I did a ton of exploring today. I found a train station about five minutes from the hotel where I’m staying. Of course, I couldn’t resist the allure of a well run transit system, so I immediately bought a Tranz Metro “Day Rover” all-day pass and promptly got on the first train I saw and rode it to the end of the line. I found myself in a – a lovely, but wet, little place called Upper Hutt City.

I tooled around town for a while, but couldn’t help myself from wanting to climb up the side of one of those big hills that New Zealand is so famous for. Making my way down Totara Park road (don’t ask me how I got there, I just walked toward the big hill on the edge of town) I eventually came to the Cannon Point Walkway.

Now when one comes across a name like “The Cannon Park Walkway”, one makes a few assumptions.

A) that one is about to take a walk.

and b) that one will be in a park.

Yes, the veritable “walk in the park”. Which completely turned out to be anything but a picnic – or a walk in the park. It was a march right up the side of one of the biggest hills I have ever seen. Actually it wasn’t that bad – I took the zig-zag trail which I took to mean a more direct, thereby steeper, route. It was definitely steep, but not so bad that I had second thoughts. Since I broke my leg, I haven’t had too many good workouts, so I definitely had some pent up energy in reserve waiting for this trek.

When I got to the top, I was faced with a choice between continuing with the loop, or making my way down to the Birchville Reservoir. I remember thinking “The reservoir sounds cooler”. At the time, I had no clue I was committing to a 4 hour trek. For all I knew, I was committing to a three day trek.

The walk from Cannon Point down to the Birchville Reservoir took me along a ridge that had been almost completely logged out. I was sort of surprised that the land was being logged at all. I’ll have to check how big the forestry industry is for New Zealand. While I suppose that green logging happens, I guess I had assumed that New Zealanders put such a premium on the natural beauty of their country that they wouldn’t be too keen on ripping out huge chunks of it with chainsaws.

The reservoir itself was pretty neat. Much smaller than I was expecting, but still pretty cool. It was very approachable and I was able to get a few good shots. I would have given my left arm for a tripod at that point, but I managed to make do.

Shortly after leaving the reservoir, I was startled by a runner who was doing a much faster version of the same route I was on. I was actually kind of bummed when I saw him because I was really stoked about doing some hill running while I was here. Stoked enough that I left my running shoes at home because I’m certain that I would just injure my leg even more than it already is (despite the fact that I’ve been recuperating for something like 7 weeks now – the healing isn’t complete.)

The trail dumped me into a residential neighborhood leaving me completely lost. (Did I mention that it rained the entire time I was out?) I had absolutely no clue how to get back to town – making getting back on the train a little troublesome. I noticed a workman packing up his truck and asked him for directions back to town. He quickly returned my question with an unhesitating “Do you want a ride?”.

Having just walked in the rain for several hours and not having any better offers, I jumped in his van. Hugh, Hugh Couglin was his name. Hugh fixed meter telemetry for the utility companies and had a side gig selling motor scooters. If you live in Upper Hutt and need a motor scooter, be sure to drop Hugh a line (send me an email if you want his contact info).

Hugh dropped me at a restaurant in town that served some amazing steak and cheese pies. Yum.

I hopped the train back to Wellington and immediately jumped on another train. After it left the station I asked the guy sitting beside me where it went – thankfully this one wasn’t taking me back to Upper Hutt. As nice as Hutt was, I didn’t feel like making the trip twice in one day. My new rails took me to Paraparauma which is supposed to have long beaches and warm sunshine. Not today. I was pretty cold, still fairly wet and getting tired so instead of embarking on a new exploration, I wandered around the shopping district, bought a diet coke, some nail clippers and then went back to the train station where I found an express back to Wellington waiting for me patiently.

And that was my day. I managed to find a decent meal at a quiet pub around the corner from the hotel – a nice chicken curry. Tomorrow morning, the real work starts bright and early with interviews just after breakfast and then on to the rest of my meeting agenda.

More as it comes – hopefully the meetings turn out to be as pleasant as my trek today. Deep down, I don’t believe they will be, but…here’s to hoping.

(PS – if you are interested in learning more about the Upper Hutt toxic algae problem, here is some more info…)