A Walk in the Hills

I went for a lovely walk yesterday, over the Hataitai hill to Oriental Bay.  Sometimes I listen to an audio book on my MP3 player and sometimes I just love to walk, think, and admire the views.  When I took the below photos, I was standing roughly above Balaena Bay  (I don't mean I was roughly standing - otherwise I'd have been perching on uneven ground.  No, I mean that Baleana Bay was roughly situated below where I was standing to take the pictures!  Goodness, I always get tangled up trying to explain things, forgive me....) 
In the top picture you can see Matiu-Somes Island which is in the middle of Wellington Harbour.  There's a nice ferry ride that goes there daily from the city.  Even nicer, and very cheaply too, you can hop off at the island, look around, catch another ferry to Days Bay, look around, then return to the city (SuperGold card holders, free - thanks, Winston!).  At certain times, certain days, the ferry also goes to Petone and Seatoun.

I love to take a picnic lunch with me to Oriental Bay, sit on a seat with my feet up on the fence and watch the fountain playing, the people, and the kids, and the bicycles, and skaters.  Oriental Bay is so close to the city, that tourists like to wander there.  It's great for them to walk around the wharves to the Bay.  Only takes, perhaps, half an hour, and is as safe as houses.

Way back in my grandmother's day, when Wellington was very young, Oriental Bay was the place to promenade.  Every Sunday, people would dress up in their fancy finery and parade up and down.   I often think it wuld be great to have an Easter Parade day, with folk promenading Oriental Bay again.  We could dress up in everyone's idea of 'nice', be it clothes from the 1800's, modern, whatever.  Chocolate bar prizes, say, could be handed out by Wellington City Council staff to people, kids, dogs, dolls, whose styles impress!
People already happily promenade in their hundreds on a fine day around Oriental Bay, and I do wish we could have a special occasion to really go all out
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There is an absolutely positively delicious song by the Datsun Violets called "You Can't Beat Wellington (on a Good Day)" that can be heard on youtube.  Scenery-wise, happiness-wise, and weather-wise this is so true!