A Runner's Wellington

Story by: Ian Kemp

After two years in NZ I've decided that it has its good points and bad points - the bad points mainly to do with the climate and the employment situation, and the good are to do with the accessibility of the great outdoors and the genuinely clean and often unspoilt nature of the natural environment. Needless to say the place is a paradise for those loving the outdoors - runners!

There are so many great running venues around Wellington its hard to know where to start, but I'll describe five which show the variety available.

Round the bays

Wellington has a population a little more than Wollongong's, but the CBD is incredibly compact. The city sits on one side of a circular harbour about 15km in diameter, the land slopes down very steeply to the harbour so that the buildings seem to tumble down the slopes to the water.

The classic lunchtime run of the office dwellers is along the waterfront starting at Queen's Wharf. This area has many old buildings converted into eateries, where one can glance in to see the lobbyists wining and dining government figures at the North end of town. You pass Frank Kitts park, past public servants munching their sandwiches, and on to Oriental Parade, a trendy café zone where the creative types from the ad agencies and multimedia companies lounge in the sunshine over their espressos. You can keep going 'around the bays' to Kilbirnie and the Aiport, but most casual runners will turn back at the harbour water fountain.

The serious runners will turn inland and start the ascent through the University to the Botanic Gardens, high on one of the peaks surrounding the city. At the highest point you pass the astronomical observatory and the Met office, before descending via a maze of winding tracks back to 'ground level'. It doesn't matter what tracks you take downhill, you'll get out eventually, and will likely come across a sculpture or a garden tucked away in a gully or hidden in a corner of the park.

The Hutt Valley

Wellingtons's biggest suburban area crowds into the valley floor, with two parallel ranges of hills stretching north as far as the eye can see. The Eastern Hills are the easier challenge, with a network of fire breaks crossing the hills. The best run is to make the steep climb to the ridge line and follow the firebreak as it undulates north through thick scrub. As you crest each hill views can be had right across to the South Island.

The Western Hills are rather different, being wild and windswept, mostly bare of vegetation except for ankle length grass. The gullies between the hills are deep, making for a challenging mountain running experience. Polypropylene top and running tights are normal wear for most of the year. From the top of one particular hill ('Boulder Hill') I have seen Mt. Taranaki, a snow-capped volcano some 400km away. This area is the regular running ground for one local runner - Jonathan Wyatt - who has used his training in the Belmont Hills as the foundation to his two World Mountain Running titles.

The Rimutaka Incline

30km North of Wellington is an abandoned railway track, crossing the Rimutaka mountain range - up and down again in about 17km. The track has been unused since, one windy day, a train full of passengers was blown off the track and rolled into the valley below. With the tracks and sleepers gone, it's a perfect running track, being a steady incline but not too steep. To complete the distance you pass through four tunnels, (don't touch the sides which are covered in black stuff!). Once a year a race is staged on this course, but it makes for a superb wilderness experience to run early on a Sunday morning, with the bridges carrying you over raging white water, and the cuttings taking you through a deep forest of tree ferns and tea trees. 34km out & back is the perfect conditioning run before that important marathon!

Pencarrow Lighthouse

Tracks don't come much wilder than the narrow strip of land from Wellington Harbour to the Pencarrow Lighthouse, at the harbour mouth. The steep hillside is fully exposed to the fury of the southerly storms blowing in from Antarctica. As you run you weave between a monumental landscape of large rocks and pulverised stones, tortured by the wind, waves, and tectonic activity. The toughest runners will carry on through the headwind (which due to the bays topology blows in both directions!), all the way to the seal colony before turning back. The flat bit of land you're running on was underwater until the 1855 earthquake lifted it up. You should run it now, as the place seems so elemental that it could disappear below the waves again, any day now, regardless of the wishes of the insignificant people who step along it.

Visit

Not surprisingly there is a large running community in Wellington, which supports four large running clubs and a few small ones. You can find info on all of them via the Cool Running web site links page.

Cool Running 12.09.01.