of the finest hiking grounds round about AVellington.

It will be seen by.this brief survey that Wellington is beauty-laden. Its beauties may be elusive to those who wander the ways of commerce only, but the.v are none the less real and enthralling for those who take the trouble to peep round the corner.